BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) — Officials of a city in central Illinois are creating a community board to review public complaints against its police department.
The Pantagraph reports the Bloomington City Council voted 8-1 at a meeting Monday to create the Public Safety Community Relations Board.
The seven-member board will review whether the Bloomington Police Department followed protocols in its own investigation of a complaint. Mayor Tari Renner says it’ll be “purely an advisory board.”
The board was established at the request of an alliance of community organizations, including American Civil Liberties Union of Central Illinois and Black Lives Matter Bloomington-Normal.
Several officers attended the meeting, and two urged the council to vote against the board.
ACLU Steering Committee Member Tom Cullen says the “board is an important first step in establishing police accountability.”