Commissioners Oswaldo Gomez (and Vice President), Isaac Troncoso, Beth Brown, Cliff Nellis, Anthony Driver Jr. (President), Remel Terry, and Yvette Loizon are in attendance.

The Community Commission is supposed to be a new model for police oversight, accountability, and public safety. Divided into two distinct bodies, the commission and the district councils, the former, elected half by the mayor and half by the district council, with power to…

advance reform and the latter, elected in regular municipals, broadly connecting the community to the commission and the police department.

There are about thirty people in attendance besides the commissioners.

We are jumping right into public comment as the meeting is getting started at 6:37

The first attendee asks for clarification on who exactly he should go to to “make sure people are doing what they should be doing.” He has heard that there won’t be committees but believes that there actually is.

The commissioners will not be responding publicly to any public comment this evening.

There are some technical difficulties with zoom. The commissioners were not being heard by the folks on zoom. The issue has been worked out.

Another commenter complains that during the “31st street incident” when youth were smoking and waving guns by her residence, she called the police many times but the police response was “lacking.” She is concerned about the summer time and youth and not enough police response.

Anthony Driver is moving on to discuss voting on closed meetings related to the appointing of the police superintendent and police board.

Commissioner Gomez has seconded holding a series of closed meeting.

All commissioners have voted to hold a series of closed meetings in order to determine new appointments.

Another vote has been passed to allow Commissioners to appear remotely to meetings.

Com. Terry and Driver share on the superintendent search. They hired a search firm. The mayor will ultimately choose from the three choices they select.

Com. Driver reminds the audience that the purpose of these meetings is to give the community opportunity to have input. They showed the audience an QR code that links to a survey. https://t.co/nA4jQ5AY6P

Driver states that May 7th is the deadline for applicants for Superintendent and that there have been nine applications so far. He reminded us that they do not know the identities of the applicants because they are using a search firm and respect the applicants privacy.

Driver says that he appreciates community organizing around superintendent applicants, however “This is not a popularity contest… We are listening to you, but this is not an election.”

Driver continues that the media is spinning some mistruths about the superintendent campaign. He clarifies, it’s not true that no one is applying for this role. He expects the number of applicants to be the same as the last time a superintendent was chosen.

Com. Gomez asks why they chose the search firm they did. Driver and Terry explain that, they hired them, not to churn up unavailable appointees as the media says, but because the firm is very experienced and because the CCPSA is overworked and needs help hiring.

Terry adds that the firm has done 50 national searches in the past. Troncoso adds that the firm historically focuses on police chief searches and their office is made up of past police officers. Continuing, so they are very qualified.

Driver speaks to the effort the Commission is putting into reaching out to the police unions, specific commanders, rank and file officers, and the CPD more broadly. They are all discussing how to make surveys and focus groups for police officers and how to build trust all around

Brown reads to us what the commission envisions for the CPD including phrases like, community based, trusted by communities, trauma informed, unbiased, and leads with humility and transparency.

Nellis shares that the commission will meet with the office of the superintendent quarterly in order to have consistency and effectivity.

Loizon adds that she meets with COPA and the Police Board quarterly as well. COPA was in compliance except for one issue that she can’t speak to but that it was only for a practical reason.

In addition, Loizon says that even though she does speak to the Police Board frequently they have not had their quarterly meeting yet.

Driver announces that this Tuesday will be the culmination of 50 years of struggle with the District Councils coming into being formally. He asks if any of the council members are here and if they could stand. Three people stand up. There is some light applause.

Nellis goes “completely off script” sharing about an inquiry into “scorpion like police tactics” in chicago. He references a BPI study from this year analyzing data that, since the 2015 ACLU lawsuit concerning stop and frisk, traffic stops have gone up 700%.

Nellis adds that we may have a false question before us of whether mass stops are better than stop and frisk.

A small debate breaks out between Nellis, Loizon, and Gomez. Nellis clarifies that chicago has no formal scorpion tactics like they had in Memphis. Nellis clarifies that although chicago doesn’t have formal scorpion policies, high volume stops with no constitutional cause are…

… their basis.

Gomez adds that data can be misleading, that the academics disagree on what makes good policing, and that some of the mayor elect’s ideas have been debunked. Stating that what happened in Kansas was a failure.

Driver responds to all of them, saying that language us really important. We have to use descriptive language rather than academic language because scorpion to him means beating people up as opposed to high volume traffic stops.

A bunch if links to social media are shared and Driver reemphasizes how important community involvement is. https://t.co/9A7BAuS00l

Driver adjourns the meeting at 8:02, thanking everybody for coming abd restating the importance of these meetings and community involvement. The ending and sentiment is met with light applause.

Folks stick around afterwards for some friendly chatter.