A social media comment made by an Elgin police sergeant was alarming enough to prompt a local woman to email the city about it — and the perfect example of why the Elgin Community Task Force on Policing is needed, Elgin City Councilwoman Tish Powell said.
The post, discussed by the task force at its first meeting Thursday night, was sent by a woman who identified herself as a “45-year-old professional Black woman and mother of two teenaged boys” but wanted to stay anonymous because she feared retaliation.
In it, she cites a Facebook post in which the Hispanic officer writes that he is returning to duty after being off for medical reasons and that he was ready to show “how cops should truly be and not this political crap. Quiet long enough.”
“How can one not be disturbed in this climate of police reform and change,” the woman wrote in her email. “Are we going to go back to the old times of policing? The city has made great strides to overcome and heal and I see this as a huge setback. This is the kind of supervisor who is going to lead younger police officers during a time of change. Tell me how the black and Hispanic community shouldn’t be disturbed.”
Walter Blalark, one of the task force’s 18 members, lauded her for bringing the post to the city’s attention.
“It shows we’ve got work to do,” Blalark said. “I’m glad she had the nerve to write that.”
Powell, who pushed for all-citizen task force’s creation, said what he wrote speaks to the “culture of policing not only in Elgin but the culture of policing in America. It’s part of why we are here. It’s going to be tough to tackle, but I’m hopeful. I think this group is going to have the ability to make some meaningful change.”
The City Council developed a list of 11 items for task force members to address, and the group decided Thursday they would start with use of force policies. In addition to evaluating Elgin’s rules and practices, they’ll be looking at what other communities do and considering best practices elsewhere that could be introduced here.
Another top priority will be finding ways to ensure and improve police officer accountability when complaints are made, the group decided.
“I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly,” said Marcus Banner, an Elgin business owner and local activist.
Banner helped organize last year’s protests in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
“There’s some (officers) I trust, there’s some I don’t,” he said. “In order to have trust, there has to be a balance of power. People need the power of accountability. … Yet, we have no tools to hold them accountable.”
The group will be working with Kearns & West, a consulting firm that will be helping them work through the process.
“What I’m hoping to get out of this is to leverage some of where we are as a society right now,” task force member Joshua Brockway said. “I think this is the perfect time to begin to look at what’s going on in terms of our community and in terms of policing and build on some of the good foundations.”
Member Kevin Zaldivar, who has been outspoken in his support of defunding the police department, said he believes Elgin does some things right, has areas that need to be improved but in general is adaptable to change.
What he wants the task force to be is “a catalyst to many other things in Elgin and redefining Elgin’s definition of public safety and even redefining the idea of public safety for other cities.”
The task force will meet at 6 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month beginning Oct. 7. Weekend forums will be used to solicit community input. Every meeting will be available in Spanish.
(To view the task force’s first meeting, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3cHZcioXcA&ab_channel=cityofelgin.)
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
