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Public commenters urge transparency in alternative police response meetings, recount alleged psychiatric-era abuse
Summary
Two public commenters told the council about flaws they say exist in psychiatric care and urged openness for the alternative police response task force. Leslie Krause described an alleged 2014 incident at Presence Covenant Medical Center; Steven McGuire urged compliance with the Open Meetings Act and called for anonymous feedback options.
Two members of the public took the podium at the Oct. 14 Urbana City Council meeting to urge greater accountability in health-care and public-safety settings and to press the council for transparent task-force meetings.
Leslie Krause recounted an incident she said occurred on Oct. 9, 2014, at Presence Covenant Medical Center in Urbana in which she said hospital security violently restrained her after a psychiatric hold and that hospital risk management and Urbana police failed to hold staff accountable. “When I asked for a copy of that footage so I could…file a civil lawsuit, she said that it had already been deleted after 1 week,” Krause said, adding that she saw the episode as part of a broader problem of stigma and mistreatment of people with mental illness.
Later, Steven McGuire spoke in support of a council resolution to make meetings of the alternative police response task force subject to the Illinois Open Meetings Act. McGuire commended the pending resolution but also recommended that the city create mechanisms for anonymous community feedback so people would not fear reprisal when giving input to police-related processes.
Why it matters: Both speakers framed the issue as an accountability and access problem — one focused on alleged conduct in a medical setting and the other on ensuring public oversight of an advisory task force that intersects with policing. Council subsequently adopted open-meeting procedures for the alternative response task force (see separate vote summary). The council did not take additional formal action in response to the individual health-care allegation during the meeting.
