Elgin City Council enacts series of police reforms

Six reforms suggested by Elgin's community task force on policing, including allowing people with high school diplomas or GED to take the police entrance exam, will become official police policy.

The approvals included near-unanimous votes on all six reforms along with some vocal support of embattled police Chief Ana Lalley. The union that represents the majority of police officers in the city approved a resolution of "no confidence" in her leadership. That resolution was formally presented to the council on the same night the elected officials voted to put the reforms in place.

Changing the educational requirement to sit for the police entrance exam to a GED or high school diploma is a recommendation Lalley made before the task force's formation more than a year ago. The idea is to encourage a larger and more diverse pool of candidates to apply to become police officers in the city. The most recent hiring and testing effort saw 115 applicants, but only 11 candidates made it to the list of people the department deemed as good fits for the Elgin Police Department.

Council member Rose Martinez said the reform could have been put in place in advance of that most recent hiring effort if the council acted on Lalley's ideas.

"I want to apologize that we didn't recognize and acknowledge your expertise then," Martinez said.

But other council members said having community members weigh in on the idea makes the recommendation even stronger.

"Community policing does mean, and should mean, the community has a say in the role of their police," council member Tish Powell said.

The council also approved a new preference point system that goes beyond showing favor to people with military service backgrounds. College education won't be a requirement for being hired, but it will move applicants closer to the front of the list.

There will also be financial and hiring incentives, though not requirements, for officers who speak languages other than English or choose to live within the city. Mayor Dave Kaptain supported the incentive model, but he called on the city to remove all policies that require employees to live in the city.

"The requirement is if they don't become a resident, they have to leave. That's not fair," Kaptain said. "We lose senior management because we require residency. We are becoming a training ground. And then people are moving to other places."

The recommendations also call on the police department to continue to pursue nonviolent and conflict transformation training. The department, under Lalley, already has conflict resolution and de-escalation as part of its regular training protocols. City officials attribute a decline in police use of force incidents during the past three years to that training.

The only reform that didn't receive a unanimous vote is a call to update the police department's entrance exam, specifically to add more questions to possibly weed out officers who view themselves as socially dominant and, possibly, more apt to use aggression or force when it isn't needed.

Council member Steve Thoren was the lone "no" vote on that reform. He did not explain his vote.

There are several other reforms suggested by the task force that still await discussion by the city council. Key among them is the formation of a civilian review board to provide community input into investigations of police misconduct.