Afternoon all!
I’m Kenji Granberry and I’m covering today’s CPD police district council meeting for the 24th precinct on behalf of @chidocumenters.bsky.social
03:00 PM Mar 23, 2025 CDT
For those just joining, this precinct covers good chunks of the Rogers Park, West Ridge, and Edgewater neighborhoods.
Roll call is called at 3:05pm and Chair Veronica Arreola notes that Marilyn Pagan-Banks is out and not feeling well. With her and Ebony (last name not provided or on website), quorum is reached.
Joshua Crutchfield from the @caarprnow.bsky.social is the first public commenter. He calls on district councilors to support the organization’s referendum for community control of CPD and reiterates the demand that they work to remove officers with extremist ties from their ranks.
Mara is the second speaker and requests clarity on the difference between CPD beat meetings and meetings of the district council.
A third speaker named Liam (also from CAARPR) speaks about recent experiences hearing about cases of police abuse and torture on the south side and expresses a need for greater redress.
After brief notes from Councilor Ebony, Chair Arreola notes that the next CCPSA quarterly meeting will be in May on the north side.
Someone from IL Treasurer Michael Frierich’s office will be present to provide info and support around unclaimed I-Cash, she says.
Chair Arreola notes that there’s a BlueSky account for the district! It’s @24districtcouncil.bsky.social
She reiterates some of the main priorities of CCPSA for 2025, most of which have been posted publicly.
Chair Arreola finishes the updates and opens up the space for public comments. During this Mara asks that the councilors clarify how they understand the differences between @chicagopolice.bsky.social beat meetings and District Council (DC) Meetings.
As best she can tell, The Chair understands the main difference as being who leads the meetings and what they’re for. Beat meetings, she says, are led by police to provide updates to community members, whereas DC’s are meant to provide a space for community members to shape policy and responses.
In a follow-up question from a first-time attendee, the question is asked what the role of district councilors is in relationship to the larger CCPSA and CPD infrastructure.
Chair Arreola says most of DC power comes as a result of relationship building and creating consensus between councils.
Another commenter is here for the first time and wonders how DCs can be made a bit more accessible, suggesting that using fewer acronyms and making things less “council-y” would support greater engagement.
It’s interesting to note how young most of the attendees appear to be. At a glance I would say nearly half are of millennial age (~35) or younger.
Following the round of public Q&A on updates, Chair Arreola adjourns the meeting at 3:53pm. The next meeting will be Sunday, April 27th at 3pm.
Here’s a zoom link to register to attend remotely:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/sP6PW-eVTaOmX0O5Egcjkw
Providing an edit that the newest councilor to the 24th is Keo Jean-Joseph not Ebony as was previously stated. Ebony serves as the CCPSA liaison and supports communications and outreach for the 24th district.
She helped provide this spread of community resources during the meeting:
Anyway, that’s it! I hope you all have a great rest of your evenings and stay dry (if you can). For all things public meetings, please continue to check out @documenters.org.
