Police Listening Sessions

Listening sessions are set for:

• 10 a.m., Wednesday, August 5 
• 7 p.m., Thursday, August 6 

Additional listening sessions will be added if needed.

The listening sessions will be held virtually through Zoom due to social distancing requirements.

Participants who wish to speak must register online and choose a specific session for their testimonial.

The deadline to register to speak for either meeting is 5 p.m., Mon., Aug. 3.

Listening sessions are set for 10 a.m., Wed., Aug. and 7 p.m., Thurs., Aug. 6

Click here to register to speak

Once you register, you will be sent a Zoom registration link to the listening session you selected.

The Village is seeking comments from residents and visitors about personal experiences with the Oak Park Police Department.

Anyone who wishes to provide a testimonial for the public record is encouraged to do so.

The purpose of the listening sessions is to focus on experiences with the Oak Park Police Department, so please refrain from sharing experiences with officers from other cities or villages or state or federal law enforcement agencies.

Individuals willing to share their experiences by offering testimony are asked to to limit comments to approximately three to five minutes. 

Speakers are encouraged to not rush their comments.

However, speakers are encouraged to be purposeful and to the point by keeping comments concise and relevant out of respect to other participants who wish to share testimony.

Individuals who would rather share their experiences privately instead of via a public forum are invited to contact the Village Law Department at 708.358.5660 or email to rjackson@oak-park.us.

Everyone is invited to view the meetings. Both sessions will be streamed live and archived for on-demand veiwing at www.oak-park.us/boardtv and cablecast on VOP-TV, which is available to Comcast subscribers on channel 6 and AT&T Uverse customers on channel 99.

The experiences and stories shared as part of the community listening sessions will be shared with the Village of Oak Park Mayor and Board of Trustees, Village Manager and Police Chief, and they will inform discussions to be held in the coming weeks and months as the Village Board examines policing in Oak Park.

The initial listening sessions are not for specific complaints against specific officers.

The process for complaints is governed by state law.

More information about filing a formal complaint and an online form are posted on the Village website.

The sessions will be moderated by Assistant Village Attorney Rasheda Jackson, an Oak Park resident with experience working with individuals who may have had encounters with law enforcement.

In addition to her knowledge of municipal law and police disciplinary procedures, Jackson has experience in civil rights litigation, has represented low-income tenants in eviction court and helped grow a pool of volunteer attorneys who provide free legal counsel to those in need.

Oak Park Police Chief LaDon Reynolds will be actively listening to the experiences shared in these sessions, but will not be moderating or facilitating the two initial listening sessions.

Additional listening sessions will be added if needed, but for now the only scheduled opportunities to provide a testimonial about interactions with the Oak Park Police Department are the listening sessions set for 10 a.m., Wed., Aug. 5 and 7 p.m., Thurs., Aug. 6.

Testimonials can also be provided by contacting the Village Law Department by phone at 708.358.5660 or by email to rjackson@oak-park.us.

The listening sessions will be conducted via Zoom, a cloud-based video communication platform for virtual video and audio conferencing.

Individuals who wish to participate in the Oak Park Police listening sessions are urged to familiarize themselves with the platform at zoom.us, which may function differently depending on each user's device. Village staff may not be able to provide technical support once the sessions begin.

While the platform prefers users to download and install an app, users may participate via a web browser. More information is available at zoom.us. The video below provides a basic overview of how to participate in a meeting. 

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-How-Do-I-Join-A-Meeting-

The community listening sessions are soley for the purpose of listening and are not intended to be interactive conversations. 

The intent is to gather testimonials from individuals about policing in Oak Park that will help inform future discussions of specific police policies and procedures. 

Questions related to police policies and procedures and the Village's overall review process can be emailed to law@oak-park.us. 

Village officials are committed to bringing greater public understanding to how the Oak Park Police Department operates. 

One of the first tasks Police Chief LaDon Reynolds undertook when he became chief last year was to begin a review of the more than 300 internal orders, rules and regulations that govern local police procedures.

Making this process transparent and open to the public took on added urgency in the midst of the national conversation about policing that has ensued since George Floyd was killed at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in late May.  

At the time of Floyd's death, Village officials committed to a public discussion about police training, policies and technology such as body cameras to determine the best ways to improve how the Oak Park Police Department serves the community.

The community listening sessions are the first step in this larger process.