2020—A Year in Review
2020 was a year unlike any other. When we started Freedom to Thrive Oak Park in 2019, we knew the work we were doing was important. And that it would shine a light on an issue that many of us don’t fully understand or want to reckon with. But 2020 forced us to have a conversation about the nature and history of policing in the United States and in Oak Park. Sadly, our Village leadership failed to enact many of the changes we and our community were demanding. The Freedom to Thrive Oak Park organizing team spent the end of the year reflecting on our work, our successes, and the things we wished could have gone better.
Our wins and milestones
Released our first report, analyzing police policies and budgets in Oak Park, in partnership with Local Progress. This report was released in April 2020, and showed that the Village of Oak Park spends $25 million on policing. We also evaluated the Village’s Use of Force and Citizen Police Oversight policies. The report failed to get much attention until after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, when the resulting civil rights protests focused the nation’s attention on the violent history of policing in America.
Published two reports about racial profiling by Oak Park Police. The report which changed the conversation, Racial Disparities in Policing, showed that Black people are stopped by Oak Park police in field stops (non-traffic related stops), at 6 times the rate of white people. A followup report focused on the impact of policing on our Black youth, and showed that 94% of minor youth stopped by Oak Park police are Black. These findings are particularly troubling, given that Black residents make up only 18% of Oak Park’s population.
Collaborated with Grassroots Collaborative to create a Police Free Schools email campaign. Community members sent over 500 emails to the D97, D200, and Village of Oak Park boards calling for removal of police officers from schools. In July, we won the campaign for police free schools in Oak Park, at both D97 and D200 schools.
Advocated for and got the Guide to the Suspicious removed from the Village website. This win was due to the advocacy of Police Oversight Commissioners, who emailed the board every week in public comment, calling for the removal of this racist guide (which the linked article fails to mention).
Advocated for the release and publication of the Oak Park Police Department’s General Orders, which the Village posted online in November.
Introduced a resolution calling for a commitment to defund the Oak Park police department in the 2021 Oak Park Village budget and reinvestment in community services. This resolution failed to pass, even as we gained support for the resolution in the community. Over 400 people have sent a letter to the Village board using our email campaign, which you can still support.
Introduced the People’s Budget survey, with over 300 residents taking the survey. The survey results will be released this month.
Things we wish would have gone better
There was no change in policy that would reduce the impact of policing on young Black people who are stopped at a disproportionate rate by Oak Park police. The police chief refused to even acknowledge that the Village police department has a racial profiling problem, stating in the October 26th Village Board meeting, “I do not agree that there is racial profiling in Oak Park. I do agree that African Americans are stopped for field interrogations more so than others.” Trustee Walker-Peddakotla followed up the Chief’s statement by asking, “If you’re saying that African Americans are stopped more in field stops, how is that not racial profiling?” We’re still waiting for an answer.
There was no movement on any of the demands that were asked for by the community, especially desire to create a non-police emergency crisis response team. Unlike Oak Park, Evanston has responded to their community’s demands and started working towards this change.
The Village Board and the Police Chief’s response to the civil rights movement, and the calls to defund the police, was to further entrench the systems of policing in Oak Park by “standing up a whole new department” of Community Policing in their 2021 budget.
Looking ahead to our work in 2021
April 2021 Local Elections
It’s clear that this Village board is unwilling to act courageously and reimagine community safety by divesting from the police and reinvesting in community services. Freedom to Thrive Oak Park is holding a candidate information session for all Village Trustee and Village President candidates, on Jan 13, 2021 at 7:30 pm. We will walk candidates through our research findings and answer any questions candidates may have. We hope that the candidates running for Village board will listen to the community, ROYAL youth organizers, and Freedom to Thrive Oak Park. That our new leadership will rise to meet the demands of this moment and fight to reimagine community safety in Oak Park.
FTTOP Abolitionist Reading Club
After multiple requests from community members, we’ve decided to create an Abolitionist Reading Club and that we will launch later this month. The Abolitionist Reading Club is a community led project whose purpose is to provide a space where we can gather together to reimagine our world. More information coming soon!
Political Education
One of the things we wish we could have focused on more in 2020 was political education. Movements are strongest when our organizing is grounded in shared, historical knowledge. We will host a series of discussions with community organizers, movement lawyers, and others, so that we can build our collective understanding of this movement.
People’s Budget of Oak Park
The survey released in 2020 was the first step in creating a People’s Budget process for Oak Park. In 2021, we hope to engage the community in an inclusive and hands-on process where we’ll work to define the values and moral priorities of our Village budget. We hope that this work will lead to increased advocacy by the community so that we can change our budgets for FY2022 and beyond.
Ongoing Research
Our Freedom to Thrive Oak Park research team is a community-led, self-organized team that works to find the answers to the many questions we’ve received. The research team will continue their work in 2021 by submitting more Freedom of Information Act requests and reporting their findings about the current state of policing in Oak Park.
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