Massey Commission makes plans for work to continue | News

Members of the Massey Commission, which is nearing an imposed deadline to submit a report of findings and recommendations, argue creating meaningful solutions for Springfield will require more than just one year of discussions. Next month, the group will host members of the Ferguson Commission to discuss transitioning the commission into a nonprofit.

“(Sonya’s cousin) Sontae Massey and many other members of the commission have made it no secret that we want the work to continue,” commission cochair JoAnn Johnson told Illinois Times after Monday’s meeting. 

“As we’ve always said, we want systemic change. We want widespread change; we don’t want Band-Aids,” said Johnson, who worked for Illinois State Police for almost 30 years. “We want to see citywide, countywide change, and that’s going to take longer than 10, 11 months. We’re just really hitting our stride.”

The Massey Commission was created by Sangamon County Board Chair Andy Van Meter and State Sen. Doris Turner to address “systemic issues in law enforcement practices, mental health responses and community relations” one month after Sonya Massey called 911, only to be shot and killed in her home by a sheriff’s deputy.

The Ferguson Commission, now the nonprofit Forward Through Ferguson, was convened in the wake of a Missouri police officer shooting and killing teenager Michael Brown Jr. in 2014. The Department of Justice investigated the Ferguson Police Department and discovered “routinely unreasonable” use of force, among other civil rights violations, in an exhaustive 100-plus page report. The nonprofit is currently finalizing its 10-year report, Johnson said.

Two years after Brown Jr. was killed, a formal reform agreement was approved between Ferguson, Missouri, and the DOJ that sought to increase public safety and accountability for local police. That agreement, called a consent decree, has recently been generating debates among Ferguson officials.

The DOJ also reached an agreement with Sangamon County earlier this year, before President Donald Trump was sworn in, that requires increased response from behavioral health professionals when the situation calls for it. 

Commissioners rebuff community partnership program

Monday’s hearing featured talks from a few organizations, mainly Mosaic Methods, which pitched a community partnership program to be included with the commission’s upcoming recommendations. The program consists of pairing white people and people of color within a normally segregated community, such as Springfield, to meet and chat up to two times a month for at least seven months while giving each pair a book of questions that eventually delves into race relations. Small groups are also formed for infrequent meetups. The group has operated similar programs in Milwaukee and Topeka. 

Mosaic Methods is run by a consultancy firm, Idea Connection Systems, that claims to have a proprietary personality algorithm that assesses and connects individuals based on shared personality traits. Idea Connection Systems lists major clients on its website including a host of large corporations and federal agencies such as the U.S. Army, Department of Defense and NASA. 

Mosaic grades the cross-demographic pairs in its program by asking each participant if “they trust (their) partner as much as (their) closest friend” and reporting the total percentage which responded yes. 

Bob Wesley, commissioner and former president of the ACLU’s central Illinois chapter, explained how the algorithm the organization relies on could provide inflated results to that very prompt. 

“One would suspect a high likelihood of developing friendships is because you match them on basic personality traits,” he said. “You structure these friendships starting with an ace in the hole.” 

Anthony Hamilton, a Springfield resident representing Mosaic, told the commission he had conversations with Mayor Misty Buscher about implementing the program and feels confident it could happen at a city level. 

“I think she does want this program for her police force. I think it’s something that she wants to institute,” Hamilton said. 

“If the mayor is pushing this with the chief of police,” he explained, “at a city level, I think this is something that will roll out.”

Mayor Misty Buscher told Illinois Times on Wednesday that she had a meeting with Hamilton and supported the idea of connecting people in the community but said such a program “comes with a financial burden” and “there was no money in the budget for it.” Buscher said she was open to meeting with Hamilton again about the program.

At Monday’s hearing, Hamilton claimed the program would require $250,000 per year to run in Springfield.

Wesley also pushed back on the idea, saying it doesn’t seem like police officers would be joining the program by choice. 

“Your desire to get 10 cops and the chief of police, you kind of made a point of that, and the mayor wants that – that doesn’t sound pure volunteer to me,” he said. 

Veronica Espina, a commissioner and immigrant rights advocate, called the organization’s approach “transactional” and said she didn’t want the program funded. 

“I find it to be distracting as a program instead of the systemic change that we need,” Espina said. “We have poverty in Springfield that’s not going to change because of our friendships with other people.” 

Kenn Burke, director of operations for Idea Connection Systems, gave examples of pairs in the first iterations of Mosaic who eventually became community leaders in Rochester. 

Sunshine Clemons, commissioner and founder of Black Lives Matter Springfield, said the program “feels more like it would potentially create an opportunity for exceptionalism.” 

Commissioner and east side advocate Breonna Roberts said such a program wouldn’t solve problems but provide the city of Springfield an opportunity to pat itself on the back. 

“It would feel like the easy way out, because there’s been things that we have asked them for to address the systemic racism that they would say no to,” Roberts said. “It would honestly, in my opinion, kind of feel like a slap in the face, especially to this commission.” 

No commissioner suggested adding Mosaic to the commission’s list of recommendations. 

Qualified immunity discussed

The second idea floated for the commission’s list of recommendations included reforming qualified immunity for government officials through the Illinois General Assembly. 

Ken Pacha, a community activist and regular speaker at Springfield City Council meetings, referenced an accident involving an off-duty police officer last year that resulted in multiple officers being disciplined over their handling of the accident scene. 

“A lot of those abuses are tolerated. For example, with Michael Egan, he ran over two people while drunk while on the city’s police payroll. They quick retired him so they could deny responsibility,” Pacha said. “It was a considerable miscarriage.”

Chad Reese, policy adviser at The Institute for Justice, said potential recommendations the commission considers could be made null and void in court due to qualified immunity for government officials. 

“Qualified immunity renders a lot of other really good, specific recommendations unenforceable,” Reese said. “We could have the clearest civil rights written down. We could write down whatever policies we want in the Illinois State Constitution. If there’s not an effective way to sue when those rights are violated, there’s no enforcement mechanism.” 

The next Massey Commission hearing will take place Aug. 11 at the Ruby Recreational Community Center. Workgroup information and more can be found at sangamonil.gov/masseycommission.