(CAPITOL CITY NOW) -A citizens’ commission has begun meeting to investigate police practices and race relations after the July killing of Sonya Massey, a Black woman in Springfield by a now-former sheriff’s deputy who awaits trial on murder charges.Sharon Fairley, a University of Chicago law professor, has written about such commissions and the creation of citizen oversight of policing.

“These kinds of commissions have actually done well,” said Fairley. “And the reason that they can be successful is particularly when they have representation from all the stakeholders involved to come up with a plan that can actually gain the political acceptance to get the thing done.”

Fairley says the biggest changes have been in state laws governing, for example, use of force and police training.

One example of concern, though, is the lack of progress for change in the 2014 killing of LaQuan McDonald, a Chicago teen shot repeatedly in the back. A settlement between the city and state led to a consent decree in 2019. “So we are five years in, and people feel like little progress has been made,” Fairley said. “I sense there is still a lot of frustration out there.”