Document of Interest Provided By Councilmember Hamann on Civilian Review Boards

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C HAPTER 6: RESOLVING P OTENTIAL C ONFLICTS 118 Approaches to collaboration There are several ways in which oversight planners can try to work with the local officers’ union. Involve the union in planning the review procedure In some jurisdictions, oversight planners have invited union leaders to help design the new oversight system. As a result, although union leaders may not agree with the procedure that is ultimately adopted, they have an opportunity to shape its design, express their concerns, and get to know some of the individuals who may be administering it. • When planning the Boise oversight procedure, Pierce Murphy, the new ombudsman, invited the union president to accompany him to examine the Civilian Police Review Authority in Minneapolis. The Boise Police Department agreed to pay for the president’s time and to reimburse his travel expenses. • In 1997, the Albuquerque City Council established an ad hoc committee on public safety consisting of three city counselors and staff to develop a citizen oversight procedure. The committee in turn assembled a task force of seven individuals representing community organizations (e.g., the American Civil Liberties Union), the police department, and the officers’ union. The group met every 2 or 3 weeks for 6 months and ended up presenting five different models to the city council for consideration. A legislative analyst merged the models into a single ordinance, which the council approved. When possible, accommodate union concerns Union leaders have legitimate interests in how citizen oversight operates, including: • The use of subpoena power. • The system’s authority to impose discipline. NOT ALL POLICE UNIONS HAVE OPPOSED CITIZEN OVERSIGHT Union opposition to citizen review has never been monolithic. In particular, some police unions representing minority officers have supported citizen review as a means of reducing alleged police misconduct toward racial and ethnic minorities. • According to the National Black Police Association, an advocacy organization composed of 150 chapters repre- senting more than 30,000 African-Americans in law enforcement, there is “substantial evidence that the police department and its leadership cannot properly discipline their colleagues.” The organization executive director goes on to report,“Most traditional police associations and police unions are strongly opposed to citizen’s review of police . . . [but] the National Black Police Association . . . strongly support[s] the implementation and use of civilian review of police misconduct.” • A July 11, 1999,New York Times article reported,“Lieutenant Eric Adams, president of a civic group representing New York’s black police officers, said . . . [a United States Attorney’s] investigation [into the New York Police Department’s handling of brutality complaints] gives credence to complaints long voiced in minority communi- ties. He said the city needed an independent agency with power to gather evidence, because as long as investi- gators depend on the Police Department for information, their work will be compromised.” • The African-American Officers for Justice, composed of San Francisco Police Department black officers, joined with liberal organizations in the city in 1982 to urge the Board of Supervisors to place citizen oversight on the ballot as a voter initiative. Not all rank-and-file members support their union’s opposition to citizen review. A sergeant in one jurisdiction reported he did not take a union representative with him to a board hearing on a citizen’s complaint because he disagreed with the union’s “rightwing positions.”