Civilian Review Board
According to sources, the Board of Aldermen will pass a civilian review board this morning. The plan has been modified. It would divide the city’s 28 wards into 7 districts. Each alderman within each district would nominate one candidate creating a pool of four nominees for each seat. The mayor would then choose board members, one from each district.
One sticking point had been whether family members of police officers would be allowed to serve on the board. A compromise was reached on this point also.
One person familiar with the situation said that they believe that they have 18 votes for passage, including the entire black caucus - 12 votes.
UPDATE: Just talked to two aldermen - things looking shakier now. One says that Kennedy might not bring the bill this morning. Says he still has the votes, but the Police are lobbying hard against, making folks nervous. More time could help build consensus. The other says it's still on.
We'll see...
What jurisdiction does a civilian review board have over a state agency? Doesn't this need to be signed off on by the state legislature?
Posted by wanna on Fri., Mar 3, 2006 at 9:09 AMExactly what are the cops afraid of here? Everybody knows these two truths:
1. Many (maybe most) complaints against the police lack merit.
2. But there still are some genuinely rogue cops who soil the image of the good cops.
Wouldn't a bona fide review procedure that gives a hearing to all the complaints and has genuninely neutral people decide on them weed out the rogues while protecting the reputations of the good cops? The current internal affairs procedure is a joke, and when good cops are cleared, that ruling is still suspect because of IA's propensity to whitewash everything.
There are some cops who think that putting their lives on the line (which they do) entitles them to a free pass to mess with people whenever they want to, and that the "brotherhood" of police demands that they all stand up for one another, right or wrong. Those are the very cops that need to be weeded out.
As to wanna's question, the bill is structured so that the CRB works as an adjunct of the Police Board, so it doesn't violate state law.
Posted by St Louis Oracle on Fri., Mar 3, 2006 at 12:23 PM
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