Use-of-force boards staffed by folks who aren’t police? BLM group, reps say they’d help
Like many, Jacquelyn Harris said she was “mortified” when she saw the video from Saturday night of a Tacoma police officer hitting the gas and driving through an agitated flash-mob crowd that had gathered downtown.
As the police cruiser suddenly lurched forward, and its tires went up and over at least one person, Harris said she felt “similar feelings to (watching) the video of George Floyd.”
“Just the disregard for life — not even putting a color on it — for human life, and for safety,” Harris said of what got to her about watching the instantly viral cell phone footage.
A 59-year-old Tacoma resident, Harris is a co-founder of WA for Black Lives, an upstart statewide advocacy group that’s flexing its muscles at the state Capitol this year. Already generating press and momentum, the Black-led group is pushing a number of racial equity bills this legislative session it says would improve everything from police accountability to investments in the Black community.
One bill in particular WA for Black Lives is supporting is a proposal by State Rep. Jesse Johnson, D-Federal Way, that would require the creation of community oversight boards for local police departments.
Harris argued that the bill would go a long way towards helping cities as they grapple with the aftermath of events like the one that rocked Tacoma last weekend.
If you want people to trust the police, you have to start by giving them a seat at the table and a voice when the actions of law enforcement are being judged, Harris said.
As the concerned citizens of Tacoma can tell you, she has a point.
Rep. Johnson’s House Bill 1203 — which received a hearing in the House Public Safety Committee this week — would mandate that any local jurisdiction with a law enforcement agency with at least 10 officers must establish a community oversight board by Jan. 1, 2025.
These local oversight boards would be filled with appointed citizens, and, among other things, be tasked with receiving complaints from the community about the public’s interactions with law enforcement and providing recommendations when a new police chief is hired.
Importantly, the boards — which would not include law enforcement officers or their family members — also would independently investigate and issue findings in police use-of-force cases, including providing disciplinary recommendations to the state Criminal Justice Training Commission.
According to Johnson, it’s all about creating more police transparency and accountability, while giving the public an opportunity to weigh the facts of an incident or complaint out in the open.
“It gives the authority for the community oversight board to receive all information that the police did,” Johnson said, noting that, in many cases, the public is completely in the dark about the details of an investigation into police conduct until a decision has been made by law enforcement.
“Any information related to the incident, they’ll be able to sit down and take a look at, with a fine-tooth comb, and be able to feel exactly what happened, and be able to look into it,” Johnson explained. “Once it gets up to the point where there’s a (police) investigation, it’s hard (for the public) to keep track of what’s going on. ... This would be a huge shift.”
According to State Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma — one of the bill’s cosponsors — it’s a shift that’s long overdue. While the police oversight boards would not have the authority to levy discipline decisions on their own, they would ensure that investigations into complaints and police use of force are reviewed independently.
Like Harris, Fey believes that such a system would allow residents across the state to better trust the outcomes of these investigations.
As an example, Fey noted that the illegal street racing incident Saturday night in Tacoma was quickly handed over to the Pierce County Force Investigation Team, which is described online as “a team of detectives, forensic investigators, and public information officers from law enforcement agencies throughout Pierce County who investigate use of deadly force incidents involving officers.”
While the Force Investigation Team also involves non-police community representatives, Fey said that local police oversight boards would go several steps further in a positive direction.
Rep. Johnson’s bill acknowledges that some communities already have boards or commissions that serve in advisory roles to local police departments. In Tacoma, for instance, the city’s Community Police Advisory Committee was established to review policy at the request of the City Council or City Manager and look into policy complaints. Johnson’s bill would formalize this as a requirement across the state, and add important investigative responsibilities and powers.
Much like creating an independent state agency to investigate police uses of deadly force — which is another reform-minded idea gaining traction in Olympia this session — Fey said state-mandated community oversight boards are a tool that can help bridge the gap between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.
That’s desperately needed, Fey said, particularly in Tacoma, where the damage done by the Pierce County Sheriff Department’s initial handling of the investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis is still being acutely felt.
“I believe having Pierce County investigate what the Tacoma police does is ridiculous. That doesn’t pass my laugh test. These people work together all the time,” Fey said. “There’s a need to have a group who just does this and makes these judgments, hopefully with a consistent approach.”
With so many police reform bills floating around the Legislature right now, Fey said, the big question is what lawmakers will focus on and have time to pass. Johnson said his oversight board bill is one of several he expects to be prioritized in the House.
They’re decisions Harris hopes will be made with one reality in mind:
“Right now, especially in the Black community — but all minority communities — we don’t feel we have that voice. We don’t feel we’re being heard,” Harris said. “Maybe we have a voice, but we’re not being heard.
“There’s no action being taken to demonstrate to us that our voice matters.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Use-of-force boards staffed by folks who aren’t police? BLM group, reps say they’d help."
