Kevin Walters: Pros & cons of civilian review boards

Last month’s reintroduction of a proposed ordinance by the Allegheny County Council to create a civilian police review panel is sharply dividing the community between those who believe it necessary to prevent or detect misconduct on the part of county law enforcement officers and those who believe such a civilian board is intended to intimidate officers from performing their duties.

These are essentially the same arguments voiced in numerous communities across the country that suggest such a civilian review board. Some of that argument generally has merit that needs to be addressed fairly for both the police and the citizen, but a blanket dismissal by police authorities and their supporters that citizens without police training and experience cannot properly investigate and adjudge police actions is disingenuous as well.

Police officials at all levels have resisted efforts to have their official conduct reviewed by “outsiders.” “We can police ourselves” has been the mantra even while those same officials bemoan, disparage and disrespect the so-called “rats” of internal affairs. Police too often want it both ways, and the growing distrust of police and renewed interest at imposing civilian review of alleged police misconduct is, in many instances, fairly laid at their feet. You reap what you sow.

To be fair, police are often justified in their fear that community efforts to create civilian reviews are too often motivated by one or two high-profile incidents in which police may or may not have acted properly. Often, such movements originate in minority communities that are often seen as less law-and-order inclined than white communities.

According to media reports, renewed interest in a civilian review board gained traction following a Dec. 18 incident involving a 15-year-old girl and two police officers on a school bus.

Despite the exaggerated statements of an attorney retained by the youth’s family that she was “brutally beaten,” the cellphone video contradicts that description.

Local TV news reported on “community members” at a West Mifflin borough council meeting insisting that both officers be fired. They failed to report how many members of the 20,000 residents represent “the community.”

They did interview a woman named Fawn Walker-Montgomery who stated “there’s nothing you could show me” that would justify the actions of the officers. Really? No conduct that the girl could ever do that would warrant an officer holding the teen by her braided hair in order to stop her from spitting blood at officers and others? The video does not show officers hitting the girl or using profane or insulting language, but rather holding her by her hair while handcuffing her. By most standards, the video shows a relatively peaceful arrest and certainly not any vicious assault by officers.

Almost any degree of physical force looks bad. It just does. But a handful of community members who protest seemingly every use of force by officers despite resistance by the suspect does little to shine the light on true instances of police misconduct and, instead, wears down our collective dismay when it is truly needed.

Civilian review boards, in their various forms, are arguably a positive means of giving the whole community and not just a small fraction with an agenda a voice and means to prevent real police abuses. But if we can’t all agree on what abuse really is, then everyone will be disappointed.

Kevin Walters is a former Midwest police chief and founder of The CAUTION Group, a police consulting firm.