City Leaders Push Civilian Oversight of Police After Protests

Local officials across the country are pushing to quickly establish independent oversight of their police departments as protesters call for increased accountability following the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police.

Police reform debates waged in city halls for years have come to a head in several cities where leaders have voted or committed to create a process for civilians to oversee misconduct investigations, recommend policy changes, and provide guidance. Leaders elsewhere want to boost oversight funding as coronavirus-related budget concerns likely will require funding cuts elsewhere.

The new accountability initiatives—opposed by police unions in some cases—come as cities like Minneapolis consider disbanding their police departments, while in Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would cut money from the police department’s budget to fund community programs.

On Monday, City Council members in Phoenix, the nation’s fifth-largest city, approved a tentative budget including $3 million for its first civilian review board and accountability and transparency office. The money, $2.6 million more than considered before the protests, reflects that the debate over the future of policing has “fundamentally changed” in the past two weeks, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said. The council will vote on the final budget June 17.

“We know Phoenicians are watching what this council does,” Gallego said.

Supporters of Black Lives Matter march outside the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on June 7, demonstrating against the death of George Floyd.

Photographer: Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

The Phoenix City Council heeded protesters’ demands for full funding of a new office that will take complaints, participate in misconduct investigations, and recommend discipline to the police chief. A civilian review board will recommend policy changes and respond to community concerns.

The council approved the framework for the new oversight in February following months of debate. Local police unions argued that their members questioned the trust between the council and police and that the changes were designed to create conflict between police officers and civilians.

Coronavirus-related revenue concerns led the council to consider launching the initiative with $400,000 in the new fiscal year, instead of the $3 million needed to establish the office, hire staff, pay for outside legal services, and create the review board. Council members, though, said they needed to reevaluate that budget cut in light of community calls for action, and voted 7-2 for full funding using savings related to lower-than-expected jail costs, city facilities closed because of Covid-19, and federal pandemic relief.

Opponents criticized the new office, and Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who voted no, apologized to police during the vote. Councilman Carlos Garcia, who proposed the office earlier this year and advocated for full funding, said the beefed-up budget is a step toward considering the police defunding that some demonstrators seek.

“Our community is asking us to reconsider how we invest in them,” Garcia said.

Refiguring City Budgets

Philadelphia leaders also are debating how coronavirus-related budget cuts will affect police oversight. While the mayor’s proposed budget includes a variety of spending reductions, City Council members on June 5 released an amendment that would allocate $25 million to address the “social ills and racial disparities laid bare” by the pandemic and civil unrest.

If approved, part of that money from the city’s recession reserve fund would go toward strengthening the city’s police advisory commission. The commission takes complaints and reviews department policies, among other responsibilities.

Other cities are launching new review bodies in the coming months. One day after Floyd’s death, the City Council in East Lansing, Mich., voted to create a committee that will have six months to propose a framework for an independent police oversight commission after debate sparked by local allegations of excessive force.

Representatives of the Police Officers Association of Michigan raised concerns over efforts to create an “illegitimate investigative body” and noted conflicts with collective-bargaining agreements, in a letter. Mayor Ruth Beier said she hoped police would embrace the oversight.

“The idea that we’re going to admit and address implicit bias or explicit bias and actually do something about it is scary for a lot of people, but it has to happen,” she said during a virtual meeting.

Columbus, Ohio, will form a working group by July 1 to develop a civilian review board, and Mayor Andrew Ginther will prioritize the initiative in Fraternal Order of Police negotiations, he said June 5. Council members in Harrisburg, Pa., will pursue legislation in the coming weeks to address police brutality and consider a police advisory board to provide “more instantaneous accountability,” Ausha Green, chair of the council’s public safety committee, said at a June 4 news conference.

Somerville, Mass., Mayor Joseph Curtatone will include funding to develop a civilian oversight committee in his 2021 fiscal year budget proposal, according to a June 3 news release. Civilian oversight could include investigating misconduct, recommending policy changes, and evaluating discipline.

“If we’re serious about advancing compassionate and unbiased policing, everything has to be on the table,” Curtatone said in a statement.