Providence City Council As A Whole-Thursday, January 30, 2025-5:30 PM
Presentation on Principles of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement
Tina Barr from the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) delivers a presentation on the core principles and benefits of civilian police oversight. She details best practices regarding structural independence, adequate legal authority, and unfettered access to law enforcement records and databases.
Discussion on PERA Governance and Proposed Ordinance Amendments
City Council members and PERA board members hold an open discussion regarding the local oversight structure, proposed ordinance amendments, and challenges in obtaining police department data. The participants also explore proactive community outreach methods, tracking policy change recommendations, and strengthening transparency.
Adjournment
The participants offer closing remarks, thank the guest presenter, and conclude the meeting proceedings. Motions are coordinated to adjourn the concurrent sessions of PERA and the City Council.
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Kind of awkward situation where we're having two concurrent meetings. So if you need Sorry. That's okay. No. Madam president, I can speak for a parent.
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So Jillian Barker, senior citizen citizen listener. I provide legal counsel to Para for our open meeting acts. Because this is just an informational meeting for Para, they're not gonna be voting on anything that can move forward with that one. Great. So because we have some seats at the table, I'd like to have Kara board members join us at the table on a council member who's gonna sit over here.
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Miss Ray, to help you out. Yeah. Alright. And I know I'm very excited. You have some special guests tonight, so I am happy to turn this over if you'd like to introduce yourself, and we're excited to hear
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from you. Sure. I was just gonna introduce Tina Barr. Great. So I'd like to introduce Tina.
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She's the director of training and education at the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, otherwise known as MIPOLD. Tina became a bomber civilian oversight of law enforcement in 2019 as a member of the grassroots organization in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It's led to the creation of an of an oversight entity in that city. Tina has extensive experience in social work, public health training, and research with state, private, and nonprofit organizations and has worked in several capacities as an advocate. We're fortunate to have her here with us tonight to explain the principles of effective oversight and how we can utilize this information to strengthen the support and the work of apparel.
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Thank you too, ma'am. Thank you,
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And with and And I will say that the information that I will address tonight, we we, meaning may hold, talk about the effective principles. These 13 very specific principles, And I understand that well, please understand that as I'm talking about these, a lot of things are the ideal, but they always know what are known to be effective when it comes to having effective oversight that actually does what the mandate that it sets out
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for a
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chicken. Having these principles in place increases the likelihood of being able to fulfill the mandates required. And so Can you get the the presentation here?
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Which one is that again? The You go to the bottom. Right. To the left. Right here.
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Right here?
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Yeah. Thank you. So what I'm gonna do is, quite simply, I will talk about the benefits of civilian oversight of law enforcement, and then the subsequent slides will each address each of the 13 different principles. And so I will I'm happy
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to answer
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questions the as notes they arrive or at the end, whenever you want us. But that's a very simple outline of how this next year activity is going. Essentially, when people hear the term civilian oversight in law enforcement without having a good background about it or even people who are his or some form or another in the role of civilian oversight with law enforcement. It's a very nuanced field. It's.
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There are a lot of pieces to it, a lot of parts. I will start out by saying that there are approximately 300 oversight entities in this country that we know of, and no two are exactly alike. Because this is a local level process, policy making process, oversight looks very different from city to city. There are some overlapping similarities and authorities from city to city, but just please keep in mind, what actually ends up by city is at the will of the city as a whole. And so because of that, it looks different everywhere you go.
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So you have here or you have an oversight office here. But just keep in mind, every city that has an oversight office may have a different level of staffing. They have actual different levels of authority, meaning the responsibilities that they can carry out. And so everything that I'm talking about today speaks to regardless of what type of office or oversight mechanism that you have in your city, these are the principles that we follow gave to create the most effective oversight as possible. Alright.
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So first of all, the benefits of civilian oversight. They benefit all segments of the community. Sometimes there is a false understanding or misconception that civiliate oversight of of law enforcement is anti committees. The reality is it seeks to improve community relationships between law enforcement and the community by virtue of holding law enforcement agencies accountable, promoting the responsiveness of both law enforcement and oversight to the community. And so when I talk about submitting oversight and law enforcement and the benefits, it's to all segments of the community.
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K? When I use the word term stakeholders, that's going to be in reference to all segments of the community as well, the general public, law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, local government officials, municipal staff members. And so I'm looking at the benefits holistically and stakeholders in a very holistic manner. So first and foremost, the prevalence or the existence of civilian oversight in a community does protect the rights of individual members of a community, all segments of that community. And so when I talk about rights, that goes to not only legal rights, but constitutional rights, civil rights, and human rights.
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So through ongoing review, investigation, auditing, or monitoring of alleged police misconduct cases, oversight bodies can identify patterns of rights violations in practice and in policy. And in doing so, if they do identify violations, the oversight body can make recommendations to address them so that they don't occur again. There's a remedy to that. Oversight bodies also ensure greater accountability. There is this term in research called the Hawthorne effect.
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And so what that essentially means is the idea that if someone is being observed or watched or overseen a person or an entity or institution, they are more likely to alter their behavior because they are aware that someone is watching and overseeing. So in the simplest of terms, if you know someone's watching and kind of overseeing your work, what you're doing, you're more likely to follow the rules and to be in compliance with what you're supposed to be doing because you know someone's watching. Very simple concept. K? So the rule of disability oversight, if there is oversight in a community, the oversight body essentially serves as the observer.
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So it's an advocator to ensure fairness, subjectivity, and felonious of misconduct investigations as well as ensuring law enforcement compliance with policies and state and local and federal laws. So it supports effective policing. Okay? So more often than not, regardless of what cities I've worked I've worked with, what communities I'm working with in the area of civilian oversight of law enforcement, I can think it's safe to say that the majority of cases that are lawful or cases that complaints are filed when it comes to alleged police misconduct, they actually do not find misconduct. So they uphold that being, the officer acting in accordance with policy.
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And so in those cases, they actually support or at least at the very least acknowledge that the officer acted in accordance with policy. Now that's not to say that all policy or no policy should ever be amended or changed because the reality is that, yes, there are there are plenty of cases where an officer, in fact, did act according to policy. However, oversight body recognized that there was a pill on the policy and have made recommendations to change that policy. And police departments, in many cases, have been agreed to that and made those changes. So it doesn't that support vaccine.
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Another thing that does that is many open side bodies have a portal just as citizens can file complaints regarding police misconduct. They can also they have a portal that or a mechanism where citizens can also file commendations, or they can acknowledge something would have been brought to where they've done. So in that case, again, it supports effective effective domestic. Builds bridges between the public and law enforcement. And so, essentially, oversight by just do represent the interests of the public.
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K? Primarily focused on the safety and well-being of the community, and so they serve as a go between in a lot of cases between the community and law enforcement and vice versa. And I will say this. Oversighted bodies are in a tough position oftentimes because if you're here and you're talking about, then at some point or usually at every point along the way, somebody's not going to be happy with the body itself. It can be law enforcement.
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It can be a member of the community, But this is not the body that everyone is going to be satisfied with their living that they're doing all the time. There have to be hard decisions that are made, unpopular decisions that are made. And so keep the open sidelines in place because it is a tough position to be in. Increases public trust and confidence in police. Now if everything is wrong as it should be, this is the idea, by virtue of working cooperatively with each other, then the natural byproduct is increased trust and confidence in force.
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And I'm a realistic person, and that's why I say if everything is going as it should be. K? I understand the reality of situations and the ideal. And then finally, helps manage risk. So in the simplest of terms, when we think of a city or county managing risk, oftentimes, there's a dollar figure attached to it.
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So if you're saying that instead of being the subject of a lawsuit regarding police misconduct, civilian the presence of civilian oversight is a mechanism that can possibly prevent that from happening. Many, many, I would hazard to say, most cases of police misconduct that are filed by community members Mhmm. Oftentimes start with feeling disrespected by law enforcement, some kind of encounter. I've looked at these numbers in various cities, and it I see that that's a factor in most of the cases. And so if there is a mechanism to prevent that encounter from a simple encounter where someone feels disrespected in their interaction, that can is actually a preventive pain from it rising to the occasion of a lawsuit or some kind of serious incident.
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Right? The interaction pretty minor escalating into something where there's an actual use of force, which we definitely don't like to see. So supporting oversight, the presence of it, is a way to help minimize risk, to manage risk. Theoretically, the more oversight becomes proactive in the community, the more risk is minimized. And so by that, I mean that, historically, oversight has been a reaction to something that has happened in the city.
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Police violence, a critical incident, something that has happened, and the community has responded and reacted. K? Oversight has been around for the concept for about a a hundred years. Going back to, I think, nineteen thirties, the Commission, which was established way back by President Hoover, all the way up to the current commission in the sixties during the civil rights. As far back as thirties, the sixties, both presidential commissions, when they issued their reports, which were commissioned to look into police related violence and civil unrest related to racial violence that was going on during both times.
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Both the the president and commissions acknowledge the need for independent external bodies that oversaw, this kind of complaints against police. So oversight, although it's been in the news a lot more since the murder murder of George Floyd, It's been around for a long time, the concept. Right? Alright. So, theoretically, it started out more reactionary, but what we're moving towards in the last couple decades since around the nineties, two thousands, is a more proactive approach to oversight.
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So that's not waiting until something happens and someone files a complaint of alleged misconduct. That is still needed. But what we're seeing more and more is that there are auditing functions and monitoring functions of law enforcement practices, procedures, and operations just in general in the law enforcement agency. And so I'm gonna talk a little bit more about what that looks like and what's required to do that. But, essentially, by being proactive, not waiting for an incident to happen, saying it's essentially saying that in order to prevent incidents from happening, incidents of police misconduct and escalations to to heights that don't want to happen, there should be regular ongoing monitoring of what's going on.
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So here's the next slide is just simply the 13 principles for effective oversight. And in subsequent slides, I will go over each one with a little more information, so I'm going to skip this slide. Alright. Principle one is independence. And so this is a clinical fact within the open civilian and society law enforcement.
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The level of independence that an oversight entity has determines whether or not that oversight body is meant to be a legitimate organization in the eyes of your public as well as all stakeholders overall. And so when we think of independence in terms of civilian oversight, we think about structural independence, political independence, and then operational independence. So structural independence means that there is a clear and distinct separation, administratively and organizationally from the overseeing law enforcement agency. So the oversight body should not be under the same, within the same organization as the police department in any way. Political independence refers to the extent that political actors can influence or affect oversight operations.
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So we know that there are a lot of oversight boards and commissions and even staff positions. This is again, keep in mind, it varies from city to city where oversight is. But oftentimes, political figures do have to say someone who sits on boards and commissions and whether or not someone is reemployed in a position. So political independence speak up in terms as duties or along the spectrum. K?
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And so political independence can be assessed in terms of the establishing authority. So we know with executive orders come directly from mayors or the heads of a local municipality. Charters require a vote by the citizens of the community, and then an ordinance is the policy making process that's that's at this level. And so if there is the authority of an oversight body is established by the ordinance in charge, it's a little bit more hard to change as opposed to. I think it's the vote that the Wilson people has been voted for.
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It's gone through the political or the policymaking process. Political independence can also be assessed in terms of the legal counsel. Right? Does the oversight body share legal counsel with the police department, which is often the case, or does it have independent legal counsel? So that's one of the ways it can be assessed.
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Now what we do know, data from 2021 show that about 26% of oversight bodies in this country have independent legal counsel, so the majority share counsel with city government. K. But, again, that can be a conflict. And so in some cases, I am aware that some cities have in their ordinance that if there is a conflict, right, there is a dispute between the police department and the oversight body, then the police department maintains the counsel of the city attorney, and the in the oversight body actually gets independent counsel. Political independence can also be assessed in terms of the level of influence that political actors can have on staffing their composition and oversight.
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So that's what I mentioned earlier. Firing the appointment of the volunteer board commission members, and then also to budget. And I'm gonna talk more about this in the upcoming slide. But when we're talking about the budget in terms of independence, is there an apolitical process that determines the budget in the oversight office, or is it the discretion in the funds? And then third, the operational independence is the third type of independence that we think about when it comes to civilian oversight.
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So it is essential that the oversight by having the ability to make key decisions before going into the daily operations without consulting or requiring prior prior approval from outside entities. And so the authority the oversight authority has to be able to carry out its mandate without seeking approval, such as initiating investigations, issuing subpoenas, they have subpoena power, just being able to carry out their their mandates without delay and without unnecessary layers. Where do you define adequate jurisdiction and authority? That simply refers to knowing what you're doing, what you're allowed to do, what kind of cases you can look at, what kind of, authorities are outlined in the ordinance if there's a memorandum of understanding. Just being very clear about what you're allowed to do.
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Okay? So there should be a level of authority that enables successful performance and duties to the greatest degree possible without the mutation. Right? Allow the inside body to do what it's supposed to do. Adequate and clearly defined jurisdiction and authority in writing is really important.
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K? If you have clearly defined jurisdiction and and authorities, it can minimize confusion, and it can minimize the the different types of interpretations and then between different bodies. K? I've seen many cities be stalled for years because of a difference in understanding, difference in interpretation of something in the ordinance or a memorandum of understanding. And so the entire community becomes very frustrated when that is the case.
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So it is important to be as clear as possible and have that that in writing. There does have to be a balancing act when it comes to being clear and putting things in writing because you whether it's by ordinance, memorandum of understanding, the language should be broad enough to allow for degrees of operational flexibility. But at the same time, the language should not be so broad that it results in in completely interpretations. So that does require a balancing act and some skill in in order to get the language right. K?
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Third, the stakeholders should be prepared to resolve issues regarding the oversight body's authority and then legislation legislation is necessary. Is a standard and mutual part of the process when it comes to oversight and the legislative authority. As a matter of fact, some cities that we work with, they actually built into their strategic plan a three year or four year or five year review where they intentionally stop and take a look at what they're doing. They actually build that in. So they intentionally take a look and do a self evaluation.
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But how comes it going? How is the word going? Does the ordinance or the charter or the legislative authority, provide enough authority in order so that they can carry out their mandate? During this time, they also build in feedback from the community, some mechanism to get feedback from the community. Because, again, oversight is a process that should involve the community as a whole, and oversight exists in many ways to represent the interest of.
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Yes. Yes. The Williams arrives at 05:57PM. I'm actually. Whatever.
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You're Sorry. Well, with no urge. No worries. Yeah. So, yeah, so this is a usual process, and some cities and counties actually building into their timeline to make sure that they take a look at what's going on.
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The reality is with the work of oversight, you're not gonna know with your legislative authority or even your MOU. If there is an MOU in place between your oversight agency and the police department, you're not gonna know how effective it is or if it's working right until we've gone through a few years at minimum. K? And so just like any process, a built in evaluation and an opportunity to make improvements and tweaks is standard of anything. Alright.
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Unhettered access to records. This is pretty important when it comes to civilian oversight. Alright. Now the level of access to records is going to dependent on the different oversight functions that an office has, an oversight office has. But, essentially, in a nutshell, whatever the oversight functions are, the oversight body should have the minimum requirements in terms of information and access, information access to meet their mandate.
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So, for example, if someone tasked with investigating a case, right, you've got investigators in your office, they should the investigators should have access to relevant information in order that's needed to conduct an investigation. So that's documents, files, access to witnesses, everything that's needed to conduct an investigation. In the case, if there's a responsibility to audit or monitor investigations or other aspects of the law enforcement agency that requires a higher level of access or a broader level of access to information. So in addition to accessing information similar to what investigators would need, it goes to a more much broader access. So that would include training materials.
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It could include and I know there are there are laws in many states which guide what information is available when it comes to law enforcement, what can be disclosed. So anything that I'm talking about is going to be priority always is abiding by whatever is allowed by law. So I