Anyone want to monitor how cops treat citizens?
Apparently that’s not a big priority in the East Rock neighborhood right now.
Two months after Ann Tramontana announced that she would be stepping down as East Rock neighborhood’s representative on a board investigating city police misconduct, no one has stepped up to take her place.
Tramontana (pictured) made a pitch looking for a replacement for her seat on the city’s Civilian Review Board at the monthly meeting of the East Rock Community Management Team (CMT) on Tuesday night. Volunteers were not forthcoming.
Tramontana will finish her second three-year term on the board in June, a development that she announced at the CMT meeting in March.
The Civilian Review Board examines civilian complaints of police misconduct. The board comprises two members appointed by the mayor, one representative from the Board of Police Commissioners, one from the board of alderman, and one each from New Haven’s 12 community management teams.
Kevin McCarthy, chair of the East Rock management team, speculated after the meeting that the lack of interest in representing East Rock on the Civilian Review Board (CRB) might be due to the neighborhood’s good relations with city police officers.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of antagonism with the police,” McCarthy said.
Describing the duties of the CRB to the 12 people at Tuesday’s CMT meeting, Tramontana said that it is a big time commitment. The board meets once per month, and there is a training period to be able to read the case files. “Our volume is quite heavy,” Tramontana said. The board has reviewed 40 cases so far this year.
“It is an important position for us as a management team to be represented,” Tramontana said.
“Maybe people aren’t aware that there are complaints against the police,” suggested Cynthia Horan. “It might be below people’s radar screens. Especially in this neighborhood.”
“It probably is below people’s radar screens,” Tramontana agreed. The review board deals with complaints from people who have been arrested about the way that their arrests took place, she said. Maybe East Rockers haven’t suffered verbal and physical abuse from the New Haven police.
Horan mentioned that East Rock residents may also simply not know what the Civilian Review Board does.
“Part of it is that people who come to meetings like this already have time commitments,” Kevin McCarthy said after the management team meeting. The review board’s time investment can be “somewhat daunting,” he said.
Following up on Horan’s remark, McCarthy said that East Rockers may not have an adversarial relationship with the police in their neighborhood.
Aldermanic Absence
Speaking after the meeting, Tramontana said that the Civilian Review Board has been without an aldermanic representative for over a year. Before that, there has “never been someone there [from the Board of Alderman] for more than a few months,” she said.
Tramontana described the aldermanic absence as an ongoing “bone of contention” on the board.
Reached by phone on Wednesday morning, Civilian Review Board Chairperson Barbara Carroll said that the CRB has had only one alderman member in six years: Alderman Robert Lee. “And he only came to three meetings,” Carroll added.
Carroll said that she was unsure if Alderman Lee was still the appointee. “Is [the post] officially vacant? I assume so,” she said.
The CRB has become a more effective body in recent years, Carroll said, and it’s important for the board to have aldermanic input.
Carroll agreed that the lack of an alderman on the CRB has been a point of contention. “I’m not happy about it,” she said. “I do think that if one or two or several would come to a meeting they would see the validity of the board.”
Borad of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield acknowledged that there is no aldermanic representative to the Civilian Review Board. He said that the absence goes back to a dispute from before his tenure as president over the role and powers of the CRB.
The Civilian Review Board has been criticized in the past as being “toothless“ and not “legitimate“.
“Times are different now,” he said. “I would definitely consider” trying to find an aldermanic representative.
Goldfield described the Civilian Review Board as “something I’ve always felt was useful… and should be made as active as possible.”
I don't think you have enough information to conclude that monitoring how cops treat citizens is "not a big priority in the East Rock neighborhood right now" based on the fact that this seat hasn't been filled. Maybe the vacancy says more about the efficacy of the review board, or the lack of advertising of the opening than it does about whether East Rockers care about abusive police actions?