CRB members Iva Johnson and Jewu Richardson (right) with Emma Jones: This board "is going in the wrong direction."
Three members of the city’s struggling police-accountability board joined the effort’s founding force to call for help investigating civilian complaints, a new location to review materials that is not at police headquarters, better community outreach, and more diverse representation among the group’s leadership and staff.
Civilian Review Board (CRB) members Iva Johnson, Jewu Richardson, and Jayuan Carter issued those calls Tuesday midday at a press conference held at the corner of Grand Avenue and John Murphy Drive.
The presser was the latest example of administrative, operational, and policy-related frustrations among board members bubbling over into public view, all as the group continues to wade through monthly hours-long online meetings and subcommittee work to review civilian complaints of police misconduct.
Tuesday’s presser took place at the very same Fair Haven spot where, in 1997, East Haven police chased down and shot to death 21-year-old New Havener Malik Jones. The group was joined by Emma Jones, Malik’s mother and a decades-long police accountability crusader who led the movement to reestablish New Haven’s CRB and who has served as a part-time consultant for the board since it officially relaunched in late 2020.
Over the course of a little more than an hour, Johnson, Richardson, Carter, and Jones detailed their concerns with how the CRB currently operates — and what they’d like to see going forward to make sure the board succeeds in realizing its mission and holds police accountable when they do wrong.
Jayuan Carter (right): "We need support."
“It is going in the wrong direction,” Jones said.
“We need support,” added Carter. The board is not “fractured,” he said, but there are “frustrations that need to be addressed.”
“The leadership on the board,” Richardson said, “is not connected to the community.”
Some of the sources of frustration and proposed solutions that the group brought up on Tuesday included:
• They would like to have a space that is not police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. where board members can review the Internal Affairs (IA) materials, police body camera footage, and other documents related to a police misconduct investigation. Richardson stressed that he, as someone who survived being shot in the chest by a police officer more a decade ago, has a traumatic history with cops. He’s not the only one. Having to go to police headquarters to review materials is not conducive to the CRB being able to do its work well.
Jones and Johnson.
• They would like the board to prioritize hiring an investigator or investigators to help the CRB members review all of the materials related to a police misconduct complaint. Johnson pointed out that she, like her fellow volunteer CRB members, is a civilian who is not necessarily fully equipped to evaluate all of the complex materials put before the board. She declined to say whether a full-time investigator or a per-case investigator would be best. But, she made clear, the CRB does need investigative help.
Aly Heimer introducing herself to Jones: Here to listen.
• The group also criticized board leadership, including Chair AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios, for instead prioritizing hiring an administrator. In late February, the board hired Aly Heimer, who was also present at Tuesday’s presser to listen in to the board members’ concerns, as a contracted admin. She’ll be responsible for catching up on two years’ worth of meeting minutes that Jones failed to write up during her time as consultant. She’ll also be responsible for helping out with the day-to-day administration of the board, sending out agendas, and doing secretarial work. Jones does not currently have a contract with the CRB.
Johnson, Richardson, and Carter made clear on Tuesday they thought the hiring of Heimer was disrespectful to Jones, who would like to continue working with the CRB in training them on the origins, history, and purpose of the board and its enabling legislation and in helping find and interview a board-hired investigator. Jones also said she found the request that she perform secretarial duties liking writing up meeting minutes beneath her as someone who fought for decades to make the CRB a reality, who traveled the country researching different models for municipal cop-accountability boards, and who is a lawyer. “They want to make me a glorified secretary,” Jones said.
• The group criticized the board’s leadership for not adequately representing Black and brown New Haveners who are most likely to be victims of police misconduct.
• They said the board has not done enough and is not supported enough to make sure the broader New Haven community knows what the CRB is up to, how to attend meetings, and how to file complaints. And they said the Elicker administration needs to work more promptly to fill existing vacancies and generally provide city support to the group, which does have a city attorney and a top police official attend each of their meetings.
Heimer, who also runs the city’s public-financing program the Democracy Fund and who served on a previous iteration of the CRB in 2011 and 2012, said she showed up at Tuesday’s presser to listen to board members’ concerns and try to figure how best she can support the board realize its mission. “It seems like I’m walking into something with a lot of pent-up frustrations,” she told the Independent after the press conference. She promised to look into the various matters brought up by the CRB board members Tuesday — including seeing if they can review IA files outside of police headquarters and if the board can move from online only to a hybrid online-in-person model of meeting.
Rivera-Berrios did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.
The scene of Tuesday's presser.
Asked for comment after Tuesday’s presser, Mayor Justin Elicker sent along the following statement:
“The Civilian Review Board plays an important role of serving as an independent monitor and investigator of civilian complaints of police misconduct, and we’re committed to doing everything we feasibly can to help support the CRB fulfill its responsibilities while also respecting its autonomy and independence.
“These supports have included the Office of Corporation Counsel providing ongoing legal guidance and resources, the New Haven Police Department providing specialized trainings, and we’re also actively working to build a dedicated area at City Hall where board members can review confidential internal affairs investigatory materials in a secure manner that’s off-site from the police department.
“Ultimately, a strong CRB helps ensure that residents can have confidence in the integrity of our police officers and police department, and that serves the community, the police department, and the City well – and we want the CRB to succeed in their important responsibilities and work.”
The Civilian Review Board needs to be more in touch with the community in order to build a better bridge to law enforcement to make a safer New Haven for all of us.