Among the new CRB members, clockwise from top left: Melvin Counsel, Devin Avshalom-Smith, John Pescatore, John Peralta, the Rev. Samuel Ross-Lee.
New Haven’s reinvigorated Civilian Review Board won’t hear its first case until Spring 2021 at the earliest. But the panel met for the first time to start getting ready.
The police-misconduct review panel — which has been reborn with subpoena power and staff — held its first meeting Monday night by Zoom.
Only seven of the CRB’s 12 commissioners attended. (Lack of attendance was one of the reasons the old version of the CRB withered away, unable to muster a quorum.)
They voted to select Dec. 12 and 19 as training dates, and to hold regular full meetings on the last Monday of each month, beginning with Jan. 25.
At that time, in January, a chair, vice-chair, and secretary will be chosen. And the board will approve bylaws and other procedural matters fashioned during the December training.
Attending this first organizational meeting were CRB members Jewu Richardson, Richard Crouse, Jean Jenkins, Steve Hamm, Samuel Ross-Lee, Melvin Counsel, and Devin Avshalom-Smith. The meeting was hosted by city legislative director Al Lucas with the assistance of accountability activist Emma Jones.
Prior to Monday night’s virtual gathering members had held an informal meet-and-greet.
“We’ve already waited a very long time for the CRB to get up and running,” Richardson said during the discussion of how to schedule a mandated eight hours of training, a fashioning of bylaws, and setting up policies and procedures.
With little dissent the attending members agreed to schedule the training for two extended Saturday sessions in December and to roll up their sleeves within the next week on what Lucas called their “homework”: working on draft bylaws and procedures, the first versions of which are being provided them by the city in the coming days.
And what if not all the 12 members can make time for the two long Saturday four-hour sessions?
“Whoever can’t attend will acquire it on their own schedule,” said Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Meyers, who was also on the Zoom call. “If we don’t get enough people trained, we can’t do the work.”
Richard Crouse popped the question: “People are asking when do we think we’ll be hearing cases. In January? In February?”
“If people are asking you that question, I would say to them there’s no guarantee, but the safest answer is in the second quarter of 2021,” replied Lucas.
“Will citizens have knowledge where and how to submit a case?” Ross-Lee pressed Lucas.
“Yes, that’s part of the policies and procedures you adopt,” replied Lucas.
“And it will part of your training,” added Jones.
Click here, here, and here for previous stories about the long road the new CRB has had to travel, advanced by city referendum change in 2013, and finally working its way through the often contested selection of 12 members representing the city’s ten policing districts along with representatives from the Board of Alders.
Monday night’s first organizational meeting arrived nearly two years after the Board of Alders voted to create the new version of the CRB in January 2019. That vote in turn took place more than five years years after city residents mandated the creation of a new all-civilian police accountability board during the 2013 charter referendum.
Curious how there was so much clamoring for the CRB and, now that it appears to be ready to roll, it's not even worth any commentary praise? Wow.