Michelle Liu Photos
Testifying Wednesday, clockwise from top left: Greg Grinberg, Chief Campbell, Barbara Fair, Emma Jones (with Jeanette Morrison), Norman Clement, Kerry Ellington.
A standing-room-only crowd Wednesday night blasted a three-years-in-the-making proposal to reestablish a civilian review board on numerous grounds: It took too long to draw up. It has no teeth. And it lacks subpoena and discipline power.
Dozens spoke up against the proposal at a three-hour public hearing Tuesday evening at City Hall before the Board of Alders’ joint Legislation/Public Safety Committee. Community activists said city alders neglected to collaborate with them earlier in the process of drafting the proposal to create an independent 13-member agency to review how police internal affairs handles citizen complaints. Others argued the proposed board lacks independence. City residents relayed personal experiences with police brutality to underscore the importance of the board in overseeing alleged police misconduct.
Instead of voting on the proposal, the committee decided to take the proposal up again next month and continue the hearing.
East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes framed the proposal as the latest step in a multi-year effort, dating even back to 1997. In 2013, a charter revision referendum called for the establishment of a civilian review board (CRB) — one that, to the frustration of some, is still in the making.
“We have to wait three years to get to this point and now we get three minutes each,” Chris Garaffa said. “But it is what it is.”
The proposal comes at a time when the cops face widespread public skepticism over their ability to police themselves.
Under the proposed ordinance, the city’s ten community management teams would propose candidates to the mayor to serve two-year terms on the CRB, which would review all civilian complaints submitted to the police department’s internal affairs division; obtain written IA reports before they go to the police chief for approval; and hear appeals from civilian complainants within 90 days of the completion of IA probe. (Half of the first 10 neighborhood appointees would serve an initial three-year term.) The Board of Alders would select an additional three members of the board. The CRB would have the ability to interview members of the department’s internal affairs division, but not to subpoena and interrogate police officers accused of misconduct. It would have the ability to request the chief to reopen an investigation.
A central point of contention at Wednesday night’s hearing was whether or not the board can legally have subpoena powers. The legislation’s drafters have argued that granting such powers would go against current state law. Copies of an open letter calling for the Board of Alders to lend its subpoena power to the CRB until state law is changed circulated through the meeting.
Other testimony took issue with the CRB’s limited independence and investigative powers. The current proposal allows the board to reopen the department’s Internal Affairs cases, but the CRB would remain reliant on IA to conduct investigations before passing on recommendations to the police chief.
“People are being brutalized, and this is all you can come up with? It’s a disgrace,” said Norman Clement, recounting his own arrest by state police on Feb. 4 during a protest on Route 34. “There’s no power in this civilian review board. For you to be able to just open up an IA investigation after the investigation has already been completed — and biased? Because we know they are biased. We’ve seen Internal Affairs investigations that have been completed, and witnesses have not even been called to testify.”
Camille Seaberry, a research associate at the local DataHaven firm, pulled up concrete data. Citing recent survey numbers, she contrasted the approval rating of municipal police departments statewide (78 percent) to that of New Haven, specifically (51 percent). That number drops even lower when looking specifically at respondents who are black (38 percent) or Latino (47 percent) or those who make less than $30,000 a year (46 percent).
Abdussabur and Miller.
Meanwhile, representatives of New Haven’s police union pushed back on suggestions that the proposed board have power to discipline cops.
Craig Miller, the union’s president, said that some of the demands raised would violate the union contract. For example, decisions regarding discipline can go through only the Police Commission and be handed down by the chief, he said.
“Contracts can change!” a member of the audience interrupted.
Top Newhallville cop and union treasurer Shafiq Abdussabur circled around other issues in the current proposal. Though he said the union supports a program such as the civilian review board, he called into question the logistics of its implementation: Where does it fall in the city budget? Will it draw money from the general fund? Will mayoral appointees be vetted like the ones for the police commission? Where would the board fall within the organizational charts of the police department or city executives?
“Who’s in charge?” Abdussabur asked. “Are they in the union? Whose union? Our union? Where are we putting people?” Committee members didn’t answer.
A number of individuals in high-profile incidents involving city police told their stories Tuesday evening, alleging that cops had profiled, used unnecessary force and lied on later reports against them. A young Christopher Santiago described protesting outside Atticus Bookstore and Cafe, where his father was fired, only to witness the cops handcuff and slam someone to the ground. Nate Blair talked of attending the same protest Clement organized, only to be wrestled to the ground and arrested by officers for an alleged failure to move quickly out of the way. He suffered a concussion.
Jones with Dixwell Alder Morrison.
And Emma Jones, wearing all white, beseeched alders to recognize the need for an independent CRB. Jones is the mother of Malik Jones, who died in 1997 when he was killed by an East Haven police officer after a high-speed car chase into Fair Haven.
“My question is how long, how many lives, many people have to be beaten down in the street, how many people have to be murdered, before this body moves to do the right thing?” she asked.
Jones, who worked on an alternate CRB proposal, suggested a three- to five-year pilot program that would lend the CRB subpoena power before approaching the state to seek official subpoena power — and to craft a statewide CRB.
Interim Police Chief Anthony Campbell spoke late in the hearing, saying he wanted to listen to the voices of others first. “True democracy’s very, very messy, as is demonstrated tonight,” he observed. “I want you to know that as long as I’m the chief of police, the New Haven Police Department will comply with the civilian review board.”
More than one member of the public reminded alders this is an election year.
“We are knocking at your door,” Kerry Ellington addressed the committee. “Let us in.”
Eino Sierpe Photo
Cops throwing unarmed protester Nate Blair to the ground on Church Street, Feb. 4; he got a concussion.
It's funny how the proponents of the CRB always assume that IA complaints are biased and are decided before they are investigating. If that is the case then it's safe to assume that the CRB "investigations" would be just as biased.
Who is going to investigate and oversee the CRB to ensure they are conducting fair and impartial investigations and if not who and how would they be disciplined, dismissed or arrested if warranted. I can see this being a huge issue that can and will end up in litigation against the city.