Flyer circulating in West River.
In an advance of a showdown vote Monday night, advocates of a strong police civilian review board are targeting the wards of top alders in a last-minute pressure campaign.
The activists are specifically targeting Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers’s West River Ward 23 and Westville Alder Adam Marchand’s Ward 25 with flyers, a petition drive and in-person communal appeals.
The question at hand is which version of a new civilian review board (CRB) will pass in a final vote Monday night at the Board of Alders. Activists have been pushing for a board with subpoena power among other measures advanced as amendments by three alders, Steve Winter, Darryl Brackeen, and Abby Roth. Marchand, among others in the board majority, has backed the version without those amendments in a previous committee vote. Walker has not publicly taken a stand.
The activists are seeking five major changes to the proposal, that would:
• Grant “independent investigatory power including subpoena power, ability to compel witnesses and produce evidence. The CRB should also hire qualified investigators without ties to the police department.”
• Grant “power to make disciplinary recommendations to the Chief of Police and to recommend grand jury investigations and an independent prosecutor. The police department and CRB should agree on a ‘disciplinary matrix’ for police misconduct.”
• Draw CRB members “from community organizations and having no ties to the police department or police union.”
• Offer “transparency through the collecting and reporting of data on civilian complaints against the police.
• Provide “necessary resources. The CRB budget must be a fixed percentage (1.5%) of the police department’s non-capital budget.”
Westville Pitch
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Erica Holahan, Beatrice Codiani and Angela Clinton with Marchand at the last alders board meeting.
Two advocates of the stronger CRB made an appeal at the Westville/West Hills Community Management team’s monthly meeting Wednesday night at Mauro Sheridan. All four of the alders who represent the Westville/West Hills section of the city, including Marchand, were absent from the meeting.
Angela Clinton and Erica Holohan reminded their Westville neighbors that five years ago residents of the city voted overwhelmingly in favor of a CRB that would be fair, independent and transparent. Though activists were successful in pressuring alders to postpone a vote on a new CRB that did not expressly have subpoena power, people are anticipating that alders will attempt a vote on Monday.
“The alders are working on amendments to it right now,” Clinton said. “There are all sorts of discussions going on with the alders about what amendments will look like to make the civilian review board stronger.”
She said advocates for a strong board want the CRB to have subpoena power, to be able to conduct independent investigations, recommend disciplinary action, collect and report data the misconduct cases it handles, and have the financial resources necessary to function. Advocates also want the CRB’s members to be representative of the community.
Clinton said she has witnessed police misconduct in the city directly. She argued a strengthened civilian review board with subpoena power would allow civilians to hold police accountable.
“The system, as it currently functions, the police union has more to say over what happens to police,” she said. “This has been a long time in the making. There is no civilian review board right now.
She pointed out the last version of the CRB, which was created under the DeStefano administration, was disbanded. The new one that alders could create on Monday is really the only opportunity the city has to create a strong independent board.
“It’s not about penalizing police,” she said. “It’s about all of us holding each other accountable.”
Former internal affairs top cop, Lt. Rose Dell: CRB helped.
Westville/West Hill’s top cop, Lt. Rose Dell was offered a chance by the management team to share her experience. Dell worked for the police department’s Internal Affairs division for about four-and-a-half years, a time when the now-defunct DeStefano CRB was still in place.
“I found that it was actually helpful because it provided a link between the police and the community,” she said. “I can’t speak really to any of the specific amendments but as far as my experience in the past, I feel it was actually a good thing.”
Walker-Myers: Tell Us
EINO SIERPE PHOTOS
Cops slam & injure unarmed protester Nate Blair last year; no officers were disciplined.
The CRB issue also arose at the most recent community management team meetings in the Hill and Dwight over the past week.
Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers told those gathered for the West River meeting that alders had heard a lot from advocacy groups and those affiliated with Yale but they hadn’t heard as much from neighborhood level constituents.
“Call your alder and tell them what you think,” she said. She did not return multiple attempts to reach her for this story.
Norman Clement, one of the activists calling for a tougher CRB, said activists have been distributing a petition in Walker-Myers’ ward to demonstrate public support for the amendments.
He said during an appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program (above) that “almost 100 percent” of her constituents whom canvassers approached have signed the petition in favor of subpoena power and the other proposed changes. He urged people to sign the same petition online (here). Clement was attacked by police dogs and thrown to the ground during an anti-Trump protest in 2017. After 13 months of court appearances a judge threw out the charges; he’s now suing the state and local police over the incident. He said he never complained to the department’s internal affairs division because “most people don’t trust the police” to police themselves.
Dolores Colon.
Hill Alder Dolores Colon told neighbors that alders were meeting Wednesday in an attempt to hash out the multitude of amendments that have been offered, noting that some of them were “so complicated that we didn’t want to debate them on the floor.” She also said alders had engaged a lawyer to help them review the language of the amendments and the ordiance to make sure that it was correct.
“We should have some closure sooner rather than later,” she said.
Paul Bass contributed reporting.
Is CRB is redundant. If you don't like current oversight, reform the Police Commission.