Policing II: Citizen Review Boards

Many conversations about police reform include some idea of a civilian review board, so I'm going to use that as a reasonable place to starting point. Readers will need to keep in mind this is a vast subject and I am intentionally taking only a very narrow slice each day to see what I can learn, and intentionally managing the scope of my thoughts in order to stay on just that subtopic.

I noted yesterday that the value of increasing trust is a foundational principle for my thinking about policing. At the very least, it seems beyond doubt that a substantial fraction of the youth in our more urban areas do not fundamentally trust their police. It also seems clear that a substantial fraction of many minority communities in the US distrust their police. Regardless of anything else, the protests we have seen since the killing of George Floyd simply would not have occurred if trust in police was pervasive.

For the sake of argument only, let's say there was a simple flaw in policing that mayors and police chiefs identified tomorrow; they changed the flawed policy and fired all the bad people and announced it on the news the next day. Clearly, that would be insufficient to restore trust. There would need to be a sustained confirmation from a trusted watchdog for attitudes to change. So to me it is clear that some sort of civilian review board will be part of the way forward for a lot of cities, both small and large.

This bothers me for a few reasons. First, it adds another party to our city governments, and almost all of us have experienced the ways that increasing the complexity of an organization tends to decrease its agility. Plus, it costs money. But most of all, it means that our ostensibly representative political structures have lost connection with their constituents, or are at least unable to provide the quality of governance we want. And it seems unlikely that simple slogans will rebuild that trust on their own.

So, if I were to outline a plan for a civilian review board, I would probably build in a sunset clause. I would think in terms of something like a 5-year commision, with guaranteed representation for significant minority communities in the city, and with a young adult voice as well. I would add representation from the police force simply because in the course of a 5-year process there almost certainly will be cases where their insight will be necessary. I'm not sure it would be productive to include police union representation, so I'll leave that as an open question. I would also include representation from the existing government, because they are stakeholders too. But I would make sure that ordinary citizens comprised half or more of the board.

I would give them a mission that included four primary components: 1) reviewing police actions that have generated concern in the community, 2) reviewing a random sampling of other interactions to see if there are significant trends to be aware of, 3) working with the police department to correct those things that need to be changed, and 4) making an annual report to the city on how their functions can be re-integrated into normal municipal function at the end of their charter period. It is critically important that protection of citizens rights, and everyone's confidence in those protections, is a central function of regular government. It cannot be a bolted-on afterthought.

State police, at least in Massachusetts, also do not have an unvarnished record. Nor are they universally trusted. I think that a similar process could apply there, but I've not considered what details may differ.

At a smaller scale than our cities and urban areas, I do think many towns have a more personal connection between their police and the citizenry. But being complacent is part of human nature. I am willing to bet there are also many towns that think they are more or less immune to these problems, but are not. As a result, thought the form will vary locally, I think the concerns that current national events raise apply fairly broadly. 

Therefore, for many communities I think some sort of task force that proactively takes a searching look at our police-civilian interaction is a wise investment. Those task forces or citizen review boards should take an honest look at how our police are perceived in the community and foster changes as they are needed, with an eye toward building trust and ensuring that trust is fully deserved.

Of course, that is only one facet of how we can think about a way forward, and relies critically on getting information to review. That will be tomorrow's topic.