City police panel will advise only

By Seth Rosen

Published: May 3, 2008

Charlottesville is forming a resident advisory committee for the police department, but the new group will not have the power to independently investigate complaints against officers.
The panel, which will be composed of city residents and business owners and will meet at least four times a year, will serve as a liaison between the police and the community and give input into department policy.
It will not, however, have the same authority as the resident panel that operated in the mid-1990s. That outside group could conduct parallel investigations of accusations against officers and make recommendations for punishment. Ultimately, the decision to discipline was still up to the police chief.
“The committee will have less of an oversight role and more of a complementary role,” city spokesman Ric Barrick said Friday.
Though there has been talk in recent years of reviving the resident committee, the idea gained momentum earlier this year after a wheelchair-bound pedestrian was struck by an Albemarle County patrol car while crossing a city street. A Charlottesville officer ticketed Gerry Mitchell for ignoring traffic rules, though the charges were later dropped.
Police Chief Timothy J. Longo said the new group would greatly improve communication between the public and officers, better enabling the department to address unmet community needs.
“This is huge to building relations with citizens and having more citizen engagement,” he said.
Longo opposed granting the new panel the same investigative power held by its predecessor. That committee, which was created in 1990 and dissolved on its own in 1997, could interview witnesses when a misconduct complaint was filed and had the same access to information as the department.
“I think that type of structure interferes with the proper balance in police management and rank-and-file relations,” Longo said. “I think those panels should not be directly involved in the investigation of police officers.”
The police department has demonstrated a willingness to discipline its officers, Longo added. Last year, 45 complaints of rule violations were lodged against city police officers and 17 of them were sustained.
Albemarle County has a review committee that studies police policies, staffing and budget decisions, but it does not investigate potential rule violations.
Mayor Dave Norris said he is pleased by the formation of the outside panel, but would like to see it have the ability to examine incident reports and talk to police officers if a question of misconduct arises.
“I would like to see them be able to review incidents and facts as circumstances warrant, like in the Mitchell case,” he said.
Some in the community were disappointed that the city did not grant the panel the same powers as its predecessor possessed. Kevin Cox, a local activist, said that any resident committee that could not conduct investigations would be “toothless.”
“It sounds like a waste of time that will possibly placate the public and insulate the City Council from taking responsibility for the police force,” Cox said.