OPD police review board is powerless to do anything about brutality complaints
If you have been mistreated by an Orlando police officer,
officials urge you to take your concerns to police internal affairs and
the Orlando Police Citizen Review Board. Unfortunately, the review board is a toothless tiger because it has no power.
The citizen review board members, who were selected by City
Council, is charged with seeing if internal affairs properly investigated
complaints.
The review board “is one
of the many ways the City continues its commitment to transparency,” Orlando
spokeswoman Cassandra Lafser, explained in a written response to our questions.
“This board meets in a
public forum, provides opportunities for public comments and provides an
additional layer of community input and transparency for the Orlando Police
Department,” Ms. Lafser wrote.
The board meets monthly
– the first Wednesday of the month at 8 a.m. at Orlando City Hall. (Its next
meeting will be in December.)
Due to the early hour it’s
inconvenient for working people to attend the board’s meetings. Usually there is never more than one or two
members of the public in attendance.
Board members take their
responsibility seriously. They ask good questions of police officials at the
meeting. However, unlike
police review boards and police commissions in other major cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, the Orlando review board is toothless. It has
no power.
The Orlando police chief is free to disregard recommendations
made by the review board.
The most common cases reviewed by the board include: use of
deadly force; use of excessive force, and instances where police action
resulted in death or serious injury, according to Ms. Lafser. However, she was
not immediately able to say how many cases have been reviewed by the board
during the past three years.
Asked how many times the board disagreed with the Orlando
police chief on the outcome of a case, Ms. Lafser responded: “The Board votes on IA
(Internal Affairs) findings and determinations. As such, there are no numbers
we can provide in answer to this question.”
When
asked how many times the police chief changed his disciplinary decision based
on the review board’s recommendation, Ms. Lafser responded: “The Board does not
recommend disciplinary actions. The discipline process is dictated by the FOP (Fraternal Order of
Police union) Collective bargaining agreement. As such, there are no
numbers we can provide in answer to this question.”
She
gave these examples of the review board’s accomplishments during the past three
years:
• Based on the board's
recommendation, the City changed its extra-duty policy to not allow first year
officers to work extra-duty at locations who principal business is to serve
alcohol.
• Property
gathering/inventory procedures made more transparent, requiring sign off
• Amount of extra duty
hours - No policy/contract change was made here, but the board did ask OPD to
look into this and it was discussed as part of the collective bargaining
process with FOP
• OPD developed a social
media campaign regarding traffic stop safety.
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