Police review board may get out to the community
The Orlando Citizen Review Board is potentially one of the
most important city panels. But it has the worst meeting schedule.
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| Orlando City Hall |
The appointees on that board, which hears complaints about
Orlando police misconduct and reviews police internal investigations, meets 8
a.m. on the first Wednesday of every month at Orlando City Hall. Its goal is to
help ensure police accountability.
While the meeting is open to the public, it is rarely
attended by more than 2 or 3 people who are not police officers or city
employees. Few people can take off time from work to attend and participate.
During recent meetings attendees have asked for the meeting
time and location to be changed to make it accessible to more people,
especially in the black community where many people have complained of having
negative interactions with police.
City staffers attending the meeting blamed scheduling
issues for the inconvenient timing of the meeting, and doubted the meeting
could be moved out of Orlando City Hall.
In response to questions about the meeting schedule, Mayor
Buddy Dyer’s spokeswoman said staff has been directed to explore schedule and
location options further.
“Some of the details that will be considered include that
the meetings will need to be held in a government-owned building that is
accessible to everyone,” she wrote. “Some locations staff will be exploring
include our community centers as options. This process includes determining
which ones have the appropriate size and needs for the meeting set up. Staff
will be proposing options to the board once we have this information.”
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