City manager expected to
present final recommendation within 30 days
By Robert Brauchle
HAMPTON — A community group
tasked in 2012 with repairing a frayed relationship between residents and the
Police Division is seeking more oversight over the department and more
accountability from officers who behave poorly while on the job. How that extra
scrutiny will take place is still up for debate.
Members of the Citizens
Engagement Advisory Group recommend that a citizen review process be created to
address complaints made against officers.
The group believes
"strongly that some review process needs to be in place. It is their
opinion that making strides to restore trust and confidence in the credibility
of the Hampton Police Department is crucial and immediate," members wrote
in a report outlined to the City Council Wednesday afternoon.
The group also recommends:
•An advisory committee of
community members and city staff be created to review police policies, provide
recommendations and perform community outreach.
•Mandatory training for
officers be expanded to help uniformed personnel better interact with the
public.
•The police chief submit a plan
to engage the community through newsletters, meetings and activities that inform
the public about officers and their procedures.
The advisory group met with
Police Chief Terry Sult in November to discuss its concerns and
recommendations. Michele Woods-Jones, of the advisory group, said the
conversation was "refreshingly positive" and Sult agreed with nearly
all of the recommendations.
Forming a citizens police
advisory commission appears to be the lone rub.
"It was never our mission
to police the Police Department," said Henry Mills, also a member of the
advisory group. "We want to focus on creating a positive, comfortable
environment for the community and the police."
Sult was not at the meeting
because he needed to respond to an "emergency situation," City
Manager Mary Bunting said.
The advisory group's efforts
have come periodically in the past two years while the city sought a permanent
police chief to replace Charles "Chuck" Jordan.
The advisory group was once
known as the Ad Hoc Leadership Group of the Citizens Unity Commission; its
members presented its findings in November 2012 that criticized officers and
outlined a fraying relationship between police and residents.
"There appeared to be an
eroding of the high regard for the HPD over the past three years,"
according to the November 2012 report. "Citizens reported an increase in
examples from citizens about perceived harassment and bullying of citizens.
More citizens expressed their lack of trust in the people they relied upon to
protect them."
The group's 2012 report
specifically cites the 2011 incident in which Hampton police officers fatally
shot 69-year-old William Cooper as being a touchstone for community
consternation.
"During the course of
gathering data, the leadership group discovered an alarming relationship breach
between a large segment of citizens and the HPD," according to the 2012
report. "The current leadership team at HPD has lost the confidence of
many citizens; in some neighborhoods to the point that there is genuine fear
reported in requesting police assistance when it is required. It has been amply
voiced that this environment did not exist during previous leadership
tenures."
Leadership group members
believe that internal police reviews without the "opportunity for review
or redress is unacceptable to the citizens of Hampton and they are requesting
that it be remedied."
"Certainly providing
civilian oversight to the police complaint process will promote public awareness,
transparency, and allow full access to the process," according to the 2012
leadership group report.
Discussion about a police
review policy was on hold for most of 2013 as the city searched for a permanent
police chief.
Jordan announced his resignation
in November 2012 after he was placed on administrative leave for his role in a
botched undercover cigarette sting. Thomas "Tommy" Townsend was hired
as police chief on an interim basis during that search process.
Sult was hired in September and
has since met with the leadership group.
Bunting, the city manager, said
she expects to take the leadership group's report and create a final
recommendation for the City Council.
"We should have the
opportunity to vote up or down on this," Councilman Will Moffett said.
"They've been working on this for close to two years. It's something that
ultimately we need to make a decision on."
