By Brandon McDermott, KVNO
News
Omaha, NE — Omaha Mayor
Jean Stothert recently announced the creation of a police oversight committee.
The entire committee will
be appointed by the mayor. The board will consist of five members, one from
each of the four police precincts and one “at-large” member. Members of the
committee will review citizen complaints against the police and provide citizen
oversight into police investigations.
The new police oversight
board will provide citizen oversight of the Omaha police department, according
to Stothert.
“This is another layer of
oversight, a broad layer of oversight (and) since this board may have access to
internal investigations it is going to have to be confidential,” Stothert said.
Stothert said
confidentiality is necessary when it comes to police investigations. Omaha
Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said the police oversight board will have the
ability to review police investigations, conduct informal findings of their own
and make suggestions related to police department activities to the mayor.
“They are going to review
the investigation that my investigators will do, but they will have the option
of saying ‘you know what I think this could have been looked into further, I
think the process stopped short here,” Schmaderer said.
Dr. Sam Walker, Professor
Emeritus of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, called the
move by Mayor Stothert a ‘token gesture’, and one without much substance or
merit.
“I think this proposal is
pretty worthless,” Walker said. “I think it just doesn’t have any power to
accomplish anything that is going to have a positive result.”
Professor Walker said
external citizen oversight of the police is very important. However he doesn’t
have much faith in an informal oversight committee without any legally
enforceable standing or any independent operating authority.
“This particular civilian
review board proposal just doesn’t have any teeth (or) any real power to do
anything,” Walker said. “Let’s say you review a complaint that a person has
filed against the police. It doesn’t quite look right, or there is something
here that doesn’t look like its adequate or that they didn’t make the right
decision. Then you really need the power to investigate, to dig further, and to
find out whether your doubts are correct, or whether there is a serious
problem.”
Walker is also
disillusioned that this informal citizens committee, all handpicked by the
mayor, will not have subpoena powers and won’t be able to lead their own
investigations. They will only be authorized to review what police have already
investigated. Walker said he supports a legally empowered police auditor
because it is a full-time job with the legal authority that is necessary to do
the job. He said the citizens who are selected to be a part of this committee
won’t be paid. They will presumably have other full-time jobs and, as such,
won’t be able to devote as much attention to this volunteer job as would be
necessary, according to Walker.
The mayor said she feels
this is the right decision as it brings more voices to the table.
“Basically I feel like there is the ability
now with a board for broad citizen oversight” Stothert said. Rather than an
auditor, that is one person, who is appointed by the mayor.”
In 2006 Mayor Mike Fahey
fired police auditor Tristan Bonn, the Omaha police auditor at that time. This
followed a written report that Bonn released to the media that highlighted acts
of alleged discrimination by Omaha police when conducting traffic stops. Mayor
Fahey declared in a letter to Bonn, ‘it appears to me that you mistook the
independence I allowed you as an indicator that you were to act as your own
boss.’ The city ordinance to have a police auditor is still on the books.
However, the position has not been filled since 2006.
There has been wild
speculation in the media and elsewhere that a police auditor’s salary would cost
more than $250,000 per year. Stothert said paying someone a salary had no
bearing on her decision.
“No not at all, of course I
am always looking at my budget,” Stothert said. “I mean there is no doubt about
that and I count every penny with our city’s budget. But right now my goal as
far as law enforcement is to get more police officers on the street.”
Professor Walker said in
the end the Mayors police oversight committee may prove to be only symbolic.
“Some people will in fact
take their complaints to the board and they aren’t going to see any positive
results,” Walker said. “And they are going to be angrier at the end of this
process then they were at the beginning. I just think it’s really a mistake.”
Walker said he would like
to see the city council act on its own regarding this executive order by Mayor
Stothert. He was unsure if the council would act independently, but he was
convinced that the Omaha police oversight committee as it is currently
empowered was not good public policy.
