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Historically there have been some challenges with a national policing group study reporting in 2006 that the board was “out of touch with the community, didn’t police the police department, had a ‘broken’ citizen complaint system and took too long to decide the appeals of fired officers.” Reforms that were recommended in that report have been implemented. Responsibilities include recruitment and testing new police and fire employees, hiding police and fire chiefs, auditing internal investigations, disciplining law enforcement employees for misconduct, and reviewing police procedures. The Fire and Police Commission in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is one of the oldest boards, established in 1885 “with the goal of keeping politics out of public safety.” The board is made of seven commissioners appointed by the mayor and their backgrounds include community organization, judicial and legal experience with one retired fire lieutenant.
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To get a sense of the different types of boards and their impact, we are taking a closer look at boards in the midwest, west, south, and east cities. All cities with police oversight boards are listed at the end of this post with links to the organization sites. Seven of the top ten most populated US cities have these boards, ranging from cities as large as New York to as small as Brattleboro, VT (population about 11,000). Of the about 18,000 police departments in the country, about 200 cities have oversight boards currently in operation according to the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE).
POLICE OVERSIGHT SERIES
In this series we have looked at what is a Police Oversight Board, as well as who serves on them, and whether they’re short sighted. American Police Officers Alliance is committed to examining issues that affect law enforcement officers and their relationship with the communities they serve and these civilian boards have been a controversial topic the past few years with increased discussion of law enforcement accountability and recognition of the flaws in these boards. Our series on Police Oversight Boards, the independent civilian committees responsible for reviewing police behavior continues with a review of cities with these boards.