Public hearing planned on police review board

If discussions about a controversial subject go smoothly Tuesday, Clark County commissioners likely will approve the county's first-ever police review board.

A public hearing on a new ordinance that would create the board will begin about 10 a.m. in the commission chambers in the County Government Center.

The 25-member citizens panel would review results from investigations conducted by Metro Police's Internal Affairs Bureau if the complainants are not satisfied with the outcome.

But because the 1997 state Legislature authorized local governments to create review boards -- not police control boards -- the citizens panel can only recommend penalties, not impose them.

Federal Public Defender Franny Forsman, who led the advisory committee that drafted the original ordinance, said when the final draft was released that she was disappointed the citizens panel had to wait until the Internal Affairs Bureau completed its investigation.

"The committee did not want citizens to be forced to go through the Internal Affairs Bureau before having someone independent hear it," she said.

As the advisory committee requested, no active or former Metro officers are permitted to sit on the board, which will break up into panels of five for hearings. Only three former officers from outside departments will be allowed to serve.

The fact that any police officer will be permitted on the review board disappointed some of the advisory committee members.

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, has said he is "frustrated and perplexed" at the list of people who can and cannot serve on the board.

While Peck is pleased to see that former Metro officers cannot serve, he is upset that members of a former officer's family are eligible.

Advisory committee members won the battle over officers' records, to which they will have access.

archive