Role of Police Review Panel Emerges as Issue in Riverside Council Runoff

The debate over the role and fate of the Riverside Community Police Review Commission, an independent civilian panel created in the wake of the Tyisha Miller shooting, has emerged as a controversial issue in the runoff election for Riverside City Council.

Some community activists contend the local police union, which had opposed the creation of the review panel, has given thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to candidates who eventually may scrap the commission or dilute its effectiveness.

“I’m very concerned,” said Chani Beeman, chairwoman of the city’s Human Relations Commission. “In general, it’s important that a community have some oversight of its police department. For Riverside in particular, it’s important because of the breach of trust that took place.”

The council established the board in 2000 at the urging of a mayoral panel that scrutinized Riverside police after four officers shot and killed Miller in December 1998.

Miller, 19, was killed after she passed out in her car with a loaded gun on her lap. Police, seeking to get her medical aid, shattered a window, and three officers said she reached for the gun. Officers fired 24 times, killing Miller and sparking a furor in the city’s African American community.

The nine-member police commission has a budget this year of nearly $300,000 and investigates citizen complaints against police officers. Commissioners can subpoena officers and witnesses and hire private investigators.

In its first two years, the commission reviewed 313 complaints against Riverside police officers and reached the same conclusions as Police Department officials 293 times.

The Riverside Police Officers’ Assn. has long opposed the commission, arguing that it is redundant and that the Police Department’s internal affairs bureau, the county district attorney’s office and the state attorney general’s office all have jurisdiction over the conduct of officers.

But Jennifer Vaughn-Blakely, who chairs a coalition of local African American community leaders, argued that the review board fills a crucial gap in that oversight structure.

“The community still needs an objective review board it can go to,” she said. “For us, it completes the circle.”

Patrick McCarthy, the president of the union and a Riverside Police Department officer for a decade, declined to comment on the union’s current position on the commission.

However, he said candidates who seek the union’s endorsement are asked about their position on civilian review boards in both a written questionnaire and during interviews. He said it was one of many factors that help shape the group’s endorsements and donations.

The union’s political action committee has thrown its support behind Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Fick in Ward 1, businessman Art Gage in Ward 3 and retired police officer Steve Adams in Ward 7. Fick has received nearly $13,000; Gage $11,000; and Adams more than $10,250 in cash and in-kind donations.

The election is being conducted with mail-in ballots and will be decided Tuesday.

Though none of these candidates have expressed outright opposition to the review commission, they have expressed a willingness to reconsider the commission’s status or budget.

“I told the police officers’ association when I interviewed with them that while I know they would like to have the civilian police review commission eliminated, we can’t do that,” Fick said.

“There are still too many people in this city who are uneasy about the police because of past events.

“At this point, that review commission serves a purpose of making certain segments of the population more comfortable,” he said.

Gage said he wants to look at reducing the commission’s budget, which he believes is excessive.

“I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not sure it is as effective

as it should be,” he said. “I think we’re spending way too much money on it .... I want to look at ways to reduce the spending. It seems excessive to me.”

Adams said he wants to look at the commission’s costs and effectiveness but needs to further study the issue before taking a position.

Their opponents, who received no union support, are all steadfast supporters of the commission.

The seven-member council could eliminate the commission with a simple majority vote.

Community members who support the review board noted that budget cuts could be used to starve the commission. They also worried that City Council members skeptical of the review board might appoint members less likely to censure police officers.

Times staff writer Allison Hoffman contributed to this report.