Long Beach : Police Review Plan Gains

A ballot proposal that would create a citizen review board to deal with complaints of police brutality and misconduct was approved this week by a key City Council committee.

The action clears the way for the proposal to go before the full council, which must vote to put it on next April’s ballot for a citywide vote.

The proposal, which requires a change in the City Charter, would for the first time take the authority to investigate complaints of police brutality away from the Police Department and put it in the hands of an 11-member citizen board appointed by the mayor and the City Council.

By a 6-3 vote, the Charter Amendment Committee, on which all members of the council sit, approved a final version of the plan. Council members Jan Hall, Les Robbins and Jeffrey Kellogg voted no. Vice Mayor Wallace Edgerton, who had voted against the ballot proposal at an earlier meeting of the charter committee, voted for it Tuesday night. He said that he had received numerous calls from people in his district asking him to reconsider.

Referring to his earlier opposition, Edgerton said: “I believe I missed the mark in my community. . . . They want to put it on the ballot.”