Electorate to Decide Whether to Establish Police Review Panel

Voters next spring will decide whether to establish a citizen commission that would for the first time give the public the power to investigate complaints of police brutality and abuse.

The City Council this week voted 5 to 3 to place the proposal for a Citizen Police Complaint Commission on next April’s ballot, capping more than six months of effort by a coalition of activists.

Despite the split council vote, supporters predicted that the commission would win widespread popular support. “I think the community will be a completely different story,” said Frank Berry of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, one of a number of organizations backing the commission proposal.

Proponents said they will soon meet to plan a campaign to win approval of the commission, which requires a change in the City Charter.

Although the 11-member review board, appointed by the mayor and the council, would have the authority to investigate complaints, the city administration would retain key powers. The city manager rather than the commission would appoint the commission’s independent investigator, and it would be up to the police chief rather than the commission to actually discipline police officers.

The proposal also contains a provision directing the City Council to evaluate the commission after it has been in existence for two years.

The idea of giving residents a say in misconduct investigations has been discussed for years in Long Beach. But it was not until a white Long Beach police officer was secretly videotaped in an encounter with a black police activist last January that the proposal picked up sufficient political backing to move forward.

On that tape, filmed by a TV crew and broadcast on national television, Officer Mark Dickey appeared to shove activist Don Jackson into a plate-glass window after pulling Jackson’s car over for a routine traffic stop. Jackson, a former Hawthorne police officer, had gone to Long Beach with the film crew to try to prove longstanding allegations of police mistreatment of minorities in the city.

Dickey and his partner have since gone on stress-related leave and are awaiting trial on misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from the episode.

Barbara Shoag, who as a member of the city’s Public Safety Advisory Commission has crusaded for a review board, said that without the Jackson incident, the commission proposal never would have gotten a place on the ballot.

Council proponents of the commission idea argue that it is necessary to restore trust in the Police Department, while opponents contend that it robs the council and the police administration of accountability.

The police administration earlier indicated it would prefer not to have a citizen review board, but Assistant Chief Gene Brizzolara said the department will not oppose the ballot item. “If the citizens feel that it is warranted, they should go forward and vote in a police commission,” he said.

Leaders of Long Beach’s powerful police union have in the past said they will support a citizen commission, but they have not appeared at any council meetings to reaffirm their position.

Councilmen Clarence Smith, Evan Anderson Braude, Ray Grabinski, Tom Clark and Wallace Edgerton voted to place the matter on the ballot. Council members Jan Hall, Les Robbins and Jeffrey A. Kellogg voted no. Although Councilman Warren Harwood attended Tuesday’s council meeting, he was absent for the vote, prompting criticism from the commission’s supporters.

“He avoided the vote. It was very obvious,” asserted Sid Solomon of Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, a citywide political group.

Harwood later said his absence was unintentional, explaining that he had to leave to make some telephone calls on council business. He added that his absence “in no way represented any kind of opinion. I voted for this all the way through.”