Countywide : NAACP to Study Police Review Board

In response to recent allegations of police brutality, the Ventura County branch of the NAACP has formed a committee to investigate the need to start a countywide police commission or other independent citizens’ review board.

The committee met informally after a special town hall session at the monthly National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People meeting in Oxnard last week, in which more than 75 residents from across the county discussed recent incidents of alleged brutality in Oxnard, Ventura and Thousand Oaks.

One of the speakers was Patricia Wilmeth, the wife of a Thousand Oaks doctor, who said she was battered by a sheriff’s deputy after her husband, Jo Wilmeth, attempted to give treatment to an 8-year-old girl who had been struck by a car.

“If I had been brown or black, I probably would be dead,” said Wilmeth, who is white. She agreed to join the seven-member committee. Other members are the Rev. Johnie Carlisle, Mel Powell, Ray Tafoya, Fred Schwartz, the Rev. Jesse Taylor and Alex Zuart.

James L. Martin, NAACP West Coast regional director, who also addressed the group, will provide the committee with background material on several types of review groups, including a police commission and a civilian police review board, Taylor said.

“We’re going to review that material and see what is most suitable for our area,” Taylor said. “The problem stretches from Simi Valley to Oak Park to Ventura.”

The committee will have its first meeting Aug. 9 at the Oxnard Community Center, Taylor said.