City to Study Creating Police Oversight Panel

Three City Council members have been appointed to a panel that will study the feasibility of creating a police commission to oversee policy and respond to citizen complaints.

Mayor Dave Sullivan appointed himself and council members Tom Harman and Shirley S. Dettloff to serve on a council subcommittee that will consider the pros and cons of forming what would be the only police commission in the county.

The recent reelection of Sullivan and Harman was vigorously opposed by the city’s Police Officers’ Assn. At Monday night’s council meeting, Harman said the concerns of the union and past allegations of police brutality in the city indicate the need for a citizen-appointed oversight group.

Harman also said he felt intimidated by the appearance of a police motorcycle officer on the cul de sac near his home recently.

“Why did this happen for the first time in 21 years, two days in a row? It does make one wonder,” Harman told council members. “And that’s why I think we need a police commission, to look into some of these things that are going on in the Police Department.”

Police union President Richard Wright said he is not opposed to the creation of the committee.

“They may find out that we really don’t have the resources to do the job,” Wright said, “just what we’ve been telling them all along.”

Most cities, including Huntington Beach, have personnel review boards that oversee such issues as demotions, layoffs and firings. But no city in the county has a citizen-appointed watchdog committee.

Former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran spearheaded creation of a police commission in the late 1980s, but it was discontinued after two years.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which provides law enforcement services for cities without their own police departments, also operates without a citizen oversight committee. Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said the county grand jury plays a watchdog role for the department.