County police review panel pushed
May 7, 2012 12:18 am
Allegheny County Councilman
Bill Robinson says he will push for creation of a countywide citizens police
review board similar to the agency already operating in Pittsburgh.
His proposal would be one
element of what he describes as a multi-pronged effort to hold law enforcement
officials more accountable to the people they serve.
"I want to make sure
that everybody is playing by the same rules," he told his council
colleagues last week. "Nobody, including police officers, should be above
the law."
He made those remarks at a
council meeting where he introduced and then withdrew an advisory motion
calling for a special state prosecutor to look into police misconduct anywhere
in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Robinson, D-Hill
District, said he planned to resubmit his proposal as a resolution, which would
require two votes by council to take effect. Both the withdrawn motion and
planned resolution would call on the state Legislature to require the
appointment of a special prosecutor to look at all claims of police abuse.
The impetus behind Mr.
Robinson's recommendation is the case of Jordan Miles. Supporters of Mr. Miles
say three white Pittsburgh police officers used excessive force in their
efforts to subdue the young black man in January 2010. Mr. Miles, who had just
turned 18 and was an honor student at Pittsburgh School for the Creative and
Performing Arts, was walking to his grandmother's house in Homewood. They
describe his case as an example of racial profiling.
Police said Mr. Miles
appeared to be carrying a weapon, although none was found, and had fled from
the plainclothes officers, who tackled him.
While an organization
called The Alliance for Police Accountability has held a series of rallies
around the city to demand that policemen involved in the case be criminally
charged, the U.S. attorney's office investigated the confrontation and declined
to prosecute the officers for civil rights violations.
Allegheny County District
Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Friday his office is continuing its active
investigation into the case.
Mr. Robinson's proposal to
establish a citizens police review board would create an investigative and
advisory agency similar to the one created by Pittsburgh voters in a 1997
referendum.
There are more than 100
police departments and agencies across the county, Mr. Robinson said. The
county review board would be empowered to look into complaints from the public
about any of those departments, including city police, he said. The board would
then report its findings to county council, the county executive, individual
municipal leaders and the district attorney.
Mr. Robinson's call for
independent investigations of police conduct drew support from four speakers at
council's Tuesday meeting. They included Tim Stevens, former president of the
Pittsburgh NAACP and chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project, or
B-PEP.
Mr. Zappala's investigation
of the Jordan Miles incident has gone on too long without a resolution, Mr.
Stevens said. "There are too many cases of alleged police abuse where no
action is taken," he said.
Mr. Zappala defended his
office's record on allegations of police misconduct.
Mr. Robinson's claim that
Mr. Zappala "had no history of prosecuting white police officers accused
of mistreating people of color" was flat-out wrong, the district attorney
said, citing two high-profile cases.
His office charged a
Pittsburgh Housing Authority police officer, John Charmo, in the 1995 shooting
death of a black man in the Armstrong Tunnel. Charmo pleaded guilty to
involuntary manslaughter in 2001.
In 1999, Mr. Zappala's
office charged city police officer Jeffrey Cooperstein with homicide in the
shooting death of a black man at a police checkpoint on Second Avenue. Mr.
Cooperstein was acquitted.
Both Charmo and Mr.
Cooperstein are white.
Elizabeth Pittinger,
executive director of Pittsburgh's Citizens Police Review Board, said a county
version of her agency was worth pursuing.
Her agency is restricted to
reviewing the actions of city police.
"We do receive
complaints from outlying areas about police conduct where people don't have any
recourse," she said. "A new county board could allow for an independent,
objective review of civilian complaints."
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.