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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 Both the withdrawn motion and planned resolution would call on the state Legislature to require the appointment of a special prosecutor to look at all claims of police abuse.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.