Super Secret Commission.
By Jim Conley • Feb 18th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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There’s a troubling story in today’s Herald concerning Boston’s civilian police review panel. It seems the Boston panel operates with an unusual amount of opacity. Plus, the they seem to be on the leap year meeting schedule.
Folks, if you’re going to throw a panel together for the sake of political expedience, this is what you get. A genuinely effective review panel needs to be the product of a citizen initiative, where power is wrested from the pols.
That’s what needs to happen in Brookline. And it looks like it just might.
Update: Speaking of secret commissions, the sham panel the Brookline Selectmen put together to edit the town’s police review policy doesn’t (according to the town’s Web site) have any meetings scheduled for February or March.
Maybe they’re going to edit the document using collaboration software and then e-mail their changes to the selectmen.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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OPEN MEETING LAW AND BROOKLINE’S CITIZEN COMPLAINT REVIEW COMMITTEE
Will the Committee’s meetings be open to the public? Will the Committee hold hearings at which interested parties may speak? Are all of the members resident in Brookline? What exactly is the charge given to the Committee by the Selectmen? To what extent will the Committee look into Conquest’s complaint as it was handled by Lt. Burke? Where do I sign up to be notified of the Committee’s meetings?
Has there been any announcement from the Town Administrator that the Brookline Citizen Complaint Review Committee will be subject to the open meeting law, so that its meetings will be public and minutes of the meetings will be required? If the Committee is not so subject, then we would have a secret committee of nine (six of whom are attorneys) reviewing a procedure that permits a secret investigation. Is the Town playing “I’ve Got A Secret”? Would the nine wish to be known as the “secret nine” if the Committee’s process is not transparent? Or might at least one of them insist upon sunshine? Let’s hear from our Town Administrator.
ACLU CIVILIAN REVIEW BOARD SAMPLE MODEL
Some members of the Committee might be interested in this Model available at
http://www.aclufl.org/take_action/download_resources/civilian_review_model.cfm?print=true
for guidance.