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Jones introduces Police Advisory Commission bill

City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. introduced legislation today proposing a change to the Home Rule Charter to make the Commission a permanent agency.

    by Jan Ransom
    Published 

City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. introduced legislation today proposing a change to the Home Rule Charter to make the Commission a permanent agency. The Commission which is tasked with looking into citizen complaints about police misconduct was created under a mayoral executive order in 1994 and could be eliminated at anytime.

(Check out this week's Daily News coverage on the Commission's challenges and details about the bill.)

The Fraternal Order of Police has vowed to fight the bill and the Nutter Administration had not reached an agreement with Jones on a charter change.

So far, the bill has three co-sponsors including Council members Cindy Bass, Maria Quinones-Sanchez and Wilson Goode Jr. Jones yesterday sent a notice detailing 10 reasons why members should vote in support of the bill including that it would give the Commission "more teeth and authority to control for investigators and accountability by designated funds."

Check out the other reasons why Jones wants his colleagues' support:

10 Reasons Why I Need Your Vote for the
Proposed Police Advisory Board (PAB)

  1. City Council creates permanency. 99% of our officers are here to protect and serve and deserve not to be tarnished by the few. The current stance of the board is an Executive order that can be altered by any Administration, current or future, without any input by Council members. The current PAB originated from then Councilman Nutter.

  2. Currently, there is over a year and a half backlog of incidents at the Police Advisory Board; this backlog is unfair to citizens as well as the accused officers operating under a cloud of doubt.

  3. My proposal allows direct representation for each Council district and further approved by the full body of Council. The remaining seats are would be designated by: 3 from our Mayor, 1 by Police Commissioner, 1 by Public Defender, 1 for the Youth Commission and 1 by the District Attorney.

  4. This legislation requires the PAB to report to Council and the public yearly with reports of incidents by Council districts, age, gender, race and sexual orientation of person involved in given incident.

  5. Furthermore, there are more seats for more effective representation (17 with a quorum of 10) on the board similar to other large cities, i.e., New York, and Los Angeles with a Chair appointed in concert with the Mayor, ACLU, the District Attorney and our Council President.

  6. This legislation gives the Police Advisory Board (PAB) more teeth and authority to control for investigators and accountability by designated funds.

  7. The proposed Police Advisory Board will gain input from youth with a designated Youth Advisory member compared to the current alternate seat provided.

  8. The PAB lacks an adequate anonymous system to address Police complaints; the proposed PAB addresses this matter.

  9. Only a charter change allows a board to be independent and gives the public an opportunity to be fully involved.

  10. Lastly, in order to improve community and policing communications that can lead to crime tips, and the arrests and convictions of our most wanted, we must further address communities trusting in our great local heroes. The proposed PAB gets us there.                                        Curtis Jones, Jr                                            3/15/2012