Civilian review board sought

A group of 40 Columbia residents met at Douglass Park on Sunday to discuss creating a civilian review board that would review complaints against the Columbia Police Department. The group will take its proposition before the City Council at tonight’s meeting. “It’s time for accountability,” said David Smith, a lawyer who spoke at the event.

The group will propose the review board as a means “to improve the Columbia Police Department’s relationship with the community.”

Concerns about racial profiling are the driving force behind the movement to establish a civilian review board. The benefits of such a board, however, could reach beyond that problem to touch a greater number of Columbia residents by demanding accountability from the Columbia Police Department, proponents said.

“This is not a black issue,” said Terry Kennedy of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, who came to Columbia to speak at the meeting. “This is a people issue about good government.”

Along with discussing the creation of a civilian review board, the people who gathered in Douglass Park also brought up specific incidents of racial profiling.

Smith recounted an incident in which his client, Columbia resident Alva Scott, was wrestled to the ground by police officers at Columbia Mall. Scott, who had no criminal record, was handcuffed and forced to the ground when she tried to retrieve her teenage children from an area of the mall where fights were taking place. She was arrested on suspicion of first-degree trespassing, third-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest, but the charges were dropped.

James Figueroa-Robnett Jr., of the Missouri Department of Economic Development’s Business and Community Services division, said he hopes the group’s efforts will promote “community policing” in Columbia, which means “keeping the kids out of the justice system, not feeding them into the justice system.”

The group of concerned residents will present petitions they’ve collected and introduce a proposed ordinance creating a Civilian Review Board for the Columbia Police Department at the City Council meeting at 7 tonight.