The consulting cost will be approximately $6,000.
A consulting group will review the way the Columbia Police Department reviews complaints internally, the police department said Wednesday. The group will release its report in mid-March.
The announcement comes two months after City Manager Bill Watkins rejected the idea of a citizen review board proposed by the Douglass Coalition, a grass-roots group of about 40 residents concerned about profiling and other misconduct by the police department. At a mid-January meeting, the City Council requested that the police department hire a consultant to look at its internal handling of complaints.
The approximately $6,000 consulting fee will come from the police department’s budget, Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm said.
Aaron Thompson, chairman of the Kentucky-based consulting firm, which began its study last week, said that he had not been asked to look at charges of racial profiling in his report. He said he had visited Columbia recently and interviewed officers, but he declined to get into the specifics of his findings so far.
“We’re still looking at it,” he said. “It would be unfair to say anything at this time.”
He added that the police department’s current method of supervisory review is “laborious.”
“We are going to recommend ways that they can make it better,” he said.
Complaints lodged against the police department are classified in two ways: external and internal. All complaints are investigated by a supervisory board, unless a criminal action is involved. In the latter, the case is reviewed by the internal affairs investigative board, said Capt. Mike Martin, who oversees internal affairs at the police department. Martin did not have raw numbers available Wednesday afternoon of reviews that resulted in disciplinary action in either external or internal complaints.
Thompson, who is also the associate vice president for academic affairs at Eastern Kentucky University, has conducted diversity training workshops for the Columbia Police Department since 1997. Other members of the review group include Ed Brodt, associate director of the Regional Community Policing Institute in Richmond, Ky.; Tracy Schiller, a consultant for Kentucky Regional Community Policing Institute; and Tim Ellington, head of internal affairs at the Louisville-Jefferson Police Department.
“We spoke to a number of different people,” said Boehm. “The reason we ultimately selected Dr. Thompson is he has expertise in doing this type of thing and consulting with agencies on internal affairs.”
Thompson and his associates have done similar reports for police departments in Kentucky. He has written extensively on race issues.
Community reaction to the news was mixed.
David Tyson Smith, a Columbia attorney who drafted the proposal for the citizen review board, said hiring a consultant was a step in the right direction but that some of the consultants have law enforcement backgrounds that could color their perceptions.
“I have some concerns as to the group’s objectivity,” he said.
In any case, Smith said that he would continue to push for a citizen review board, calling it a “key mechanism to ensure true accountability and transparency” for the police department.
Marlon Jordan, a First Ward resident who has publicly accused the police department of racial profiling and “heavy-handed tactics,” agreed that a citizen review board remains a necessity. He often stands at the intersection of Broadway and Providence wearing a Klan-style hood in protest of the Columbia Police Department.
“Our consultant should be the people and the Constitution,” Jordan said. “I don’t think just hiring a consultant will get to the root of the problem without the voices being in the hands of the citizens.”
The public is encouraged to provide input in the process and e-mail Thompson at Aaron.Thompson@eku.edu by Monday.