COLUMBIA - The Citizen Oversight Committee will discuss an 18-page draft proposal detailing the specifics of Columbia's future police civilian review board at a public meeting at 7 p.m. tonight in the Mezzanine Conference Room of the Daniel Boone City Building at 701 E. Broadway.
The draft was approved by thefour-person model subcommittee on July 23. Included in the draft are committee members' responsibilities, appointment methods and a general overview of how the review board will function.
The Citizen Oversight Committee has been meeting on a bimonthly basis since November 2007. The committee was originally formed by Mayor Darwin Hindman to investigate whether or not the Columbia Police Department's complaint-handling process was being conducted in a fair and proper manner. On July 23, the committee unanimously recommended that the City Council establish a review board. Since then, the Columbia Police Officers Association expressed concern that the committee had not sufficiently included input from the Columbia Police Department concerning the board's creation.
If approved, a finalized copy will then go to the City Council for consideration.