Following its meeting behind closed doors last month, five members of the Independent Police Review’s Citizen’s Review Committee invited the Mercury to attend their meeting this afternoon to discuss appropriate changes to the oversight group. From left to right, they are: JoAnn Jackson, Michael Bigham (the chair), Debbie Aiona (Who is NOT A CRC member, but with the League of Women Voters), Loren Eriksson and Mark Johnson. It was a small room, so I had to take two pictures:


The aim of today’s meeting was to identify “big ticket items” to discuss at next Tuesday’s nine-member group meeting, looking at a draft list of changes written by City Auditor Gary Blackmer.

Surprisingly, Auditor Blackmer has suggested hiring another full time investigator to the IPR, with the power to undertake independent investigations, separate from the cops’ Internal Affairs Division, when complaints are made against high-ranking officers, or “when such a heightened level of independence is required for public confidence.”

“I never thought something typed by Auditor Blackmer would say that,” said Copwatch Activist Dan Handelman, after the meeting. “It’s a significant step forward.”

New CRC member Mark Johnson said he wanted changes made to the way allegations are formulated against officers from complaints. Last month, for example, the CRC upheld and added a debriefing to complaints against officer Kevin Wolf, alleging he had used excessive force, and not identified himself as a police officer, after he pointed a gun at a contractor who was working on the house next to his at 11pm in Silverton.

“But there was no consideration or investigation of whether the circumstances were such that he should have reported for duty,” said Johnson, referring to Police Bureau Directive 311.30. “It seemed like at some point along the line he’d think that maybe instead of his badge and gun he should have used his cell phone and dialed 9-11.”

Johnson added: “If the allegations are being formulated in such a way to protect an officer from a specific allegation that would leave a blemish on their record, that’s a very serious problem.”

The CRC members seemed excited by the hiring last week of a new IPR director, Mary Beth Baptista. Former IPR director Leslie Stevens quit to take a job with the police bureau in January.

“Under the new director, we might see a different picture,” said Jackson. “It’s the coziness of the previous director to the police.”

Jackson added that “We need some early input and conversations with this individual. I’m looking forward to having someone who’s a little more balanced.”

In addition, the group seemed disappointed by Blackmer’s refusal to appoint a staffer to support the CRC—a change suggested by consultant Eileen Luna-Firebaugh in her January report on the group. Also, Blackmer is asking the CRC to come up with its own training plan, even though Luna-Firebaugh already suggested several ideas in her report. Blackmer is also suggesting an annual work session between the CRC, IPR and city council, and the hiring of a consultant to look at ways the IPR can do better outreach into the community. The IPR’s last outreach coordinator, Laurie Stewart, resigned from the group at the end of last year.