Kelly Benjamin Tampa Folks

Tampa folks: we have an opportunity to push some of the power of the voices in the streets into public policy through the Tampa City Council and provide an avenue for the community to have a say in how they are policed through the Citizen Review Board for the Tampa Police Department. Below are instructions to comment at Thursday’s Council workshop on the Citizen Review Board changes
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Here’s what we are asking for:

1. Rather than the mayor having the majority of appointments, neither the mayor, nor any other individual, should have the power to appoint more than one third of 
the CRB’s members.

2. The CRB should have its own independent attorney that it does not share with any other city-government subdivision.

3. The CRB should have a budget for investigations and the ability to retain outside investigators or, alternatively, the CRB’s independent attorney should be able to retain outside investigators on 
the CRB’s behalf.

4. The CRB should have its own administrative staff or, alternatively, a coordinator from Community Affairs should replace the coordinator designated by the Chief of Police for purposes of setting the meeting agendas and other responsibilities other than training CRB members and providing TPD updates.

5. The CRB should have control over its own agenda (rather than have it set by TOD) and decide for itself what to investigate/review, including the ability to investigate complaints received directly from the public.

6. The CRB should have discretion to review any Internal Affairs investigation where discipline is pending.

7. If the CRB requests information/documents from TPD (outside of issuance of a subpoena), TPD should be required to provide the information/documents within 30 days or request an extension of time, which the CRB should have discretion to grant or deny. TPD should only be permitted to withhold requested information/documents from the CRB if providing same would violate a law, in which case such legal basis should be provided 
to the CRB in writing.

8. The CRB member participating in an interview panel for a prospective TPD officer should receive all documents/materials regarding the candidate at the same time as other interview panel participants (and in any event, at least seven days before any interview panel takes place).

9. A prospective CRB member with a criminal record and/or history of litigation against the City of Tampa should not be categorically disqualified from appointment. Rather, this information should be considered by City Council and/or the Mayor when making appointment decisions.

10. CRB membership should reflect the racial, gender, ethnic, national origin, religious, linguistic, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, and age composition of the 
City of Tampa population.

We need to emphasize the importance of having subpoena power and how civilian-review boards are assets to their communities, as opposed to thorns in the side of law enforcement. If you’ve felt moved to be in the streets at all this summer, this is a concrete way to direct that energy to change.

Please sign up to comment before 9AM Wednesday! Public comment sign up is closed after that. The workshop takes place 
9AM Thursday!

You got all that?!? HERE