State College takes another step forward in creating a police department oversight board
State College is now one step closer to gaining an oversight board for the borough police department.
The borough council unanimously passed a resolution, 7-0, Monday night to create a nine-person committee that would study other oversight boards, host at least one public session and provide recommendations before the council would formally create the oversight board sometime after mid-October.
The oversight board is expected to provide broader transparency to the police department and give a voice to the community. How it achieves that, however, is what remains under discussion.
“I think it will help community trust in the police department,” Councilman Evan Myers told the Centre Daily Times. “I think it will help members in the community that have been marginalized in the past to be brought in and felt like they’re part of the process.”
The board’s creation would be unique. According to a previous presentation to the council, only 166 civilian oversight boards exist in the U.S. out of about 18,000 police agencies. Both the boards’ organization and authority vary greatly from one town to the next, and that’s why Monday’s study committee was formed.
State College could opt for a model focused on investigation, reviewing, auditing/monitoring or a hybrid. The review-focused model would likely cost the least, while an investigation-focused model would cost the most.
But those decisions remain in the future. For now, the borough simply knows what the nine-person study committee will consist of: three police civil service commission members; Penn State’s Immigrant Rights Clinic director and associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and five community members appointed by the council.
The last point saw the most debate Monday night, when the council discussed whether those outside the borough should be allowed on the study committee. Eventually, the council voted 4-3 to also allow those in College and Harris townships to take part since they also pay taxes for coverage from the State College Police Department.
Council President Jesse Barlow will appoint those five at-large members in the near future. The next council meeting is 7 p.m. Monday.
The creation of the civilian oversight board took its first step June 11, the same day protesters staged a sit-in at the Municipal Building, when councilman Dan Murphy posted an open letter on his personal website.
That open letter laid the foundation for an extensive resolution, penned by both Murphy and council member Deanna Behring, that was unanimously passed June 23. It sought to create an oversight board, hire a borough equity officer, hold special working sessions on police, etc. One week later, borough Manager Tom Fountaine helped present an overview on civilian oversight boards, the council briefly discussed the study committee’s makeup a week after that, and the council finalized the committee makeup Monday.
The council has previously stated it hopes to have a final report from the study committee around Oct. 19.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 5:16 PM.
