What would a civilian oversight board look like in State College? Here’s how to give input
Centre County residents are set to have an opportunity Wednesday and Thursday to participate in the ongoing discussion about potential reform in the State College Police Department.
A nine-person study committee charged by Borough Council with developing recommendations for a potential community oversight, review or advisory board is expected to hear from residents during online meetings scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and noon Thursday. Registration is required.
“We really have to hear from the community. There are a lot of efforts underway in the State College region that are coming together and raising concerns, and we need to really tap into that,” committee Chairman Mark Bergstrom said Tuesday. “We need to understand what they see as key issues and concerns because they’ve spent a lot of time looking at those issues, so we benefit from hearing from them. The bottom line is we want to come up with something that’s not only responsive to the mandate, but also works.”
The committee, established in July, is tasked with answering one overarching question: What does a civilian oversight, review or advisory board look like in State College?
It gets more complicated from there. Boards’ organization and authority vary greatly from municipality to municipality and from state to state.
Unanswered questions include:
- What cases may be reviewed or investigated
- Where or to whom allegations are filed
- The board’s authority, ability to issue subpoenas or access police records
- How many members the board consists of
- Board members’ qualifications and training requirements
- Reporting procedures
- The extent to which hearings and deliberations are open to the public and media
- Whether decisions recommended by the board can be appealed
- Whether recommendations for discipline can be made
Suggested answers to those questions and others are set to come from the committee, which is comprised of three police civil service commission members; Penn State’s Immigrant Rights Clinic director and associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and five State College, College Township and Harris Township residents appointed by Borough Council.
The committee will likely consider three general models — investigation of alleged police misconduct, review of completed internal investigations or monitoring broad patterns in policies.
Most boards in the United States, which are designed to improve public trust and provide broader transparency to police departments, are a hybrid that incorporate characteristics from multiple models.
The committee is expected to outline the strengths and limitations of each model in its final report, which is due by Oct. 19. The review model would likely cost the least, while the investigatory model would likely cost the most.
“We want to have something that people think is responsive and useful, but that we know is practical and we can move forward,” Bergstrom said. “Public input is incredibly important.”