State College ‘COB’ overseeing police takes next step, announces members and early meeting plans
State College’s long-awaited Community Oversight Board, a civilian board overseeing police, officially appointed its nine members Monday night and expects to meet in the next 30 days.
The COB was the subject of Borough Council debate for 14 months, before an ordinance establishing the board was passed unanimously in August. That gave council a few months to appoint board members — 16 applications were received in all — as the COB is now creeping toward its first meeting, which is not yet set.
“I look forward to seeing this group of nine people make a difference in how our community functions and how people feel, in terms of their relationship to the borough and to our police department,” Councilwoman Theresa Lafer said, adding she was pleased by the quality and quantity of applicants.
Going forward, each board term will last three years and includes residents from the police service area, meaning the borough, College Township and Harris Township. In the future, the borough would also like to include one Penn State student on the COB — but, because there were no such applicants this time, there is currently no local college student.
There will be a limit of three consecutive terms served and, to stagger the openings to prevent having to fill nine vacancies at once, terms for this first board consist of 1, 2 and 3 years:
- Term ending Dec. 31, 2022: Robyn Markowitz Lawler, Loretta Jeffreys, Kate Heinzel
- Term ending Dec. 31, 2023: Ron Madrid, Charles Noll, Vilmos Misangyi
- Term ending Dec. 31, 2024: Barrett Marshall, Cynthia Young, Nalini Krishnankutty
The COB has many duties but aims to create an environment that allows for “better communication, understanding and relations” between the police department and the community. That means it can investigate complaints against the police department; recommend policies, practices and procedures; and direct independent review of closed cases, among other responsibilities.
The board will be staffed with a full-time borough employee, the equity & inclusion director, although the borough is still in the process of filling that vacancy. In the meantime, Mark Bergstrom — the chair of the COB study committee — has agreed to serve in the capacity as COB coordinator.
At the upcoming first meeting, borough spokesperson Doug Shontz explained, the COB chairperson and vice chairperson will be selected by the board.
During public comment Monday, one Harris Township resident spoke out against the COB at the Borough Council meeting, but it wasn’t clear if she realized ahead of time that the board had already been established. Monday’s meeting was simply to formally appoint the members, which were determined during an executive meeting and with the help of several study committee members who helped look into the idea of a COB.
After that resident spoke, four others voiced their support.
“The Community Oversight Board has been long discussed, and we have sat in these meetings for 2 years now,” said Melanie Morrison, a longtime COB supporter and the newly elected Millheim constable. “And it’s time, and it is here. And it will be an effective tool of making policing accessible to our community, of bridging the gap that exists.
“And we can say there needs to be oversight and there needs to be accessibility, without saying that people hate police or that we think there should be no policing at all. That is not what this Community Oversight Board is.”
Once the first COB meeting is set, more information can be found online at statecollegepa.us.
