Delaware for Police Oversight seeks community review board

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Following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police,  Delaware for Police Oversight called on Gov. John Carney,  Attorney General Kathy Jennings, and all other county and municipal executives to work with the group and its affiliates to establish a statewide community review board.

Under the plan, the borad would consist primarily of private citizens,  who would review law enforcement policies, collect data, and hold police accountable through proper disciplinary actions.

The group has started the  process with a petition, with the specific goals for the Community Review Board as follows:

  • Proactively prevent police violence, brutality, and/or use of force in Delaware communities.
  • Prevent over-policing in majority black, brown, and poor communities
  • Create a robust, community informed accountability process for when police violence, brutality, and/or use of force does occur.
  • Establish alternatives to police presence in our communities
  • Review policing policies and make recommendations for changes
  • Provide a level of transparency for the public to police practices, policies, and operations
  • Access, analyze and interpret data on policing to make recommendations and for public consumption
  • Ensure officers are regularly held to the highest standards, and those who fail to meet that standard are reprimanded appropriately

In addition, the forming these committees the group added the following:

  • A majority of the formation committee be private citizens who are included at EVERY step of the process
  • The final product and committees consist of a majority of private citizens
  •  Leadership roles on the final review board only be held by private citizens
  • Funding be set aside to guarantee the sustainability of the final oversight committee through stipends for its members
  • The past weekend has proven, we can no longer sit idle and hope the problem of police brutality and abuse of power goes away. It should be clear that such injustices are not only a hazard to the citizens of our great state, but they pose an economic threat as well. The recovery from this weekend’s has only begun, but by working with community leaders to establish a community review board, the Governor, Attorney General, and local government executives have the ability to ensure it does not happen again.