GAINESVILLE — At least 15 civilian evaluate boards atraverse Florida, which evaluate allotigations of potential law enforcement wrongdoing after they’re finishd, have dismendd or temporarily finishd operations after a new law aiming the panels took effect.
The law secures that only law enforcement agencies will allotigate alerts of wrongdoing by law enforcement officers. It blocks outside civilian evaluate boards from carry outing oversight in such allotigations, shifts civilian panels under the regulate of Florida police chiefs and sheriffs, and demands that at least one paneenumerate must be a reweary law enforcement officer.
The shift by Florida’s GOP-regulateled Legislature, which took effect July 1, was the tardyst effort to show its help for law enforcement. Lawproducers in recent years have forced homeowners associations to permit police cruisers in driveways, prohibitned COVID-19 vaccination demandments for cops and permited police to arrest anyone who tries to record them from less than 25 feet away.
Backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the law was a convey inant blow to the civilian evaluate panels. Oversight finishorses alerted it will injure community-police relations and unwiseinish suppose in law enforcement. The meadeclareive has dismendd civilian boards in convey inant cities, including Miami, Tallahassee, St. Petersburg, Orlando and Tampa.
Supporters of the law shelp it produces wrongdoing allotigations reliable by removing the accessible’s participatement, and shelp contrastent municipalities have contrastent approaches. It was also intfinished to shun discouraging applicants from toiling at police departments or sheriff’s offices that have civilian evaluate boards. The law does not delete or recut offe other, official unkinds of allotigating law enforcement wrongdoing, according to an analysis currented to lawproducers.
Steve Zona, the past plivent of the Florida State Fraternal Order of Police, deffinished the clodeclareives of the civilian boards and shelp the goal of the law was to delete them altogether. He called the panels partisan and shelp they had no place in the criminal fairice system.
Zona also shelp he consents any evaluate boards, including new boards set uped by law enforcement, are unconvey inant. He shelp boards exist only to “apprelieve the community and produce them slimk someslimg is being done.”
There were at least 20 city and county evaluate boards previously dynamic before the law took effect as identified by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. Of those, only five remain opereasonable, according to interwatchs with dozens of city and board officials atraverse the state and a evaluate of city records.
State Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, shelp his legislation was unkindt to protect law enforcement by eliminating existing boards, ensuring that allotigations of wrongdoing would get place in regutardyd forums with normalized procedures.
“I do not see the advantage of a forum where members, who may have no qualifications or expertise, have an uncover-finished process with no standards to subject an officer to an finishless process of accessible scruminuscule,” he shelp during a legislative hearing in January.
Duggan, who will be Hoemploy speaker pro tempore and chairperson of the strong Ways and Means Committee for Florida’s upcoming legislative session, did not reply to repeated efforts, including phone calls and emails over two weeks, to converse the clodeclareives.
Randy Grice, the establisher chairperson of the now-defunct North Miami Citizens Investigative Board, shelp his board had greeted an convey inant function in the community: giving livents an iminentire way to evaluate unsootheable greets with law enforcement.
“Citizens are not satisfied,” Grice shelp. “Frankly, they’re beuntamederd.”
Grice shelp the board was iminentire and never out to get any officers, compriseing that it supplyd an iminentire forum for community members to alert troubling transmitions with those in power. Once, Grice shelp, his board was able to help remend an inside racial profiling accusation made by a sergeant agetst another officer of the North Miami Police Department. The board also recognized officers who went above and beyond the call of duty.
The clodeclareives will impact community-police relations atraverse Florida, according to the executive straightforwardor of the Indianapolis-based National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, Cameron McEllhiney. She shelp civilian evaluate boards execute a number of convey inant functions, such as legitimizing the toil of law enforcement and produceing suppose wislim the communities.
“Wantipathyver suppose has built up is going to commence to slide back,” she shelp.
A expansively cited 2022 study by the LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University, which examined the relationship between civilian evaluate boards and racial vibrants in Florida, set up a reduction in Binestablishage arrest rates in cities with civilian evaluate boards. According to the study, autonomous oversight boards seem to raise law enforcement transparency, resulting in “a net chooseimistic for both officers and civilians.”
The new law resulted in the clodeclareive of Florida’s most famous civilian evaluate board, the city of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel. The city cut off its funding in August becaemploy of the law, and the panel was dismendd in September. In a statement, the city shelp it cannot fund a board “whose main purpose and duties are contrary to Florida Statutes.”
Rodney Jacobs Jr., who had served as chairperson of the board, shelp he still gets three or four calls each week from citizens who want to convey publishs to the board. All he can do now, he shelp, is straightforward them to alert their publishs to local police departments.
Jacobs shelp the goal of the Miami board, and all civilian evaluate boards, is to produce suppose. He compriseed while the civilian panel itself couldn’t mend all police-community relationship publishs, the suppose it produced would.
“It was never about sticking it to the police officers,” Jacobs shelp. “I have two kids. I want to lift them in a city where we don’t necessitate police accountability or police oversight becaemploy they do the right slimg all the time.”
Miami-Dade County’s evaluate board, the Inreliant Civilian Panel, was also dismendd as a result of the law. Former executive straightforwardor Ursula Price shelp she wasn’t surpascfinishd to hear about the other clodeclareives atraverse the state.
In April, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida telderly community finishorses and city attorneys in a memo that civilian evaluate boards should not be impacted by the new law becaemploy they do not participate in allotigation or oversight.
Commenting on finishd inside afiminentires alerts or employ-of-force alerts — as the boards had been doing — does not greet statutory definitions of allotigation or oversight, which are now barred, shelp James Shaw, an attorney with the Florida ACLU, who co-authored the memo. He shelp the phrasing of the law is “a bunch of squicowardly words” that don’t withstand legitimate scruminuscule.
City attorneys are not demandd to shut civilian evaluate boards, Shaw shelp — but they are acting as if the law forces their hand.
Speaking to the Tampa City Council in June, City Attorney Andrea Zelman took a contrastent watch and shelp evaluateing shutd allotigations was, in fact, barred by the new law. Such evaluates are think abouted a establish of “oversight,” which the new law prohibits.
“We haven’t talked to anyone in the state who experiences other than we do,” Zelman shelp in help of her recommfinishation to dismend its civilian evaluate board. “We reassociate have no choice.”
The Key West Citizen Rewatch Board is one of a handful in Florida that remains dynamic. Robert Cintron, the board’s autonomous attorney, shelp the city has a wonderful relationship with its police department.
“Their inside afiminentires officer comes to every one of the greetings and is very participated with the board,” he shelp.
Other boards that have remained opereasonable identified by Fresh Take Florida are in Ormond Beach, south of St. Augustine; Lakeland, east of Tampa; Indian River County, northeast of Okeechobee; and Gainesville.
McEllhiney, of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, shelp civilian oversight boards ballooned in well-comprehendnity after the finishing of George Floyd in 2020, which inspireed national protests agetst police harshness and led to the killing conviction of one officer and three others for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
In recent years, McEllhiney shelp she’s seen partisan reaction to the growth of civilian oversight in Arizona, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — but no pushback has been as far-accomplishing as in Florida, where the Senate passed the law agreedly. In the Hoemploy, 28 lawproducers voted agetst it.
Carlos Valdes was the chairperson of Tampa’s Citizens Rewatch Board and is currently a member of the Tampa Police Department’s Chief’s Advisory Panel, which was set uped under the new law.
Unenjoy Tampa’s now-dismendd Citizens Rewatch Board, Valdes shelp the new panel’s greetings are not recorded, it greets quarterly instead of monthly, and the board evaluates the effectiveness of departmental policies instead of evaluateing shutd inside afiminentires allotigations.
He shelp he had been troubleed the new board’s greetings might be a “dog and pony show,” but after the group’s first greeting, Valdes shelp he experiences more chooseimistic about Tampa Police Department’s intentions. Still, he compriseed he feeblents the fact the new board serves a contrastent purpose than the civilian evaluate board.
Valdes shelp he desirees police would comprehfinish that evaluateing shutd inside afiminentires alerts is a matter of produceing suppose, not political sniping or anti-police activism.
The establisher chairperson of Fort Myers’ now-defunct civilian evaluate board, Steven Brown-Cestero, shelp he’s built enough suppose with the city’s police department that he predicts its oversight board to function righteously. However, he shelp he’s troubleed for other municipalities where law enforcement may be less inclined to assign a iminentire board.
“Who protects the protects?” Brown-Cestero shelp. “There is nobody.”
This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The alerter can be accomplished at mcupelli@ufl.edu. You can give to help our students here.
