Community Oversight Board 101

On this episode of BC City Connection, Community Oversight Board (COB) Chair Carey Whitfield and Vice Chair Clare Tanner to explain how Battle Creek’s police complaint review and appeal process works. 

The Community Oversight Board is a community-based advisory board that serves the City Manager by reviewing appeals of investigations and findings related to community complaints made against the Battle Creek Police Department. The Board also supports transparency, community education, and trust-building between residents and law enforcement by providing community perspective on departmental practices and policies.

Episode Resources
City of Battle Creek Community Oversight Board

Watch the video of this discussion here or see the episodes on Access Vision in Battle Creek Tuesdays at 6:30 PM on channel 17/917.

BC CIty Connection Podcast is produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

What The Oversight Board Does

Richard Piet 0:04

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome back to the BC City Connection Podcast. Of course, the BC City Connection Podcast is something you may have connected with already, perhaps on the city's website as an audio episode, or maybe uh on the YouTube channel for the City of Battle Creek, or maybe you're watching on Access Vision. We invite you to continue to do so. And on that YouTube platform, you can follow us, subscribe to the audio podcast. We appreciate that uh very much. So, uh, one thing to point out is we actually are busy with these episodes and they deploy over the course of a month, but we've also assigned some special episodes that talk about housing, so watch out for those. Today on the BC City Connection, we are talking about the Community Oversight Board in Battle Creek. Joining us today, Carey Whitfield, who is the chair of the Community Oversight Board, COB, and Clare Tanner, the vice chair. And we welcome you both. Thank you.

Clare Tanner 1:10

Thank you.

Richard Piet 1:10

It's great to be here. Let's talk, uh, Carey, first of all, about what the COB is meant to do. Tell us about that.

Carey Whitfield 1:19

Why thank you, Richard, and I truly appreciate your taking the time out to identify the COB or the Community Oversight Board as a functional element within the city of Battle Creek. As we refer to the COB, I like to think of it as an advisory board to the city manager, where we advise her of decisions that have been made by the police department through a community relations complaint, as I will refer to probably later as a CRC. Now the board basically uh takes information that has been received from the police chief that he believes is something that is not considered to be sustained as a complaint by a citizen. We review that complaint. If we agree with the police chief, then there is no further uh reason for us to continue any uh additional investigation. However, if we believe that there is more substance to it than what the chief of police has established, then we will probably go to the city manager and suggest to her that uh she may want to investigate this particular uh complaint. That's a part of our duties and responsibilities. But in addition to that, we have other duties and responsibilities. We also have to try and build a better relationship between the police department and our community throughout the course of the years many problems have existed, and those problems have created a lot of friction with our community, and so our process is to take away that friction and build a better relationship. That's pretty much it for what we're supposed to do. There are a whole bunch of things that we're gonna be doing behind the scenes, but principally our goal is to evaluate a complaint and advise to the city manager our concerns regarding that complaint, and secondly, build a relationship with our community.

Richard Piet 3:42

You've talked a little bit about the the roles, but maybe there's more to add there. And uh and the limitations. Are there limitations of the COB?

Carey Whitfield 3:50

Yes, there are limitations. We are not allowed to uh determine the discipline of any officers, we are not allowed to conduct our own investigation, we do not interview any witnesses, nor do we interview any of the police officers. We are there to listen to the complaint and advise as to what our concerns are regarding that complaint. We cannot review the case if the police department has already sustained the case.

Richard Piet 4:28

How can Clare community members file complaints about police misconduct?

Clare Tanner 4:34

Yeah, uh the main way is to go to the city's website. And the the address is pretty simple, but basically, if you just go to Google and say City of Battle Creek, police complaint, um, the website will pop right up. And then, you know, about halfway down on that page, there's a link that says link to download a complaint form. Um, I will say that, you know, one of our roles is to help anyone who might need uh support in that process. And I'm sure later we'll talk about who all is on the community uh oversight board, but but we were uh chosen um specifically to as it because we all have roles that make us more available to various populations within the city of Battle Creek. And so we can provide support. You know, in our speaking with the the police department as well, I do believe that they're pretty open. Like even if you just went down to the police department and said you wanted to file a complaint, like I I they I do think that they are trying to make it an accessible process.

What Happens After You File

Richard Piet 5:42

We'll certainly put the the link to that, by the way, in the notes for this episode, too. So as folks look in that uh information connected to this episode, the link will be there and you can click right through. What happens after a complaint is filed and what options are available if someone disagrees with the outcome?

Clare Tanner 6:03

So the Office of Professional Standards uh within the police department conducts an internal investigation and they will um, of course, speak with the person who's filing the complaint. Um it's really important for the person to bring as much of the evidence as they have available into that process. So uh they will also interview witnesses, they'll um interview, of course, the police officer involved, um, and they'll review all the body cams and any private videos that um people bring forward. And the reason I say it's important to bring that evidence forward is because, as Carey mentioned, we don't have the power on the oversight board to reinvestigate or see if there's any evidence that was missed. So it needs to come forward in the first time round. And then I think the second part of your question was what to do if you disagree. People who file a complaint at the end of the process, they get a letter from the officer who conducted the investigation at the Office of Professional Standards. And um, it will say there might be multiple counts to a complaint, you know, um, like, you know, there was a conduct or courtesy issue with the officer involved, um, but also maybe there was something more serious going on, or the, you know, the police was had overstepped and was outside of what they were supposed to be doing. Um, and so the the letter that you get will have a judgment on each of those um uh elements of the complaint, and it will have information on what to do if you disagree with the result of any one of those pieces. And basically, um uh you can file, there's a place online, it'll have a link. You can go down to the city manager uh's office that will help. Um uh and uh it can be filed by email or it even by phone. So again, very accessible, trying to make it a very accessible process. And you could approach any one of us, and we can't provide any advice or really talk to you about the substance at that point until your appeal is filed, but we could certainly point you to the website. Um, I work with a lot of folks who might not um be literate. And so I can help have someone here in our office, you know, type in your form if that's what you mean.

Who Sits On The Board

Richard Piet 8:37

Yeah, makes sense. So you talked about uh a number of folks uh being on the board. Who are they?

Clare Tanner 8:44

Um yeah, so it um as part of the original um uh city commission um uh ordinance that they wanted to make sure that uh people um you know from I'd say vulnerable or from populations that have a higher rate of negative interactions with police were represented. So there's representation from the the NAACP who is Carey. Um there's representation um from Vosis, uh uh uh Jose Orasco. Uh there's representation from the uh Burma Center, Dominic Ooh. And then I am from the ARC of Calhoun County, and we support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Um additionally, there are is a cross-representation of other folks, just citizens uh on the committee, um, uh two people who work in education, which is really important for our role in reaching out to youth. That would be uh Jennifer Williams and Brandon Phoenix, uh Kassiana Champlin, uh a realtor in town, is on the committee. And boy, the danger of this is forgetting somebody. You know, we are going to be um working on our communications plan and getting all of our information out there into the community so people know who we are and how to find us. Yeah, Mark Stevens. I'm so sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Mark Stevens, um, also a citizen of Battle Creek, is on the committee.

Richard Piet 10:27

Okay. Carey, uh I presume that it was um particularly important to do as Clare has described, make sure that these audiences were well represented. Isn't that true?

Carey Whitfield 10:43

Yes, it is. And I think just to add to what Clare said, I believe Brandon Phoenix is on the board, and I'm not sure if you mentioned that, Clare. Or at least I didn't hear it. But yes, the original intent was to have these uh organizations included on a board because that is a community or those are communities which are, as I've mentioned, most likely to have negative interactions. And as a result of that, I believe it's gonna make a major difference. Because once something has been done, it's very difficult for a person to establish trust. And for many years there has been concerns with our community, particularly for the minority communities, that they were treated differently than other communities. And so as a result, we had to re-establish what we thought, particularly with this board, how to uh convey a message to the minority community that actually what is going to happen is that all people within our community, or entire citizenry, will be treated the same. And that's part of the creation of this board. It is to foster transparency within the police department and its community. And that's and we do that through strengthening the relationships with the community and the police department.

Richard Piet 12:24

Um well, we certainly know that this has been a long and careful process and it's taken some time to arrive at at the board and and understand what its uh charge will be. When does the board start its duties?

Carey Whitfield 12:40

Why effective immediately.

Clare Tanner 12:42

As soon as somebody files a complaint.

Richard Piet 12:46

Okay, so uh the the first complaint gets the ball rolling.

Clare Tanner 12:51

Well, the first appeal, rather. Sorry, Sherry.

Carey Whitfield 12:54

I was just gonna mention that much of what we do is with our complaints, but there are other things that we do which has nothing to do nothing to do with the complaint. We have to again create an environment where people feel comfortable. And so we're working in the background to identify those issues between the police department and the community. And so that has already started. We probably have had an earlier start, but effective this month, we're going to begin the process of getting people to know what the community oversight board is and hopefully getting them to utilize the complaint process throughout the police department so that their concerns again will be identified and hopefully resolved in a manner that all parties are satisfied.

Richard Piet 13:57

Yeah, and so um I think the the main point of of that, one of them anyway, is you're ready. It's assembled, the process is is ready to be exercised uh when folks uh are ready to do so. Are there other expectations that exist for the COB?

Clare Tanner 14:16

Yeah, um I Carey was just alluding to our role um uh interfacing with the public. And so we do have a role in terms of providing education. Uh, we have a role in um um offering up policy recommendations to the city manager. So especially uh as we are the eyes and ears, we're meant to be the eyes and ears of the public um in this whole process. And if we recognize that there are some systematic things that need to be addressed, um, it is our role to bring those up and to work collaboratively on how they might be addressed. So um we may mean to be out at many of the major festivals in town this summer with our our information booth. We really encourage folks to come up, talk to us, um, tell us what's important to them so that we can make sure that we are uh making those our top priority and also finding a way to communicate that that feedback back to the city and the police department.

Richard Piet 15:27

Anything you'd like to add to that, Carey?

Closing And Where To Learn More

Carey Whitfield 15:29

Again, I can only reemphasize that what we would like to do is to minimize the tension and encourage positive outcomes throughout enhancing the community relationships with the police department. We are firm believers that the police department does a great job, but because there's so little transparency in what they do, we need to make sure that as Clare mentioned earlier, that we educate the community on what they do and how they do it so that they recognize what the police department is doing. It is important that there is trust. And unfortunately, throughout the course of the years, which of that trust has fallen, we need to re-establish that trust. And that's part of our essential goal establishing trust in relationships.

Richard Piet 16:29

All right. Well, we appreciate uh the uh opportunity to chat with uh you both. And again, if folks have questions, uh simply click through to the website as part of the City of Battle Creek site and uh get more information. Gary Whitfield and Clare Tanner, chair and vice chair respectively of the Battle Creek Community Oversight Board here on the BC City Connection.