Wanted: Confidence in our police

By Dolph Tillotson

The Daily News

Published May 25, 2008

Nothing breeds cynicism, frustration and contempt for government more powerfully or quickly than bad cops.

The man or woman with a badge and a gun has tremendous, terrible power. That power includes the power to take away liberty and even to end life.

That is why law-enforcement officers are due respect. The risks they take and the responsibility they hold are huge. That also is why law-enforcement officers bear watching — closely.

It is also why most of America's major cities have adopted citizen review boards with at least some investigative power over public law-enforcement officers.

This newspaper called Wednesday, again, for the city of Galveston to set up a citizens' law-enforcement review board. That is not a step we took lightly. Such boards can become worse than useless — purely political agencies that work for a special-interest agenda rather than for the public good.

Yet, after watching the Galveston Police Department stumble for years, we concluded the need is great enough to warrant the risk.

In recent years, the GPD has been accused scores of times of excessive force. Its internal probes rarely result in disciplinary action and those actions are shrouded in secrecy, further undermining public trust.

The state police are investigating the theft of drugs and money from the GPD property room. Most recently, we reported that a young black man was arrested and jailed overnight for the offense of having an "unregistered bicycle." The case clearly was one of racial profiling and an abuse of authority.

A partial list of some of the problems in just five years appears below.

It's fair to say that the Galveston Police Department, currently between chiefs, has established a deservedly bad reputation. That's not to say there are no good police officers there. Some members of the force are dedicated and professional. But the force overall has been a rudderless ship for a long, long time.

Used properly, citizen review boards can help assure the public that someone at least is listening. Contrary to the popular view, they can honor the best police as well as look into abuses of police authority.

They may also suggest systemic solutions that produce better-trained and better-equipped police departments.

Most of America's major cities have civilian review boards — New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, San Diego, Memphis and Oakland, to name just a few.

In Austin, the city funds an Office of the Police Monitor, which has its own staff and works closely with a seven-person civilian board.

Its mission: "Through our outreach efforts, we will educate the community and law enforcement to promote the highest degree of mutual respect between police officers and the public."

The office accepts public complaints and investigates them. It attends witness interviews. It reviews cases. It monitors the "patterns and practices" of the Austin Police Department. It makes recommendations to the chief of police.

Galveston would not have to invent anything to create its own effective civilian review board. There's even a national association of these boards — the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (nacole.org).

However, it's important to understand two things going in:

First, police usually don't like review boards, especially during the period when they're being discussed but have not yet been implemented. Second, somebody will have to fade a good bit of heat to get this job done.

Galveston has a new city council taking over the reins of government. At least one of the new councilmen, Tarris Woods, already is on record favoring a civilian review board.

It's high time someone took positive steps to solve this important community problem.

Dolph Tillotson is the president and publisher of The Daily News.