A 2001 shooting caused a rift between police and the community.
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) – The Brattleboro police chief and the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union presented their cases for and against civilian review boards for police departments on Thursday.
The forum was organized by a group of residents seeking signatures to put the issue before voters at town meeting in March.
“Brattleboro can really set the tone and serve as an example for the rest of the state,” said Benson Scotch of Montpelier. Scotch is the former executive director of the Vermont office of ACLU and supports civilian review boards. “Look to the future and don’t expect a civilian review board to solve the problems of the past.”
The shooting of Robert Woodward in December 2001 by two Brattleboro officers, although ruled legally justified, has caused a rift between the department and the community. Scotch warned that a civilian review board would not solve the lingering questions from that shooting.
Police Chief John Martin said the boards work well in larger cities that receive thousands of annual complaints against the police department. In Brattleboro, however, the department has only received an average of two or three complaints each year, Martin said.
“For the last 15 years the Brattleboro Police Department has worked hard to make our department as transparent as it can be,” Martin said.
Scotch detailed three of the more common types of review panels: a civilian review board, which assesses complaints and makes recommendations; an independent monitor, which looks at police policies but not individual complaints; and an independent investigator, which takes an active role in investigating reports of misconduct such as interviewing witnesses and making recommendations to improve police procedures.
Most boards cannot impose penalties on officers or police departments, said Scotch, which is the most common criticism.
“The board will command respect, over time, within the community,” Scotch explained.
For more than a half hour, Martin detailed the complaint policy and investigation standard for the police department.
Of the approximately 30,000 interactions with the community each year, the police department receives only a handful of complaints against officers, said Martin. In 2002 there were two complaints: one for a traffic ticket and another for a police officer swearing, he said.
“No one can accuse the Brattleboro Police Department of not accepting complaints,” he said.
He added that a civilian review board would also be too costly for the town during a time when budgets are under tight scrutiny.
AP-ES-01-16-04 1107EST
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