The Columbus Police Department Citizen Overview Committee met for the first time to review and agree upon its purpose Thursday morning.
The board has eight members, including Mayor Robert Smith and city Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong. Its six other members are citizens each representing one of the city’s wards.
The city council created the citizen overview committee in December amid increased public scrutiny of the police department, two months after the officer-involved shooting that killed 26-year-old Ricky Ball. Its precursor, the Special Operations Group Committee, met twice in the Ball shooting aftermath and presented recommendations to the council, one of which was creating the permanent overview committee.
The committee will meet at 11 a.m. the first Thursday of each month in the CPD command center in the municipal complex.
“We will be a liaison for the community and they will have an opportunity to share with us any concerns they have,” said Rev. Steven James, committee chair and Ward 1 representative. “On the other hand, we’ll have the chance to tell the community how well our police officers are doing. We’re that go-between just to bridge the gap between the community and police department.”
Rev. R.J. Matthews represents Ward 2; Lee Roy Lollar represents Ward 3 and serves as vice chair; Tiffany Sturdivant represents Ward 4; Colin Krieger represents Ward 5; and Leon Speck represents Ward 6.
The citizen overview committee has a three-fold mission, as suggested by Smith and adopted by the board — to offer support and assistance to CPD; to provide general oversight of police matters brought to the committee’s attention by the police chief; and to serve as a liaison between the community and the police department.
“I’m happy to see that the overview committee is going forward,” James said after the meeting. “Our agenda is good. We’re not in place to try to tell the police department what to do but just to be a buffer between the police department and the community.”
Smith said the committee should be an asset both for CPD and the community. He said it will fill a role to foster communication between CPD and citizens.
“We’re not here to micromanage and dictate,” Smith said. “We’re just a committee to be a liaison. They can call upon us whenever needed.”
During the meeting, the committee members reviewed the progress CPD has made since the Special Operations Group Committee dissolved, specifically with its body camera procedures.
Ball was killed on Oct. 16, 2015, after he fled from an attempted traffic stop. Former CPD officer Canyon Boykin shot him, according to a federal lawsuit he filed against the city following his termination. Special Operations Group members Johnny Branch and Yolanda Young were also present. None of the officers activated their body cameras until after the shooting.
The SOG committee recommended, and the city adopted in December, strict body camera policies for officers. The policy includes a 10-day suspension for a first-time violation, a 30 -day suspension or termination for a second offense and termination for a third offense.
Assistant CPD Chief Fred Shelton said officers are now trained to activate their body cameras before beginning an interaction with a civilian, and he said body camera usage has risen since CPD adopted the new policies.
“The cameras have been very helpful,” Shelton said. “When we play the video and they say ‘Officer X did this,’ or ‘Citizen John Doe did that,’ sometimes there’s a discrepancy in what actually happened. But the cameras show us what really happened.”
Shelton said shift supervisors review officer body camera usage for each shift once a week.
Backing the Blue
During the meeting, Krieger said a separate group called Backing the Blue, organized by Berry Hinds, will host an appreciation night for law enforcement officers at the Lowndes County soccer complex.
“We’re going to have an outdoor movie night. It’s for the community to show honor and appreciation for any law enforcement officers in Lowndes County.”
Krieger said officers can eat for free at the movie night, and organizers are asking local businesses to provide gift bags for officers.
The event is open to the community, but citizens will have to bring their own food.
Krieger said Military Hardware is selling blue light bulbs in support of the event. He said they normally sell for $3, but the store has been selling them for $1.
“They say they normally sell two in a year but they’ve gone through 100-something just in the last week,” Krieger said.
Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner, who attended Wednesday’s committee meeting, said he’s already put up blue lights at his home, and encouraged people to look at other things, such as blue ribbons, to show support for officers.
“There’s a lot of people doing blue lights right now,” Turner said. “Blue ribbons, I feel, are going to catch on as well.”
Sturdivant said the event is just a way to show support for the community’s officers.
“We’ve got a lot of things going on with law enforcement in the community,” Sturdivant said. “We want to bridge that gap and get some understanding and education, but at the same time we want all people to go home (safe). We want our officers to go home and we want our citizens to go home.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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