It’s been a long time since the Columbus Police Department Overview Committee met, and NAACP President Lavonne Latham Harris wants it reactivated.
Harris, who sat on the committee, went before Columbus City Council Tuesday night to ask the council to consider making some new appointments and allowing it to meet with Chief Joseph Daughtry. She was joined by committee members Colin Krieger and Tiffany Turner and former city councilman Marty Turner, who was on the council when it was created.
The committee was created in the aftermath of the October 2015 shooting death of Ricky Ball by then-CPD officer Canyon Boykin. It was intended to be a liaison between the community and CPD, and, as of September 2021, was made up of Steven L. James, R.J. Matthews, Lee Roy Lollar, Harris, Turner and Krieger. Public Information Officer Joe Dillon, then-Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong and then-Chief Fred Shelton were all non-voting members.
“This is about giving the citizens transparency and the chance to give their input and analyze different scenarios and incidents with different police officers,” Harris said. “It gave the police department the chance to have another set of eyes.”
The committee stopped meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. It has not met since 2019.
“The committee was never dismantled,” she said.
Harris said she wanted the members of the committee to sit down with Mayor Keith Gaskin and Daughtry “… and discuss where we’re at with the overview committee.”
Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart asked Harris why there was interest in reviving the committee.
“Are there any particular questions or problems?” Stewart asked.
“I’ve had questions and calls after the incident that happened with (John Musa),” Harris said.
Musa, who owns United Deli, was arrested last month after allegedly holding a man he believed was stealing copper from a building he owned at gunpoint. A GoFundMe set up to help Musa recover from a series of thefts at his property raised nearly $30,000.
Gaskin said he had asked Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell to try to find where in the council’s minutes the committee was created, but she hasn’t been able to find anything.
“The committee was formed by the council, and it will be the council who will make the determination,” Gaskin said. “We need to look at the appointments of each council member and discuss new ones or continued appointments.”
Previously each council member appointed one person to the committee, according to Harris.
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens questioned the need for the committee.
“We have the Civil Service Commission to look over the (police department),” Mickens said. “You’re welcome to come to some of those meetings and see what’s going on. … The civil service looks at everything.”
Marty Turner said he supported the chief, but still thought the committee was a good idea.
“I’m 100 percent behind the chief,” he said. “… It was formed after (the Ball shooting) and we had officers turn their body cameras off, and we didn’t want that to happen again.”
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones pointed out that officers would now be terminated if they failed to turn on their body cameras, and Tiffany Turner used that to underline how valuable the committee was.
“We have that policy because of the (committee),” she said. “That was one of the recommendations that we made.”
Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett said she would set up a meeting with Daughtry to discuss the committee’s future.
Daughtry was out of town and not at Tuesday’s meeting.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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