Is The Police Complaint Committee Working Like It Should?

Is the Sarasota Police Complaint Committee set up to do an effective job? Two members don't think so, turning in their resignation this week. 

Chairman Thomas Riffel and committee member Frank Brenner both resigned during Wednesday's meeting saying the committee is powerless and that the  doesn't listen to the committee's recommendations.

"The role of this committee is not really impacting anyone and it's a disservice to the citizens to this city that it is," Riffel said Wednesday. "We are not protecting citizens. We are not changing the police department practices, and our collaboration with the police is no better today than what it was from Day One."

Brenner, a former lawyer who even argued a case before the Supreme Court in 1954, was frustrated that the committee and police department couldn't work together and was designed to fail.

"The SPD has not demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with the committee," Brenner said during his resignation speech. "It would not even collaborate on a matter of process — not substantive change."

Brenner later added that he hoped the committee would have "a meaningful voice."

"It does not," he said. "I have concluded that further service would be an exercise in futility."

Vice Mayor Willie Shaw appeared at the committee's meeting encouraged the panel members to forge on.

"This has to work. This must work. And it can continue. What you have found is blatant, is opened, and it needs to work," Shaw said. "Those of you who have came to the place where you want to give up on this for your personal reasons, I will still support you.

"I do want you to know that this has to work because it is a part of what we want to see in the way of change. Change is never comfortable. It is never what we want to be and it's quite frequently through change that we see differences made."

Both Brenner and Riffel also blamed police unions for restricting management at police departments across the state.

"Discipline for both series and minor infractions has been extraordinarily lenient," Brenner said. "This is I believe is in due to great fact that the police union exerts a stranglehold on the department, as does the association of police unions statewide."

What does the committee do?

Sarasota has both a Police Complaint Committee and an Independent Police Advisory Panel. 

Here's what the committee is tasked with, according to the city :

The Complaint Committee has a mission to advise the Chief of Police on policies, procedures and practices relating to the processing of complaints made against officers employed by the Sarasota Police Department. The Commander of the Internal Affairs and Complaints Section of the Sarasota Police Department and the Administrator of the Police Advisory Panels are also members of the Committee. The PCC will hold monthly meetings to receive reports on completed investigations of complaints, to consider them, and to advise the Chief of Police on matters which the Committee believes require his attention.

And this is what the Advisory Panel does, according to the city:

The mission of the IPAP is to ensure police accountability and transparency and to foster public confidence and trust in the administration and operation of the Sarasota Police Department. The IPAP will hold a public meeting every quarter to receive reports and requests for advice from the Chief of Police on policy matters such as community policing. The IPAP also will advise and make recommendations to the Chief of Police and City Manager as appropriate.

Mounting Frustrations

The frustration is nothing new for the committee as tensions have been high at the Police Committee meetings to the point of a near fist fight at the May 23 meeting, The Herald-Tribune reported :

Last month, while discussing one of the half-dozen IA reports they review at each meeting, Brenner said he was not satisfied with the "slap on the wrist" an officer received for causing an accident while speeding to a call.

When member Jerry Meketon, a retired psychologist, asked internal affairs commander Lt. John LeBlanc, a non-voting member, for his opinion about the discipline, Brenner questioned the relevance.

"I am not interested in your question of relevance," Meketon told him. "I'm talking to John. If you don't like it, come with me outside and we'll finish it off." 

Riffel had also told the Independent Police Advisory Panel at its April 27 meeting about issues regarding the committee's panel.  

"We have no power so our influence rests with our relationship with the police department," Riffel told the panel. "Needless to say, unless we collaborate unless we have a working relationship then there's not a lot that can be accomplished by a committee like ours since we have no authority or power."

Responding to a question at the meeting by a panel member whether the complaint committee found any rogue officers, Riffel said:

"We didn't discover something that wasn't known. The real question is how does it get dealt with."

The Complaint Committee's administrator, Peter Graham, who makes $65,000 overseeing the police panel and complaint committee,  told WWSB  that the committee is functioning like it should:

“It was formed to create some sort of civilian oversight of local law enforcement. This is not unusual, it's all part of a national citizen oversight that exists in various cities and towns across the country.” Peter Graham is the committee's administrator. He says while the remaining committee members do foresee a need for greater collaboration with police, they are doing exactly what was intended. “It was set up essentially to look at complaints being made to the police, their investigation, and to review reports of those investigations with suitable advice being made to the chief of police where the committee feels that things are not as they should be.”

Even the Independent Advisory Panel feels somewhat lost. 

"It feels often we drift form month to month to month and we really don't accomplish much," said panel member Eileen Walsh Normile about not having specific goals and objectives to work on during the April 27 meeting. 

Riffel though maintained his respect for the police officers at Wednesday's meeting.

"I've always been pro-police," Riffel said. "I'm pro-police today, but I don't think you'll find an officer who perceives me as that way." 

The committee's next meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. July 25 at the Federal Building, 111 Orange Ave.