J. Kushner: > > A civilian monitoring system with greater power and broader > > authority and more in touch with the community would help > > mold a police force that could do more with less.
W. Cygan: > The absolute last thing that the Police Department needs (IMHO) is to > try and be equally accountable to more than one authority. It is a > nightmare. Can you imagine if in your job you reported to one manager > and had another group of people (who don't actually do what you do) > scrutinizing everything you did looking for ways that you messed up? > > In the private sector, every time I have seen individuals or managers > try to report to more than one boss, it doesn't turn out well. Giving a > civilian monitoring authority more power, I believe, would turn out > badly. R. Nelson: I think that, as long as the police are public employees, they always going to have the courts as a second authority. Lawsuits are a poor way of getting a truly accountable force or restoring community confidence in the police, but they have made it too expensive for the city to keep a disturbed individual like Mike Sauro armed and in uniform on the street. And I suspect that the reason we haven't seen a fatal police shooting in the past six months is because of the threat of lawsuits over shootings in 2000 and early 2001. An effective civilian monitoring agency could provide a more consistent set of rules for police than previous years' lawsuits and this year's threats. I suspect it would also make the city look better when police actions do reach court. An effective monitoring agency could also do a lot to create public trust in the police. Of course, we've had an _ineffective_ civilian monitoring agency in place for a long time. It's not a simple matter to make it effective. Rosalind Nelson Bancroft, Ward 8 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
