Oh, you betcha!
I attended the 6/15/2005 PCRC meeting and am interested in going to more
of these, as are my colleagues on the CRA Board, but even though the
PCRC is a public forum, the time and location have been prohibitive for
many of us to attend regularly.
In addition, whether real or imagined, there was a sense among CRA
members that the PCRC was not a friendly place for us and that they
really were not interested in working directly with our board.
Thankfully, I have been able to connect with Anita Selin, a PCRC member
and find some common ground to build off of. I continue to encourage my
colleagues to participate in PCRC meetings.
There is another factor, however. The PCRC already has a list of "82
action items" to deal with. That is a huge burden, I'm sure, especially
given the resistance (or so I hear) from the Police/City side of the
table. CRA has spent the last year or so tweaking our ordinance,
cutting through the case backlog (SUCCESSFUL!), and deflecting the
criticisms fired at us. That has been a full time job, to be sure.
I agree: it only makes sense that CRA work with PCRC and I look forward
to our groups working together in the not-so-distant future.
Bob Velez
Shingle Creek
4-1
Board member, Minneapolis Civilian Police Review Authority
rashard zanders wrote:
Interesting. Since the Police/Community Relations Council and the CRA
are both concerned with oversight of the MPD, shouldn't both entities do
more to work together for the purpose of ensuring said oversight?
Rashard Zanders
Community Editor
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
3744 4th Ave. S.
Mpls. MN 55409
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Bob Velez
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 1:08 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Mpls] Civilian oversight of MPD
At today's council meeting, a 7-6 vote sent the latest ordinance change
to the Civilian Police Review Authority (172) into holdover status.
Hopefully it will only be for one cycle.
I was not in attendance, but I heard that rather than a discussion on
the validity of the change, much was said about the CRA needing major
overhaul. I heard that one councilmember faulted CRA for not doing
enough to mitigate the city's liability (as noted in City Pages 'The Hit
Parade Revisited').
The current board has successfully eliminated the backlog of cases and
we are hoping to play a role in healing police/community relations.
Is there still a sense in our communities that civilian oversight of
police is a good thing in principal? Any insight/input would be
appreciated.
Bob Velez
Shingle Creek 4-1
Board member, Minneapolis CPRA
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