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Commission Approves Police Oversight Board
PLUS, WEST BROAD SCHOOL TALKS RESUME, ESPLOST PASSES AND MORE LOCAL NEWS
By Blake Aued news@flagpole.com
The Athens-Clarke County Commission
approved a new citizen board that will
advise local law enforcement agencies on
policy and investigate complaints of police
misconduct.
The Nov. 2 vote to create a Public Safety
Civilian Oversight Board was unanimous
against a national backdrop of debate over
police abuses, particularly against African
Americans. In Glynn County, three white
men, among them a former police officer
and investigator, are on trial for the murder
of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man jogging
through a neighborhood, based on their
suspicion that Arbery had broken into
vacant houses. At the same time, there has
been a backlash to the “defund the police”
movement, with crime becoming a major
issue in the Atlanta mayoral race. Last week
voters in Minneapolis, where a white officer
was recently convicted of murdering George
Floyd, rejected a ballot measure to reorga
nize and rename the police department.
It has also proven divisive in Athens, with
conservatives organizing in opposition and
progressives wondering whether the board
has enough teeth.
Calls for an oversight board began in
2019—a year when ACC police shot six
people, killing five—and grew in 2020 after
ACCPD gassed peaceful protesters during a
local George Floyd protest. “I think [the use
of force] is an immense power, and we need
to make sure it’s wielded as thoughtfully,
judiciously, compassionately and sparingly
as possible,” Commissioner Jesse Houle
said. (The shootings were all ruled justified
by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and
then-District Attorney
Ken Mauldin declined to
prosecute.)
The Athens Anti-
Discrimination
Movement initiated
those calls, and Mayor
Kelly Girtz appointed
its co-founder, Mokah-Jasmine Johnson,
to head the Police Advisory Board
Development Task Force, along with Shane
Sims, an ex-felon who went on to become
an ACCPD chaplain and start a substance
abuse recovery nonprofit.
Fewer than one in 12 complaints against
police result in disciplinary action, Johnson
told the commission. “One too many
times, we have watched Athens-Clarke
County police officers walk away without
any repercussions after causing harm to
Black and brown lives,” she said, citing the
Taylor Saulters incident, when the rookie
officer used his police cruiser to chase and
hit a fleeing Black man who had a warrant
for a minor offense. Saulters was fired but
not prosecuted, and was later awarded a
$250,000 wrongful termination settlement.
“How can we trust a system that’s designed
to protect the blue?” Johnson said.
Johnson also
expressed frustration
that the commission’s
Government Operations
Committee took eight
months to bring a rec
ommendation forward
to the full commission
after her task force finished its work.
“It was a little bit more difficult than
we imagined going into it,” Commissioner
Mike Hamby said. “There were a lot of ques
tions that needed to be answered—legal
questions, process questions.”
The GOC made a number of changes to
the task force’s recommendations, includ
ing adding the sheriff’s department, pro
bation office and corrections department
(the agency that runs the local prison, as
opposed to the jail) to the advisory board’s
portfolio. An emphasis on prioritizing those
who have “lived experience with police
violence or over-policing” for appointment
to the board was removed, but it will be
incumbent on the commission to ensure
that diverse communities are represented,
Commissioner Mariah Parker said.
The board will consist of nine people
appointed by the Mayor and Commission,
along with six non-voting members: a
commissioner, the ACC attorney, the police
chief, the sheriff, the chief probation officer
and the warden of the corrections depart
ment. It will have the power to investigate
complaints and make policy recommenda
tions, but will not have any control over
law enforcement budgets or personnel deci
sions. The GOC left unaddressed the issue
of staffing.
Johnson and Police Chief Cleveland
Spruill at times clashed over the makeup of
the advisory board—particularly the initial
exclusion of law enforcement officers—but
Commissioner Melissa Link read a state
ment from Spruill endorsing the final pro
posal. “It opens a dialog, and I believe that’s
the real purpose of this committee is to
have that dialog,” Link said. “There has been
a loss of trust between certain portions of
our citizenry and police.”
Critics of the advisory board said they
think Spruill is doing a fine job and don’t
think police need oversight. “My whole
concern is the fact that we have a city man
ager, we have a mayor who oversees Chief
Spruill,” said Gordon Rhoden, president of
the Athens GOP. “Why do we need another
layer of bureaucracy? If Chief Spruill’s not
doing his job, I think he needs to be let go.”
There has been a
loss of trust between
certain portions of our
citizenry and police.
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FLAGPOLE.COM | NOVEMBER 10, 2021