Audit of police complaints board recommends major changes

An audit of the civilian panel that investigates complaints against St. Paul police officers is recommending major changes.

In May, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman asked the University of Minnesota to audit the city's Police-Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission, after civil rights leaders alleged the group is biased in favor of police.

The review, which was conducted by the university's Center for Restorative Justice and Peacekeeping, includes recommendations for adding more civilians to the commission and removing the commission's two representatives from the St. Paul Police Federation. The audit also recommended the commission move its operations out of police headquarters and suggests the group make it a policy to automatically investigate allegations of excessive force.

Coleman said the city can implement recommendations from the audit only after leaders hear from members of the public.

"It is our goal in the city of St. Paul to have a process of civilian review that is embraced by the community, trusted by the community, and does right by the community," the mayor said.

City Attorney Samuel Clark said he plans to hold at least three public meetings before the end of the year: one on the city's east side, another on its west side, and the third in its Frogtown neighborhood.

"PCIARC is one part of a bigger conversation about race and the justice system, about community interactions with police," Clark said. "I hope people, by the end of this process, will understand exactly what PCIARC is intended to do, and how we might be able to improve it."

St. Paul city leaders set up the civilian complaints commission voluntarily in 1994 — at a time when judges across the country ordered many cities to establish similar police review boards.

St. Paul NACCP president Jeff Martin said the January 2014 controversial arrest of an African-American man in a downtown skyway prompted him to question how the commission operates.

The panel found that police had acted lawfully and properly in the arrest of Christopher Lollie. Officers confronted Lollie in response to a security guard's complaint that he had been sitting in a public area of the First National Bank Building.

Lollie declined to identify himself when officers arrived, and police used a Taser on him during the arrest.

A year later, St. Paul police shot and killed 24-year-old Marcus Golden, also African-American, after they say Golden drove his vehicle at them. A grand jury declined to indict the two policemen involved.

Martin says he supports the police and says he shares with them the common goal of a safe community.

"I don't want to get that [safe community] through an overzealous police force that abuses the rights of others," Martin said. "I want to get that by community involvement in solving crime and community engagement in preventing crime."

Martin said he agrees with the recommendations of the U's audit, but added that he doesn't think the report itself will change anything. He said an overhaul of the panel will only come with dedicated citizen involvement.

"We don't really have a chance, and we don't really have any right to complain if we're not at the table talking about changing it now," he said.

Martin said he expects pushback from the St. Paul Police Federation, the union representing officers in the city, if St. Paul tries to implement the recommendations. That's exactly what they're promising.

Federation attorney Christopher Wachtler said the union is still reviewing the university's audit, and said it contains "mandatory items for negotiation." Chief among them is the proposed removal of police federation members from the commission.