Civilian oversight helps keep cops honest, but Florida lawmakers don’t care | Opinion

A bill recently filed in the Florida Legislature that would effectively end civilian oversight of police departments across the state couldn’t come at a worse time for Miami-Dade’s struggling panel, which has been trying to get off the ground for nearly three years.

Florida State Rep. Wyman Duggan (R-Jacksonville) has introduced a bill, HB 601, which seeks to do away with existing boards like Miami-Dade’s Independent Civilian Panel (ICP) and ban the creation of new ones in the future. If the bill passes, it would deliver a severe blow to law enforcement accountability. The bill was referred to a House criminal justice subcommittee late last year.

Allegations of misconduct against law enforcement personnel or correctional officers would be investigated by their own departments, agencies, or the state. Period. Essentially, the police would police themselves minus public input except for citizen complaints filed with departments.

If the bill passes, 21 local civilian oversight panels across Florida face elimination, including one in Miami and one in Miami-Dade, now empowered to investigate complaints about law enforcement personnel.

For Miami-Dade’s ICP, this is yet another existential challenge. And it comes after years of trying to reintroduce civilian oversight over the county police department in the wake of the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis police in 2020. The County Commission approved the local ICP in 2020 after several “no” votes and a former mayor’s veto.

The panel may also face another threat. After a new Miami-Dade sheriff is elected, the 13-member panel may be disbanded, at the sheriff’s behest.

Certainly, the panel has been exceedingly slow to hear cases. It has floundered while facing significant operational challenges. Few in the community even know the ICP exists. However, we strongly believe the ICP should not die at the hands of the Florida Legislature in another assault on county home rule.

The Miami-Dade ICP has a plan to launch a public relations campaign to fight back against the proposed legislation. That’s good news.

For those who don’t know, civilian review panels are government-approved bodies that offer the public a venue to air complaints about treatment at the hands of law enforcement. The panels investiagte and then can recommend actions to the police chief or sheriff or to local governments. In Miami-Dade, the members are appointed by the county’s 13 commissioners.

Miami-Dade’s ICP Chairperson Loreal Arscott is pushing back on the proposed law. She sent a letter to a coalition of more than three dozen local organizations that championed the creation of the ICP. (Its predecessor, the Independent Review Panel, died due to budget concerns.) We hope those who demanded the ICP’s revival rise up again.

ICP Executive Director Ursula Price is sounding the alarm, too. “This bill is not just an attempt to make police accountability investigations faster,” Price wrote in a statement sent to the Editorial Board. “It’s an attempt to limit civilian influence over police departments.”

Duggan’s proposed legislation would be a win for those in the law enforcement community who oppose such boards, often accusing those who serve on them of being anti-police and naive about real-time police work.

But this proposal will seriously erode public trust and accountability at a time when relations between law enforcement and many communities are strained. Removing independent review of police actions is counterproductive and damages community relations.

Civilian review boards give citizens a role in governance and help address any perceived bias when internal police investigations look only at officers’ perspectives, not residents. Independent boards foster transparency and fairness in the disciplinary process.

Unfortunately, without civilian input, it would be too easy for the acts of problems officers to be swept under the rug or complaints to fall through the cracks.

Ending civilian review removes accountability, breeds distrust and is counterproductive. At a time when building bridges between law enforcement and the communities is paramount, this legislation takes a step in the wrong direction.

The interests of public safety are not served by insulating police from outside review. This bill should die on the vine.