After heated discussion, OKC Council votes to replace police oversight board

Oklahoma City Council members have voted to replace the citizen’s oversight board over police with a community-based one.

Much of the city council meeting Tuesday morning involved a heated discussion regarding the proposed Community Public Safety Advisory Board, but ultimately, a resolution approving the new board passed 6-2.

The Community Public Safety Advisory Board is meant to provide independent accountability of law enforcement, whereas the previous iteration, the Citizens Advisory Board, was derided for what critics saw as ineffective handling of complaints and a lack of transparency.

Recommendations for the new board include changes to the membership design, such as who sits on the board, the transparency of their appointments, and the establishing of term limits.

“The primary duty of this board will be to work in collaboration with public safety, primarily the Oklahoma City Police Department, to provide resident perspectives of how sensitive police matters are handled,” said Andrea Grayson, implementation manager of the OKC Public Safety Partnership. “We expect through this collaboration to provide clarity and understanding through education and communication with this board to the public.”

More: Oklahoma City to begin implementing 39 police reforms following city council vote

Grayson also pointed out that the passage of Tuesday’s resolution meant that three additional recommendations for the board would be allowed.

The change to the oversight board came as part of 39 recommendations made in March 2022.

The recommendations — a result of the work of the Mayor's Law Enforcement Policy Task Force, the Community Policing Working Group and the city-hired consultant 21CP Solutions — range from prioritizing de-escalation at a higher level, improving officer wellness and searching for an alternative response to mental health calls.

Former board good at the time, but needed updates, mayor says

The new advisory board, as established by Tuesday’s resolution, would consist of eight members nominated by the council member from each ward and appointed by the mayor. One at-large member also would be appointed by the mayor and chair the board.

Members would have up to four two-year terms, and by-laws would allow for subcommittees.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, who voted in favor of the resolution, said the former Citizens Advisory Board dating back two decades “was a credible reform” at the time but began to fall short over the years.

“The most notable shortcoming was that the members were not appointed or confirmed by elected officials, so the board had no tie back to the people it purported to represent,” Holt said. “That was a disconnect that became more glaring over time.”

Holt also remembered the Citizens Advisory Board being discussed during city council meetings in the summer of 2020 and council members knowing nearly nothing about the board.

“That was clearly not optimal, and so reforming this board by tying it back to the residents of OKC is an important step to take.”

Some council members say board changes insufficient

But city Councilwomen JoBeth Hamon and Nikki Nice, who represent Ward 6 and Ward 7 respectively, voted against the resolution.

Hamon said the board’s name complicated matters of public safety by also encompassing firefighters when the primary concern would be police reform. Nice questioned how the board would increase independent transparency and accountability of authorities if only the mayor would have the ultimate say over the appointees, and argued that one appointee for each ward was insufficient.

Hamon attempted a resolution Tuesday to rename the board, which failed. Nice then brought forward a resolution to delay voting on the board until a future council meeting, which also failed.

“It’s very unfortunate (...) that we can’t even get our own mayor to work with us and talk through some of these things that we’re asking for,” Nice said. “It’s very disappointing that we have to continue to go through these efforts of people not being able to be heard and represented at the table for specific conversations for those same groups that have experienced the trauma of what has been brought forward by the lack of the accountability that they have asked for.”

Holt defended his vote, saying he was just one of several who voted in favor of the board, including Ward 2 Councilperson James Cooper, who’d also voiced concerns about reform proposals that day but ultimately voted for the resolution.

“The main objection about it (Tuesday) was the name, and I am fine with the name,” Holt said. “I am far more interested in the work that this is going to do. We made promises, back in 2020, that we were going to improve the provision of this core service. That’s a consensus, so that’s what we’ve set out to do.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: What to know about how OKC's police advisory board is changing