Tallahassee city commissioners move closer to repealing citizen police review board

Tallahassee appears to be one of the next Florida cities to repeal its citizens police review board — a move prompted by a new state law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that prohibits such oversight.

On Wednesday, Tallahassee city commissioners voted 4-1 to set the first and only public hearing to repeal the board for Jan. 15.

Commissioners Jack Porter, who cast the only no vote, and Jeremy Matlow asked to delay the hearing until February or March to consider possible alternatives. But Mayor John Dailey and Commissioners Dianne Williams-Cox and Curtis Richardson signaled they were ready to move forward.

The new law prohibits the adoption or enforcement of any local ordinances related to the processing or investigation of complaints of misconduct by law enforcement. While it allows for the creation of “civilian oversight boards,” all of its members must be appointed by sheriffs or police chiefs.

Since the law took effect July 1, a succession of Florida citizens have disbanded their citizen police review boards, including Miami, Orlando, Fort Myers, Kissimmee and Tampa, whose board dissolved just last week.

Inspector General Dennis Sutton said he was aware of “some discussion out there” about the applicability of the law, but that he and City Attorney Amy Toman had taken a close look at its intent, its meaning and how it should be implemented.

“It is clear to both the city attorney and myself that this bill and law does apply to our city, and we will have to repeal it,” Sutton told commissioners.

Sutton added that after Miami pulled funding and staff support for its police review board, the board sued. But a court found that Miami “acted appropriately.”

The Governor’s Office said the law, which took effect July 1, was written to “prevent anti-police activists from carrying out extrajudicial investigations against law enforcement.” City commissioners passed a resolution earlier this year opposing it.

“Apparently that had no influence on the Legislature at the time nor on the governor, because he signed this into law,” Richardson said.

Matlow said he supported moving forward with the public hearing but wanted to look further into the matter, including First Amendment issues and what platform the public has to offer opinions on police incidents.

“I think government trying to limit that kind of speech is scary,” he said.

Porter said she wasn’t comfortable moving forward because she just learned about the repeal last week and “the community needs more time before we jump to that point.” Porter, who was ill, participated in the meeting virtually.

“There is a robust discussion to be had there,” she said. “There are potentially alternative options.”

Richardson said pushing back the public hearing would only delay “what we know would have to happen.” Dailey also didn’t want to wait any longer.

“I’m ready to go ahead and vote,” Dailey said. “I’m ready to go ahead and repeal it. And I’m ready to do it at the January meeting.”

The citizens police review board was created in 2020, a tumultuous year that saw three different suspects shot and killed by Tallahassee police officers. A local grand jury later found that the officers involved acted lawfully and were justified in their use of lethal force.

Delilah Pierre is president of the Tallahassee Community Action Committee, a harsh critic of local police, whose members have been complaining about the city's handling of the review board for months.

Pierre said Wednesday that while the new law undermines police oversight and limits the authority of review boards, it doesn’t require their repeal.

“It is extremely disappointing,” she said ahead of the vote.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: City commissioners move closer to repealing citizen police review board