South Bend councilors hint at frontrunners for police review office director

SOUTH BEND ― City officials seem poised to recommend two South Bend natives and potentially an outsider with law enforcement experience to the mayor in order for him to select a director of the Community Police Review Office.

Members of the South Bend Common Council met Wednesday to share their opinions on four candidates to lead the office who were publicly interviewed Monday night.

Monday night:South Bend police review board finalists prompt debate on value of policing experience

Councilors reached a consensus that South Bend school board member Stephanie Ball and YMCA Director of Urban Youth Services Rev. Charles King are the frontrunners because of their deep roots in South Bend and ties to the Black community.

Three of the eight councilors who showed ― 2nd District councilor Henry Davis Jr. was the only one absent ― also named Matthew Topelian, a former police officer and customs enforcement agent, in their preferred recommendation to the mayor. None recommended Julius Rhodes, a former Kenosha police officer.

The council hasn't yet made a formal recommendation. A 2021 amendment to the original ordinance, which established the review office and the related Community Police Review Board, allows four councilors to recommend up to three candidates to the mayor.

The members vested with that power are President Sharon McBride, Vice President Sheila Niezgodski, Health and Public Safety Committee chair Eli Wax and immediate past president Karen White.

Those councilors will list the nominees in a resolution, which must be passed by the full council to take effect, at Monday’s common council meeting.

A resolution was filed Tuesday with blank spaces where the names would be in order to meet the deadline set by the ordinance, McBride said. The document will be amended to include names before Monday's meeting, a process that council attorney Bob Palmer said is permitted by state law.

Ultimately, the authority to hire a director falls with South Bend Mayor James Mueller. The mayor could technically disregard councilors’ recommendations but has said he plans to hew closely to them.

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The purpose of a review office and a review board, as outlined in a 2020 city ordinance, is to enhance trust between the South Bend Police Department and the community. Residents can file complaints of police misconduct to the board, which are to be reviewed independently of SBPD’s internal affairs office.

Each of the city's six council districts must be represented on the nine-member review board. The board can make policy recommendations based on the review office director’s findings, but disciplinary action ultimately falls to the Board of Public Safety.

Councilors narrowed down a field of more than 50 applicants for director ahead of Monday's meeting.

Ball was educated in South Bend public schools before majoring in sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She later obtained a master's degree in public administration. She became a school board member in 2019 and has spent most of her career working for organizations that provide housing and services to low-income tenants.

King, a pastor, graduated from LaSalle High School and went on to work at Martin's Super Market for more than 15 years. Since 2021, he has been the director of urban youth services at YMCA of Greater Michiana.

Topelian, who lives about an hour southwest of town, has never lived in South Bend. He started his career in law enforcement at the Houston Police Department, he said. He patrolled a high-crime area of the city before working at a jail. He then spent the bulk of his career as an agent for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including four years doing internal affairs investigations.

Councilors Niezgodski, White and Canneth Lee said Topelian's name should be submitted to the mayor. Lori Hamann, an at-large councilor, advised against including Topelian because he seemed less community-oriented.

"I think that this particular position needs to be just 100% focused on the complaints that come forward and the best approaches forward to finding a resolution to these concerns from the community," Hamann said, "and less about ways to correct faults in the police department."

Wax was the only member to name just one candidate. He said King stands out as best equipped to build a constructive dialogue between residents and police.

The idea for a new citizen oversight board gained traction locally after a South Bend police officer shot and killed Eric Logan in 2019 and a national outcry erupted in summer 2020 over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

There has been pushback against community police review boards by police who question the authority of civilians to investigate sworn officers.

Joshua Morgan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 36, told councilors Wednesday that he believes the board will fail to improve accountability.

Under state law, Morgan noted, officers don’t have to say anything to the review office director. And he’s skeptical that internal affairs staffers, who are sworn police officers and thus empowered by state law to investigate misconduct complaints against other officers, can be forced to reopen investigations in response to the director’s requests.

“I think you’re really setting it up to fail,” Morgan said.

Councilors did not dispute Morgan’s claims questioning the review office director’s legal authority. Wax, the lone Republican on the council, said he doubts whether the new position is the best way to bridge a gap between police and community members.

But most councilors stressed their belief in the value of an office to field complaints whose leader isn’t beholden to the police chief. The aim is to bolster the eroding trust between police forces and the residents they exist to serve.

“We would hope," Hamann said, “that the police officers would be willing to cooperate with a process that the community desperately desires to have in place.”

Councilors said they don’t want to delay hiring a director any longer. The ordinance establishing the review office and the board can be amended if necessary, councilors said.

“I think this can really be a way that we really do strengthen our relationships with law enforcement,” said Lee, the 1st District councilor. “Not as a witch hunt, but as a way of the community understanding more of what’s going on with law enforcement, and then law enforcement understanding the needs of the community.”

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mayor to choose police review director after council narrows field