Jack Queen / jqueen@summitdaily.com |
SILVERTHORNE — In response to the national conversation around policing and use of force, the town of Silverthorne has opted to create a process for a Use of Force Review Board for incidents involving serious injury or death to a person. Policy 301 in the Silverthorne Police Department Policy Manual provides instruction on forming a Use of Force Review Board. Council discussed how certain members of this board would be appointed and determined that two members of the Citizens Advisory Committee should serve on the board.
As the town has formally recognized a Silverthorne Police Department Citizens Advisory Committee since 1999, it was recommended that two citizens from the advisory committee be added to the Use of Force Review Board as needed. Council decided to move forward with the idea by training the whole committee on legal matters surrounding police use of force and appointing two members to the board when or if the time comes.
The Citizens Advisory Committee recommended that town council appoint these members. The committee also recommended that while two town council members serve on the advisory committee, they should not serve on the review board. Chief John Minor said reasons council members should not serve on the review board include that council already has the ability to fire Minor by a majority vote, and council also makes decisions regarding litigation in a use-of-force scenario.
“It’s best to keep these council members probably removed from the Use of Force Review Board because we could get into some personnel actions,” Minor said.
Council member Kevin McDonald questioned why a council member shouldn’t serve on the review board, saying it seems that a council member serving on the board would be consistent with council’s responsibilities. Council member Derrick Fowler said that excluding council members from the review board avoids the real or perceived bias of a council member.
“The farther removed town council is from this, I think the better,” Fowler said.
Minor explained that when employed, the board would determine whether or not the employee’s actions were in line with proper policies and procedures. Minor pointed out that some advisory committee members don’t have much background on relevant case law for the use-of-force topic, which is why those who may serve on the board should begin education sooner than later.
Fowler asked if Minor is comfortable with the language in Policy 301.
“I am comfortable with this and yes, we probably need more citizen oversight especially given the tenor of our country today involving use of force, especially use of force that has substantial injury or death,” Minor said.
Instead of appointing two members of the committee to serve on the board as needed — as was originally suggested — council decided that training should occur. All members of the committee would be educated on use-of-force laws, and two noncouncil committee members would be appointed to the board when a review board is needed.
Per Policy 301, in addition to the two committee members, a commanding officer in the involved member’s chain of command, a training officer, one administrative personnel, a peer officer and a sworn peace officer from an outside law enforcement agency would serve.
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August 17, 2020 at 05:30AM
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Silverthorne plans for Use of Force Review Board - Summit Daily News
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