Citizens panel pushes for police review board

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998 | 11:04 a.m.

An ordinance that would create a subpoena-wielding citizens review board to examine alleged Metro Police misconduct was forwarded to the County Commission and Las Vegas City Council on Monday amid pleas from the authors not to water down the proposed board's powers.

A diverse 16-member citizens advisory committee, which included input from residents, the American Civil Liberties Union and the sheriff's office, presented the proposed ordinance to the police department's Fiscal Affairs Board.

The advisory committee crafted the ordinance in response to 1997 legislation sponsored by state Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, enabling such a review board to be created in Clark County.

Peter Thomas, the civilian chairman of the Fiscal Affairs Board, questioned why the proposed 25-member review board would have investigatory powers similar to Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau.

"The statute was created because of a lack of trust in Internal Affairs," said Franny Forsman, a federal public defender who chaired the advisory committee. "Citizens were intimidated by the Internal Affairs process. They were turned away by Internal Affairs. They were told in the middle of the process that they'd have to take a polygraph test.

"To force the citizens to go through that process would not keep with the intent of the statute."

Neal began pushing for a civilian review board after the widely-publicized 1990 strangulation of casino worker Charles Bush, allegedly at the hands of three Metro officers who entered his home without a warrant and placed him in a choke hold during a scuffle. Bush's family received a $1.1 million settlement.

More recent headlines surrounding the drive-by shooting death of 21-year-old Daniel Mendoza added to the public's mistrust of the department. Ron Mortensen, a Metro officer at the time of the shooting, was convicted of murder in the case and sentenced to life in prison.

"Ninety-nine percent of the police department does a tremendous job of keeping the peace," said the Rev. Jesse Scott, former president of the Las Vegas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "But what happens to the 1 percent that the sheriff has turned his head to and looked the other way?

"Even if it was just one Charles Bush, just one incident ... we can't have that," Scott said.

Since it was created in 1973, Metro has never had an officer-involved shooting ruled criminal homicide.

Proponents of the review board, however, cited three settlements approved Monday with alleged victims of police misconduct as evidence that the problems continue.

The $295,000 in settlements included a $200,000 award to Cheryl and George Beals, who claimed officers used excessive force when attempting to serve an arrest warrant at the Beals' home in June 1995.

But the power of the review board to investigate such claims independently of Internal Affairs is still being debated.

"You cannot create an agency that is a mailman," Forsman said. "The whole purpose of this was to be able to investigate, not just refer it on to someone else."

Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada branch of the ACLU, said his office receives about a dozen complaints from citizens alleging police misconduct each week.

"I think you would be terribly misguided to not take very seriously the recommendations of the citizens advisory panel," Peck said.

Without a "genuinely independent, adequately funded, properly staffed" review board, Peck argued, public trust of Metro will be further eroded.

But Andy Anderson, president of the Police Protective Association, said he worried that the citizens review board would have the power to drag out investigations for years and sink the morale of Metro's 2,000 officers.

"For a panel to have the ability to subpoena all kinds of information ... what are the ways we can protect a police officer?" Anderson asked.

County Commissioner Mary Kincaid, who sits on the Fiscal Affairs Board, said she was concerned about the cost of a review board.

"When you're dealing with constitutional rights of citizens, there's no cost too great to make sure they're carried out," Neal said.

County Commissioner Myrna Williams -- who also sits on the Fiscal Affairs Board -- said she didn't want the citizens review board to become a sort of "secret police" with the ability to smear the reputations of good police officers with unfounded allegations.

"My concern is that we don't have two police departments, one watching another," Williams said. "We've seen that happen in other countries."

Metro Undersheriff Richard Winget, who served on the committee that drafted the proposed ordinance, said he thought the proposal was a good compromise.

He said, however, that he was concerned that the review board could undermine the ability of Metro Police to investigate.

"Those investigations could go on and on and on," Winget said.