Penn Police to consider civilian review board

The Penn Police plan to consider the creation of various types of civilian review boards at their annual Department of Public Safety meeting in March in response to repeated requests from the minority community and the Undergraduate Assembly that the department reevaluate their complaint processes.

The decision comes on the heels of an incident last month in which College senior Dimitri Dube alleged that he was stopped by Penn Police officers partly because of his race.

A Penn Police investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of either Dube or the officers, but many students said police need to be monitored by a civilian review board.

The UA passed a resolution earlier this month calling for the implementation of such a board after Dube had attended one of their meetings. The resolution urged University administrators to establish a community review board that would serve as an avenue for appeals outside of internal police procedure.

At the March meeting, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush plans to bring forth the UA's proposal and any minority student concerns to help determine what kind of civilian review board could be implemented at the University.

"What we don't want to do is add one more bureaucratic thing," Rush said. "We want to add something with a positive effect that is fair to both the police and the civilians."

The UA proposed a model similar to one implemented in 1990 at the University of California at Berkeley, where the board would be comprised of members of the student body, University faculty, administrators, community residents and members of the Penn Police Department.

United Minorities Council Political Chairman Shaun Gonzales said review boards could provide valuable perspectives on cases such as that of Dube.

"Even before the investigation was completed, the investigator felt race was not a factor in the stop, as we were told in our meetings," the College junior said. "Furthermore, there were no reasons given for stopping Dube at 40th and Walnut when he was just walking on the sidewalk."

Though they do not oppose the Berkeley model, Penn Police wish to examine other models that may function better at this University.

One of Rush's main concerns is avoiding unnecessary scrutiny of officer's actions.

"Police officers have a very difficult job already," Rush said. "We don't want our officers to feel as if everything they do is under intense scrutiny, but we also want to make it very clear to the Penn and West Philadelphia communities that we understand they feel the need for an additional level in the complaint process."

The minority community has repeatedly stressed that they do not want a civilian review board to penalize the police for every mistake.

Rather, they would like to work closely with Penn Police to examine problems when they arise and come up with an objective solution.

However, there are other obstacles that may hinder the creation of the review board.

The University is currently under contract with the police officers union, prohibiting them from forming any external review procedure.

Though the UA has urged the police to consider renegotiating that contract, it may be a more difficult decision than that -- a review board could meet with much criticism from the union leadership.

Penn Police have also expressed interest in working with student groups who want to make the complaint process easier.

Last year, complaint forms were given to campus resource centers, including the Greenfield Intercultural Center, the Penn Women's Center and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered Center, in attempts to eliminate the fear people may associate with filing a complaint against police officers at the actual police station.

Currently, the Department of Public Safety is examining several models for a civilian review board, but representatives say their hands are tied until the March meeting.

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