FOLIO
Could civilian review boards happen in Jacksonville? Don’t hold your breath.
They were an issue, of sorts, during the just-concluded campaign for sheriff. Ahead of the First Election, Tony Cummings made the case for them at multiple forums. The implementation of the review boards, in his reckoning, would be fashioned after the Seattle model.
How’d he do? He received south of 6 percent of the votes cast. And he refused to endorse either of the two candidates who made the runoff, neither of whom supported civilian review boards.
This is not to say that there won’t be some meaningful move toward reform in this vein.
Back in March, now-Sheriff-elect Mike Williams said that he intended to challenge a 2010 court ruling that closed the boards that review police-involved shootings. Currently, the process can take up to nine months — and it is not a transparent process. This begets a lack of trust, he said. He said this was a Day One priority. Day One is rapidly approaching, and for some citizens, it’s already passed.
The lack of trust is manifested whenever there is a police-involved shooting; a recent example, the shooting of D’Angelo Stallworth on May 12 at a Westside apartment complex. Stallworth was shot six times in the back, by officers who were on the scene to serve an eviction notice at the apartment next door.
At a rally in support of Stallworth’s family at The Jacksonville Landing on May 30, the family’s attorney, Eric Block, told WJXT TV4 that “We commissioned an independent autopsy, out of town with a doctor we don’t know. We’ve got those results; why haven’t we been able to get the results of the Duval County official autopsy?”
Meanwhile, he was quoted in Fight Back News as saying that “there’s a dispute over a gun; JSO says they found a gun on the balcony. This is the fifth or sixth time something like this has happened in Jacksonville this year.”
One of those other times happened in March, when Devanta Jones was shot at the Cleveland Arms apartment complex. As Folio Weekly reported at the time, the locals believed that the police shot Jones while he was on the ground and that there was a cover-up going on.
Locals lack recourse through a civilian review board, and they are not likely to gain it anytime soon. A big part of the reason why is the sheriff is popularly elected. If the Jacksonville Sheriff were an unelected employee of the city, a civilian review board could be imposed by city government. The JSO isn’t likely to impose one on itself, especially with the Fraternal Order of Police opposing it. Not with an FOP-endorsed candidate taking over as mayor.
Could this be an issue this summer?
We have seen a spike in violent crime and murder in recent years. Of course, the crime is largely — though not exclusively — concentrated in certain parts of town. The same is true for police-involved shootings.
The Cleveland Arms incident earlier this spring brought protesters to the fore, and the police on hand prepared for the worst, by choking off entrance points around the immediate vicinity. A common thread among the protesters was the assertion that there was no recourse for their concerns.
In cities such as Las Vegas, New York, Fort Lauderdale, and the aforementioned Seattle, police departments see salutary effects from civilian review boards, in terms of citizen engagement, that come at the expense of other mythologies.
For example, the most recent report from the New York City civilian review board uncovered 26 instances of officers lying about their cases: a total that was equal to the previous four years combined. While this is momentarily embarrassing for the department and the officers, the upside is the increased accountability overall.
In Jacksonville, political capital and willpower to develop civilian review boards are lacking. Without trust and accountability, it could be a long summer. If the worst should happen, perhaps we’ll see a more concerted effort by citizens to make politicians heed this call.
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