Right now, City Council has five pieces of police reform legislation floating around on various agendas. The highest profile one, and the only actual ordinance of the bunch, creates a task force to research and design a Civilian Review Board (to learn more about CRBs, check out this PDF from the National Association for the Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement). The others look to create a Marcus Alert work group, ask the police to stop using chemical weapons, find ways to reallocate some of the Richmond Police Department's budget, and requests an ongoing asset forfeiture report.
A cynical way to look at that list is, faced with weeks and weeks of nationwide protests for police reform, City Council wants to create two task forces, two reports, and very nicely request the Richmond Police Department to change some of their policies.
That's overly cynical, though! The reality is that, due to the weird structure of our government, City Council and the Mayor must work together to put in place meaningful police reform. What we've got on the docket today—including the Mayor's Task Force to Reimagine Public Safety—should only be considered a starting point for stronger, more wide-ranging future legislation and policy change. It's worth noting that Councilmembers Lynch and Jones have taken the lead in putting together this first batch of legislation, and I'm thankful for that. Aside from more and better legislation, mark your calendars for 45 days from now when the Mayor's task force will make their recommendations. Also, the City has a huge opportunity to amend the Richmond Police Department's budget at the first quarterly two-stage coronavirus budget review meeting in September.
OK! Below you'll find the five papers introduced over the last couple weeks and a quick, human-readable summary of each. You can let Council know your thoughts and feelings immediately, and I'll make sure to keep an eye on when these start to hit committee or Council agendas.
ORD. 2020-155: Create a Civillian Review Board task force
Patrons: Lynch, Jones, Addison, Newbille, Robertson ORD. 2020-155 sets up a task force to research and design an appropriate Civilian Review Board for Richmond. Nine folks, appointed by Council, will make up the task force—one must live in a public housing neighborhood, one must be 18-years-old or younger, and one must be a person with a disability. The task force will be responsible for everything from determining what's legally allowed in Richmond and in Virginia, to collecting feedback from the community and key stakeholders, to outright creating the CRB's bylaws and budget. The task force must complete this work by March 1st. The way the ordinance is written does seem to focus the task force on creating a CRB with an "investigative" model (see the above CRB PDF). The Richmond Transparency and Accountablity Project, in a recent press release rejecting the Mayor's Task Force 😬, demanded a CRB with the authority to recommend broader police policy changes. This would be more in line with the "auditor/monitor" model.
RES. 2020-R045: Create a Marcus Alert work group
Patrons: Jones, Lynch, Newbille, Addison RES. 2020-R045 asks the CAO to create a workgroup that will develop a plan to implement the Marcus Alert, a program that will coordinate emergency responders with the aim of deescalating "situations involving individuals with suspected or confirmed mental health issues." This workgroup will consist of folks from the Richmond Police Department, Department of Social Services, Department of Emergency Communications, and a member of City Council—but no members of the community! The workgroup can, if they wish, also bring in mental health professionals, like those from the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority. The plan this group generates must be delivered to Council by October 1st, 2020 and can include all sorts of things but must consider: coordination with in-patient and out-patient mental health facilities, training for City employees, and funding. I'm interested in how much community members—including the Marcus-David Peters family—have been/will be involved in this process.
RES. 2020-R048: Please, stop using chemical weapons
Patrons: Lynch, Jones RES. 2020-R048 asks the CAO to ask the Richmond Police Department to update their policies and stop using bean bag rounds, flash-bang grenades, pepper balls, rubber bullets, tear gas, and other non-lethal weapons to control unlawful and riotous assemblies (as defined by the Code of Virginia § 18.2-406). Always remember: Resolutions are non-binding.
RES. 2020-R047: Do a report on (some) of the RPD's budget
Patrons: Lynch, Jones RES. 2020-R047 asks the CAO to report to Council all of the funding in the FY2021 budget that the Richmond Police Department will use for "mental health, substance abuse, and social service functions" and to provide recommendations on how to reallocate that funding to either other City departments or community organizations. The background section of the resolution helpfully notes that "Such calls for reallocation of police resources have come to be grouped under the rubric of 'Defund the police'", and that "'Defund' does not mean abolish policing." This report will not look into how to defund the regular, day-to-day parts of the RPD budget, but, I reckon that will be a focus of September's budget review meeting.
RES. 2020-R046: Request a recurring asset forfeiture report
Patrons: Lynch, Jones, Addison RES. 2020-R046 asks the CAO to give the Finance and Economic Development committee quarterly reports on five asset forfeiture special funds: The Commonwealth Attorney Federal/State Asset Forfeiture Special Funds, the Police Federal/State Asset Forfeiture Special Funds, and the Sheriff and Jail State Asset Forfeiture Special Fund. Those funds total $882,366 in the proposed FY21 city budget ($2,366; $75,000; $300,000; $500,000; and $5,000 respectively). With regular reports, Council hopes to increase the transparency on the collection and use of these assets.