East Lansing Police Oversight Commission Will Look to Increase Community Involvement
A dejected East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission convened Wednesday night, as members have been frustrated by changing rules and limited reach.
The commission saw its capabilities reduced last year when the city amended the ordinance governing it to take away key investigatory abilities and reduce information that can be publicly shared about the police department.
“I’m feeling the same sense of depletion that others are feeling,” Commissioner Sharon Hobbs said. “I mean, when I joined four years ago, I was really enthusiastic…I don’t know what to do, but surely it seems like if we think it’s important to have this [commission], then we’ve got to get the community behind it.”
It isn’t just the rules the commission operates under that have changed, public engagement has waned in the years since the commission was formed. One of the commission’s responsibilities is holding a public forum to hear the community’s concerns, experiences and priorities for policing, but the forum held recently saw low turnout.
Commissioner Simón Perazza said that he worries about the low community involvement and would like to see a broader sect of the city’s population show interest on issues around policing.
He pointed to East Lansing High School students who protested the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Jan. 9, after an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis.
“I really think our sweet spot in this town are young BIPOC adults at the schools,” Perazza said.
The commission decided to create a community engagement subcommittee to conduct outreach and inform local groups about the work the oversight commission does. Amanda Morgan, Kath Edsall, Perazza, and Hobbs will work on the subcommittee.
Turning to the community is a shift in approach to the commission’s goal of increasing police accountability and transparency, after City Council curbed the commission’s powers as part of a new collective bargaining agreement with a police union.
One recent change that commissioners openly detest is being unable to publicly say, discuss, or release the names of any police department employee. This includes officer names being redacted on public reports, which the commission says reduces police transparency.
Three motions were passed at Wednesday’s meeting, requesting specific information from the police department regarding use-of-force data and body-worn camera footage.
All motions passed, but Commission Chair Ernest Conerly voted against each.
“I’m just tired of looking like beggars, and asking for the same stuff just to get the same response,” Conerly said.