Adrianne Sears said she felt powerless and frustrated last summer when Inglewood residents angrily demanded to know why police in the span of four months had fatally shot four men -- three of whom were unarmed.
As chairwoman of the Citizen Police Oversight Commission, residents expected that she and other commissioners would have answers. But they had none.
"We should have been in the know, and, of course, we weren't," Sears said.
The spate of shootings exposed Sears' 11-member oversight panel as a "toothless" body, she said, with few powers to effectively oversee the force.
As the U.S. Department of Justice last week announced an investigation into the Inglewood Police Department -- marking the second ongoing review of the agency -- Sears said she hoped that future changes would also mean a transformed commission.
Residents "wanted a civilian review board that was able to review not only citizen complaints, but obviously more serious issues," she said.
The civilian oversight panel was created in 2002 in the aftermath of a controversial arrest in which an Inglewood officer was captured on videotape punching a handcuffed 16-year-old boy and slamming him onto the hood of a squad car. The incident was broadcast nationally and sparked protests among residents who complained that Inglewood police were heavy-handed and racist.
Broad powers
In response, city leaders passed an ordinance establishing the oversight board and giving it broad powers. The commission had the authority to hold hearings on officer misconduct, subpoena witnesses and weigh in on possible officer punishment.
It seemed as if Inglewood leaders were embracing a growing national trend in law enforcement of giving citizens substantive oversight roles in police disciplinary matters. But that early promise, community advocates say, was short-lived.
By the time commission members were sworn in and held their first meeting, the City Council -- bowing in part to pressure from the police union -- had significantly amended the original ordinance, stripping the panel of most of its powers, according to Assemblyman Curren Price (D-Inglewood), who was a councilman in Inglewood at the time.
As a result, the panel has had little effect on police matters and the way officers conduct themselves in the department. They are not given most internal records and have a distant relationship with Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks, who said that because of how the ordinance is written, she is sometimes able to give more information to the public than to the commission.
