The Arlington County Board voted Wednesday to create a civilian group that will oversee police. The group will have the ability to subpoena police to investigate and scrutinize police actions, but will not initiate investigations or be able to discipline officers.
The unanimous decision finalizes the question in Arlington of how much power should be afforded to the civilian board, a debate that has ramped up in the past year after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by convicted police officer Derek Chauvin. Under legislation passed by lawmakers in Richmond, localities are allowed to set up civilian boards with the ability to subpoena police and make disciplinary decisions, up to and including firing an officer.
Many local activists including the NAACP have called for a powerful civilian review board maximizing these powers, but in May, County Manager Mark Schwartz proposed only allowing the group to review completed police investigations, rather than conducting its own. This frustrated some residents who described their frustrations with the weaker review board during public comments following the vote.
Arlington County Board Vice Chair Katie Cristol tweeted that the new plan was developed over “dozens” of meetings with experts and “made sense for Arlington.”
During more than an hour of public comments in a special meeting Wednesday night, many civilian speakers expressed a desire for a more powerful review board. A handful of police union representatives argued that a board with greater disciplinary and investigative abilities would undermine department morale.
Andy Penn, who was recently promoted to a permanent position as the county’s police chief, said that he welcomed oversight but cited concerns about investigations being “taxing” on officers.
The county expects to appoint the civilian board’s inaugural members by the end of the fall, and plans to be ready to begin work by spring 2022. The approved ordinance sets a timeline for the county board to review the plans put in place in about a year and a half.
