Citizen board yields to council demands for more police oversight

Two weeks earlier, Reid had vehemently defended the Atlanta Citizen Review Board’s decision not to investigate these cases in response to tough questions from members of the City Council — at one point Reid was told he was “blatantly incorrect” in his interpretation of city law. Reid’s tone changed significantly Thursday as he stood before his board and laid out a path forward.

An agreement is currently being hashed out between Atlanta police and the review board to define all the steps in future investigations, Reid told the board.

In the past the review board did not promptly get cases to investigate from the Atlanta Police Department. Now the review board wants to penalize the police if delays continue. They also want the chief to publicly explain if he rejects their recommendation to discipline police officers.

Board member Sharese Reyes said “it’s a slap in the face” when the chief overturns the board.

“All the work that we do is null and void if APD ultimately decides ‘Thank you, we’re not accepting your recommendation. We’re not going to discipline this officer,’” Reyes said.

Chief Darin Schierbaum declined an interview request on Friday.

Board member Cheyenne Morin asked if the City Council supported the agreement being worked on by the police department and review board. Reid said he did not know.

Leading the demand for change is Councilwoman Andrea Boone of District 10, who leads the city’s public safety committee. Boone has proposed a “strategic legislative overhaul” of the agency to expedite these deadly force investigations, but she told the AJC she is waiting to hear from board members before determining what that may entail.

“This is a city issue, not just an issue for me personally. It’s very serious,” Boone told the AJC this week. “Those families and the members of our community deserve answers and results.”

Reid is expected to provide more information to the public safety committee sometime next month, but no date has been set.

The City Council is expected to take up the scope of the board’s work and when investigations should begin.

Councilman Dustin Hillis, who represents District 9, said it was inappropriate for the board to be waiting for all other agencies to complete their investigations first. Reid has used that to explain why no investigations have been done in the last four years.

The board could be interviewing witnesses and reviewing preliminary police reports while it waits for the autopsy report and other investigations to be completed, Hillis said.

“They shouldn’t be waiting until basically their job is done for them to start an investigation,” Hillis told the AJC during an interview.

Multiple board members said they did not want to jeopardize ongoing criminal investigations by starting the board’s investigation too early. But they did not address that District Attorney Fani Willis had already declined to prosecute officers involved in 18 deadly force cases, the AJC’s investigation found.

Board Chairman Kelvin Williams declined to comment when asked by the AJC about the closed criminal investigations after Thursday’s meeting. He did not return a phone call seeking comment on Friday.

The City Council might also need to weigh in on the scope of the board’s work, including if it should investigate all “discharge of a firearm” by police as is stated in the city ordinance, or only police shootings that end in serious injury or death as Reid has claimed.

One such firearm discharge case was dismissed Thursday by the review board without doing a full investigation.

Staff received the investigative file from the Atlanta Police Department and determined it should not have been provided to the board because it is unclear if anyone was hurt during the shooting.