Originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 68, printed April 21. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Spring 2022 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

One of the demands of Richmond’s Black Lives Matter Rebellion of 2020 was for civilian review boards, with subpoena power, to oversee the police. A bill was passed in the General Assembly, but instead of mandating that cities and counties create such boards, it merely “empowered” them to do so. Few did.

One city that’s moving on the issue is Richmond. On March 14, Mayor Levar Stoney presented a paper to city council proposing a CRB “… that would be led by citizens committed to the objective review of Richmond Police Department internal investigations and policies.”

In proposing his version of a CRB, the mayor ignored the recommendations of the city council-appointed task force addressing the matter and instead went with the recommendations of a hand-picked VCU professor.

The mayor’s proposal is for a review board with no teeth. Its main focus would be reviewing cases of alleged police misconduct after those cases had been reviewed by the police department itself. It could investigate the cases further, but then only make recommendations to the chief of police, who would have the decision-making power.

In other words, the board can go through the motions of reviewing cases of alleged police misconduct, but would have no power to actually do anything about them.

We understand why police officers might not want to be disciplined by civilians. We also understand why civilians might not want to be abused – or killed – by police.

Once again, the mayor has gone through the motions of enacting reform, without actually reforming anything.

No teeth – and no backbone.