Three years after being established by City Council, Alexandria’s Independent Community Policing Review Board is still not up and running. Now after another delay, the board will have to postpone investigating hundreds of allegations of police misconduct until at least the fall.
It’s been more than four years since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin. The event sparked international outrage, also resulting in protests in Alexandria where Mayor Justin Wilson and city leaders called for police accountability.
Alexandria’s City Council, in May 2021, approved the creation of the eight-person review board and spent more than a year searching for an independent auditor to investigate allegations of police misconduct and report to the board.
“A number of us are coming to the end of our terms and we have yet to get this thing fully implemented,” Krupicka said. “There’s been a lot of time to look at the ordinance. Last year there was a discussion about opening up the ordinance and making changes. If there was a need to make changes last year we could have made them. Lots of concerns.”
Kim Neal was hired as the independent auditor in Dec. 2022, but can’t investigate alleged misconduct until her office creates a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with police. That effort has gone back to the drawing table, since City Attorney Cheran Cordell Ivery has concerns about the confidentiality of officers being investigated.
“We’ve had city attorneys before,” said board member Ingris Moran at the May meeting. “Why is there a critical review of the ordinance now when I feel this is just going to back us up from us doing our work and be able to function 100% as a board? I guess it’s just frustrating that our roles are about to expire and we haven’t done anything and I think we look bad from the community lens because we can’t function.”
The Board’s March meeting was canceled and the June 5 meeting was turned into a training session when the Board failed to make a quorum.
Neal told City Council on Tuesday that she wants to create an ad hoc working group with representatives from the city attorney’s office, the police department and the city manager’s office to iron out legal concerns in creation of an MOU. She also requested that future meetings of the Board not be recorded.
Neal said that she needs more direction on the type of misconduct allegations to investigate, since the current ordinance gives her an immediate caseload of between 350 and 400 cases.
“That’s a lot,” Neal said. “We don’t think that that was the intent of this Council, to have the office to get that many cases, and so we need some clarification on that. If the intent is to do separate investigations of the police department of that 350, 400 cases, then we need some specific mandates. And then there are also going to be some fiscal implications as a result of that when it relates to staffing and resources.”
Neal said there’s confusion as to whether the independent board should be represented by the city attorney. She also said that there is no process by which the board could conduct hearings.
“What is a hearing versus a board meeting?” Neal said. “Further direction, if we move forward with looking at recommendations to the council, we would take a stab at really thinking that process out — if there should be hearings, and if there are, what that exactly looks like.”
Neal said she is hopeful that the working group can iron out issues within 45 days, just in time to approach Council again after its summer recess.
“Hopefully by September, possibly October, we would bring those changes to the Council as well as the board,” Neal said. “Then that same group can then work together to convene to create that memorandum of understanding.”
Board investigations, which have not started, are currently limited to claims that occurred within two years of an issued complaint. The Board will be able to investigate the following:
- “Incidents resulting in death” including any incident which results in death of any 16 person involved in the incident
- “Use of Force” incidents, defined as the application of force sufficient to (i) create a reasonable risk of death, (ii) cause serious and protracted disfigurement, or (iii) result in impairment of the function of any bodily organ or limb
- It includes incidents in which a police officer deploys a striking implement, Taser or similar device, oleoresin capsicum (pepper) spray or other chemical irritant, less lethal weapon or a firearm or is applied using hands or any other part of the body
- “Severe misconduct” defined as dereliction of duty or unlawful or improper behavior
- Violating safety rules or the Virginia Traffic Code where such a violation poses a threat to life
- Threatening or intimidating subordinates, fellow employees, supervisors or members of the public.
- Willful or serious neglect in the performance of assigned duties or in the care, use, or custody of any City property.
- Sexual conduct, even consensual conduct, on the job
- Verbal or other conduct regarding an individual or group that maligns or shows hostility for the individual or group because of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression
