MORGANTOWN — The creation of a Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board is not an attack on the Morgantown Police Department, but a proactive effort to build trust between the community and the MPD, provide a process to receive and review citizen complaints and address systematic discrimination inherent in policing.
Those were among the points raised during a Tuesday evening presentation to Morgantown City Council by a special committee that spent 22 public meetings over the last seven months hammering out the enabling ordinance for such a board.
Morgantown/Kingwood NAACP President Jerry Carr explained that, if ultimately adopted, the nine-person board appointed by city council could audit existing MPD policies and procedures and make recommendations; hold public meetings and take input from the public and receive, review and investigate civilian complaints.
What it could not do is discipline or penalize officers or employees, interfere with the MPD’s current disciplinary process or control police hiring, firing, budgeting or spending.
Carr pointed out that protecting the rights of police officers was a critical part of building the ordinance — a process that representatives of the MPD were welcome to, and did, participate in. He said the process is as likely to protect officers from false accusations as it is to result in a recommendation of discipline.
“It was very important to everyone in that room, well over 20, 30 folks have been involved in this thing, and it was important to all of them that the rights of all individuals were protected,” Carr said.
Others pointed out on a number of occasions that while officers currently have processes and protections in place under existing state code — including reviews by the Police Civil Service Commission — there is no procedure for a citizen to file a complaint against an officer that is independent of the department in question.
The MPD has a history of being both proactive and progressive in regards to policy. Mayor Ron Dulaney pointed out that it was the first department in the state to partner with the FBI to track use-of-force data. The department was also an early adopter of training on implicit bias, de-escalation and the prohibition of chokeholds.
The problem, former police officer and WVU Sociology Chair James Nolan explained, is that despite these and other efforts, discrimination is systematic within law enforcement.
He provided data indicating that black individuals comprise about 4% of Morgantown’s population, but represent 30% of the MPD’s arrests for possession of marijuana, 48% of arrests for sales of opioids and cocaine and 42% of arrests for the sale of marijuana, according to FBI data gathered between 2010-2019.
“You can see clearly; they are over represented in these statistics, by a lot,” Nolan said.
The question now becomes, will such a body stand to legal scrutiny.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey voiced his concerns to Morgantown City Council last September, explaining that only the Police Civil Service Commission has the authority to investigate allegations that could lead to punitive action.
City Attorney Ryan Simonton admitted, “There is the potential for a challenge.”
“It’s not entirely clear, at least under West Virginia law, what portions of the draft document are legally permissible for cities, or might be challenged,” he said.
The draft ordinance will now be sent to Morrisey’s office for review before being considered by city council.
