MORGANTOWN — The method by which citizens can provide feedback to the Morgantown Police Department — be it complaint or commendation — is, at best, clunky, confusing and inefficient and, at worst, intrusive, chilling to open dialogue and nonexistent.
Members of Morgantown’s Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board raised these points and others Thursday as the body reviews the MPD’s existing civilian complaint process.
The board worked through the two pages of instructions that come with the department’s “Civilian Complaint Form,” and pointed out a number of potential issues that could be intimidating to someone looking to file a complaint against an officer or the department.
Those include the apparent need to initiate the process by speaking in person or over the phone with a police supervisor, the requirements that the form include a social security number and the signature of a witness, and general difficulty finding and submitting the form.
Further, members took exception with language stating the complainant is swearing under penalty of criminal punishment by signing the document.
The board intends to confirm whether that language is a legal requirement.
“I’m not sure that would constitute false reporting of an emergency in my mind. That, to me, seems intended to quiet or chill the complaint process rather than the opposite,” Bryan Church said. “I think that’s something that probably should come out of there. I think we probably need to encourage people who might otherwise be afraid of retribution …”
Vice Chair Rachel Fetty continued.
“We can tell that there has been a chilling effect because we have zero complaints,” she said, adding, “The idea that we are in a community where we have had zero complaints for one of the most important elements of the services we provide is just obviously a problem. I think some simple tweaks to language; a simple change of the tone to invite communication as opposed to chill it down would go a long ways to improving the situation.”
Robert Cohen was part of the subcommittee that looked at the MPD’s complaint process. The group used Fairfax, Va., as an example of some of the changes it would like to suggest to MPD Chief Eric Powell.
“What we are planning to do, if the full board agrees, is to do a rewrite of the instructions,” he said. “We are thinking of suggesting to the police chief that the form be styled as a form on which you can give accommodation of a police officer as well as a complaint.”
The MPD form has no commendation function.
Fetty said her personal interactions with MPD officers has been “awesome.” She said including an avenue for positive feedback not only allows for the recognition of officers who go above and beyond but can also serve as a metric to help determine what policies and activities are viewed positively by the community.
Church agreed, describing his recent observations of officer interactions as “very professional,” “courteous” and “really impressive.”
“That’s the kind of thing that would be nice to include in the form in addition to the complaints, so the MPD gets that feedback,” he said. “You just don’t know if you’re doing a good job or a bad job or a mediocre job if you never get feedback of any kind.”
