MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Civilian Police Review & Advisory Board has come to understand that its endeavors are going to require time and persistence.
For example, on April 4, 2023, the board used a portion of its first official meeting to create a subcommittee prioritizing the collection of and public access to the Morgantown Police Department’s statistical data.
It’s been an agenda item for every board meeting since.
And while meeting minutes over the last 22 months would indicate there’s been at least some back-and-forth between the CPRAB and the MPD on this issue, there seems to have been little to no significant progress made.
Publicly available statistics on the Morgantown Police Department website include a breakdown of arrest data by race demographics for 2018 and 2019 and a performance metrics graph for 2009-2021 that shows calls for service and crime types.
“Even just totals – forget the [patrol] zones and all that – how many burglaries were committed in Morgantown in 2024?” Chairman Richard Burks said. “That’s bare minimum.”
Bob Cohen, a member of the board’s statistical reporting subcommittee, said he walked away from a recent meeting with Deputy Chief Chris Ruehmer feeling like these efforts are headed in the wrong direction.
“What I heard from him is that it’s enormously difficult to pull together all this information, and that’s not really what I heard last May when Rich and I met with them,” Cohen said. “I’m not sure how to interpret it.”
Another case in point is the process by which members of the community can file official complaints – or provide any real feedback, good or bad – regarding interactions with police officers.
That issue has been on every CPRAB agenda since last March. Members have noted there is no real process; just a form that can be difficult to find, unnecessarily complicated and potentially intimidating.
They’ve also noted they’re not aware of any complaints ever filed using that system.
“I mean, as far as what we’re doing, basically we want an easy form, a workable form, a form that people won’t be intimidated by,” Burks said. “I mean, that’s really what we’re looking for.”
On this front, there does appear to be some progress.
Catherine Fonseca said she was “surprised and heartened” by Ruehmer’s feedback on the revised form presented by the board.
“I think he had really great responses. He had great feedback,” she said. “The only difference is we left understanding we would be revising that, as opposed to they [MPD] would be revising that. I think his feedback is great. I think it makes the form a lot better.”
As for the speed at which these efforts are advancing, Vice Chair Rachel Fetty pointed out that while these issues are the sole focus of the board, they’re one of many issues being juggled by the leadership of MPD.
“We can persist, but I think we just need to have reasonable timelines in place for ourselves to try to understand when we’re going to get this feedback and what we’re actually able to do. We are not in a position to impose a policy on the police department,” she said. “Now, if they don’t adopt a more adaptable complaint process, then of course we can complain to the city council, but that’s just not the best process.”
