Tallahassee commission votes for citizen police review board to be ‘unbiased’ amid controversies

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – The Tallahassee city commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to pass a proposal that more clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of the city’s Citizens Police Review Board.

The approved proposal specifically requires members be fair and unbiased when reviewing police-community interactions.

The vote came after several commissioners and members of the public spoke against the amendments that were being put forth.

It also limits time for public comments to three minutes per person during review board meetings and further defines the powers and authorities of the board.

The board was originally formed in 2020 to “foster transparency, enhance communication and ensure a relationship of trust” between the Tallahassee Police Department and the community.

Commissioner Jacqueline Porter cited that the proposal would prevent the board from providing public outreach, which she worried could include documents such as statements or press releases.

“[This] is something that other boards that we have are able to do,” Porter claimed during the meeting. “I think that that is consistent with the mission of the CPRB.”

The other concern she had was related to the board only being able to allow three minutes of public comment per person.

Mayor Pro-Tem Dianne Williams-Cox confirmed with City Attorney Cassandra Jackson that the other boards that exist under the commission do not personally distribute press releases or allow public comment to exceed three minutes.

Williams-Cox said what the commission is trying to do is what they’ve done with the other boards. Only with the other boards, they didn’t have to “spell it out.”

“What we’re trying to do is treat all of our boards and committees the same,” she said. “So I see us bringing this [Citizens Police Review Board] in alignment.”

Commissioner Curtis Richardson expressed his support for the proposal as he believes it will help establish a board that is based on what the city initially “thought were the duties and responsibilities of that board.”

“And I think what we found was that there were people on the board taking it upon themselves to go beyond what was expected,” he said.

Dot Inman-Johnson, a former mayor of Tallahassee who is currently running against Richardson in 2024, spoke against the proposal during the meeting’s public comment period.

“If you are going to pass this collection of changes to the policies, that in all of them together put the concerns of residents against the city recommendations and the police, how do you create the trust,” she asked.

“If citizens can’t have the trust that they have somebody they can come to, or funnel their concerns through, than the Citizens Police Review Board, as the gentleman said earlier, may as well not exist,” she said.

Commissioner Jeremy Matlow argued that the board hasn’t gone far enough in its original mission, after being created in response to protests related to the death of George Floyd.

“I think what we’re seeing in the community is, we’re missing the mark on a lot of needs,” he said. “There’s a need to have a forum for people to come express themselves when they feel there’s an injustice in the community.”

Ultimately, this board should give everybody in our community the confidence that they’re just regular people making sure we’re doing the right thing in everything we do.”

Mayor John Dailey said that he understands the “narrow scope” that the board was originally created for. He supported the changes to the policies and procedures because he argued that anywhere the review board could not address the public’s concerns, the Citizens Advisory Council could take care of.

The commission previously had made a controversial decision to remove Taylor Biro, a member of the board, in December 2022. Biro was removed for displaying an anti-police message on her coffee mug at one of the board’s meetings.

This action led to the resignation of another member and division amongst the commission, since Porter was the sponsor of Biro’s approval onto the board.