HOUSTON – Critics have long complained that Houston’s citizens’ review board, tasked with making recommendations on police hiring, training and discipline, is a paper tiger with no real power.
Five Houston City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Sylvester Turner Monday with suggested police policy reforms.
The letter, signed by Martha Castex-Tatum, Vice Mayor Pro Tem, Edward Pollard, Esq., Houston City Council Member, Tiffany D. Thomas, Houston City Council Member, Jerry Davis, Houston City Council Member, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Houston City Council Member -- calls for an overhaul of the Independent Police Oversight Board, among other measures including the creation of an online complaint system for interactions with police.
One local example, the January 2019 Harding street raid that left two innocent homeowners dead, and led to felony indictments against six police officers.
The council members’ letter makes 25 recommendations, including mandatory discipline for officers making racial or culturally insensitive public comments, and random psychological exams.
The letter also suggests that reforms address cell phone use around police, undercover officer conduct, Cite and Release legislation, incentive pay for residency, recruitment, video recordings of officer-involved shooting scenes, random psychological exams, a college degree requirement, social media guidelines, protest guidelines, body camera footage guidelines, and guidelines for the chief to appear before the committee.
The letter reads, in part, “After discussions and comments received during our June 25, 2020, Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting...we have no confidence in the current format. We must create a structure of guidelines that governs the function of the new board to restore public trust with public input. The oversight board must have complete autonomy, access to all unclassified information from the Houston Police Department, and investigatory authority.”
The letter says, in part, “The urgency needed to address police misconduct and racial injustice requires solutions that lead to actionable and impactful reform.”
KPRC 2 reached out to the mayor for a statement. This is what his office texted our newsroom: “The mayor welcomes input from city council members and thanks them for their thoughtful letter. He expects other council members to weigh in. Mayor Turner said this morning that plans to forward the letter to his task force on policing reform for review and consideration.”
And while the Houston Police Officers Union says some of the recommendations are already being utilized, the union is strongly opposed to giving the board investigatory power.
“We want fairness and we don’t’ believe we’re going to get it if they’re investigators,” said HPOU’s Ray Hunt. " They’re just citizens. There’s no experience in investigations whatsoever. We don’t send a one-year patrol officer to investigate a murder. We call out the homicide division that has experience in this.”
Mayor Turner said he welcomes the recommendations and has forwarded the letter to a special task force he appointed earlier this summer to review police reform. The mayor said he expects to receive a report and recommendations from the task force by the end of September.