By james art Madison’s police watchdog announced a way for residents to file complaints against police officers, just as the city’s civilian police oversight faces budget cuts or elimination altogether in the coming weeks.
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The complaints will prompt independent law enforcement investigations, backed by the Office of the Independent Monitor’s authority to subpoena law enforcement records and collect data from Madison police.
The complaint form requires the location, time and date of the incident, as well as the service badge number or physical description. Other fields require demographic information from the applicant and how the applicant learned about the supervisory and supervisory board.
The office will conduct three investigations at once early next week, prioritizing complaints that are new, actionable and “dangerous,” independent monitor Robin Copley said.
“Until now, the community has had very limited control over its police,” Copley said at a news conference Friday. “But the (Civilian Police Oversight Council) and OIM provide a bridge for the community to get involved in creating and changing police policies themselves.”
Complaints may be submitted through the Monitor’s email, [email protected], or in person at his office in Room 501 of the City-County Building.
The delays and controversy have come to a head as the mayor and city council now discuss the future of how Madison will provide law enforcement background checks.
The finalization of one of the monitor’s core responsibilities four years after its creation and two years after Copley took office comes amid public criticism of its slow progress and missed goals by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and some on the City Council.
Under Rhodes-Conway’s 2025 budget, the comptroller and the Civilian Police Oversight Board would be eliminated if voters reject a $22 million property tax referendum in the November election. Even if the referendum is successful, Rhodes-Conway wants to redirect $195,000 of the monitor’s budget to the Madison Library’s Far East Imagination Center.
The mandates of the members of the Civilian Police Oversight Council expired at the end of September with no one to replace them. That led to the ordinance authorizing the program being rewritten so that the City Council and mayor could appoint new board members through an application process, with new board members slated to be appointed in the coming weeks.
Regarding mounting criticism of her tenure as watchdog, Copley reiterated the defense that the office is new and has only recently hired two staff.
Copley pointed to the Newark, N.J., and Rochester, N.Y., citizen oversight boards, which she said have faced their own delays.
Established in 2019, the Rochester Police Accountability Board last month released reports on its police investigations that included 23 cases of alleged misconduct, according to media reports.
Newark’s Civilian Grievance Review Board, created eight years ago, has faced a protracted legal battle over its powers that has slowed its work and resulted in the New Jersey Supreme Court stripping some of its investigative powers, according to media reports .
In retrospect, Copley said the Madison office should have been fully staffed before it began a series of community listening sessions late last year.
An office manager hired last summer was fired after three months, Copley said. A new office manager was not appointed until this summer.