Over 200 apply for spots on oversight board
Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther will have a pool of 205 people to choose from in deciding who to recommend for seats on the first city civilian review board to provide oversight to the Division of Police.
The board, approved as a charter amendment by voters in November, will be able to investigate allegations of misconduct and use-of-force incidents involving Columbus police officers. A panel of nine people, who will be selected by Ginther but must be approved by the city council, is expected to be seated by spring.
Board members will serve staggered terms of at least three years. A majority of the board must be Columbus residents, but residency alone was not a requirement and some applicants are from surrounding suburbs.
It is still unclear how members will be replaced or removed, if necessary. City Council will have to pass ordinances establishing how the board functions.
The board members will also be involved in the process of selecting the city’s first Inspector General, a position created through the charter amendment.
Though he will nominate the nine board members, Ginther has previously said the panel will be independent from the mayor’s office.
The application consisted of four questions: what drew the applicant’s interest in the civilian review board and what experiences would they bring to the board, how would they make unbiased decisions, have they had prior experience on a review board, and anything else the applicant felt should be known.
Among those who applied, 49% identified themselves as racially and/or ethnically diverse. The applicants also included 18 lawyers, including Tonya Sapp, the chief counsel for the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, and Byron Potts, who represented teenager Masonique Saunders after she was charged with a juvenile delinquency count of felony murder when her boyfriend, Julius Tate Jr., was killed by a Columbus police SWAT officer in December 2018 after he attempted to rob an undercover officer during a sting operation.
Six pastors and faith leaders from the Columbus area also were among the applicants.
Another notable applicant is Adrienne Hood, the mother of Henry Green, who was fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire with undercover Columbus police in June 2016. The officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing, but the city disbanded the undercover patrol program they were operating under after the shooting.
On her application, Hood did not mention her son and did not report any negative experiences with law enforcement. She was involved in racial injustice protests last year and has spoken out for police reforms in the years since her son’s passing.
“It is important to be able to look at what is presented and be able to make a sound decision,” Hood wrote. “The pressures of public opinion can be tense; however, facts are facts and should be considered as such.”
A total of 20 applicants did indicate on their applications that they had a personal negative experience with Columbus police or expressed negative viewpoints about law enforcement in general.
Another 21 applicants – about 10% of the total applicant pool – said they had some sort of law enforcement experience.
Former Columbus police chief Walter Distelzweig and several retired city police officers were among them.
Two of the retired Columbus police officers had been a part of the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), which had been responsible for investigating police-involved shootings until last year. Ginther has ordered that all law enforcement-involved shootings within the city of Columbus be investigated by the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Another applicant, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office deputy Tressa Brinkley, said in her application she has filed complaints against both Columbus police officers and other sheriff ’s deputies.
According to The Dispatch’s archives, Brinkley was acquitted in 2005 of a misdemeanor charge of aggravated menacing after being accused of pointing a firearm at a cab driver. The Dispatch reported in 2013 that Brinkley, who was fired from the sheriff ’s office in 2010 and won her job back through arbitration, won a lawsuit against the sheriff ’s office and was paid more than $30,000.
“Internal affairs does not have good investigative skills and does not hold officers accountable,” Brinkley wrote on her application. “I will be able to make clear and unbiased recommendations because I will gather all the facts before making a determination.”
Brinkley also wrote on her application that she had “been a victim of a poor investigation” by Columbus police.
Another applicant, Keith Dodley, a retired U.S. Army veteran who served as a military police officer for more than two decades, said he was involved in the investigation into misconduct by military personnel at Abu Gharib prison.
Other applicants said they were inspired to seek a seat on the review board following protests across the country this summer and had a desire to get involved in the community.
Two applicants, Andrew Mcintire and Joseph Smith, both reported they live in the Cranbrook neighborhood where Andre Hill, 47, an unarmed Black man, was fatally shot by Columbus police officer Adam Coy on Dec. 22. Coy has since been fired.
“I’m hoping to show my children how we might be part of the solution,” Mcintire wrote.
The applicant pool also included multiple members of the Mayor’s Safety Advisory Commission, which included creation of a civilian review board in its recommendations; members of the Chief’s Advisory Panel and members of the working group that made recommendations for how the review board would be established and operate.
Among those applications are Brooke Burns, an attorney with the Ohio Public Defender’s office and Chenelle Jones, a professor at Franklin University whose expertise is in race and police relations.
The mayor’s office is in the process of reviewing applications and hopes to have the board members seated by the end of the first quarter of 2021. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner