Three candidates for executive director of the Citizen Review Board — one of them answering questions via phone — talked of challenges they have faced as police watchdogs and what they would do to make oversight stronger should they be chosen to run the embattled Atlanta agency that was created in response to a 2006 fatal shooting of an innocent 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid.
All three spoke of striking a balance between the police and the citizenry, something the previous executive director found difficult and frustrating.
Communication and trust would be key, said Samuel Reid, now the assistant director of the Minneapolis Police Review Authority.
Build trust through community outreach with forums, brochures and talking with the "entire police department about what the Citizen Review Board does," said Victoria Urbi who was the top staff person with the Police Review Commission in Berkeley, Calif., until March 2011.
"Building the ACRB into a true community force by being ... fair and balanced" and making reasonable decisions, Richard Rasmussen, an administrator with the Salt Lake City Police Civilian Review Board, said via a telephone line.
The ACRB hopes to choose one of them July 12.
This was the second time this year that the board has met with finalists for the position that has been vacant since Cristina Beamud resigned last November in frustration with the Atlanta Police Department, the police union, city leaders and her own staff.
The person selected out of the three will be stepping into the middle of Atlanta politics, a difficult relationship with the Atlanta Police Department and the police union and a board of volunteers with conflicting personalities who have in the past fallen into bickering and name-calling.
In March, the board chose a former federal prosecutor and a one-time deputy monitor of the New Orleans Police Department, Holly Wiseman, as its executive director. A week later the board rescinded the selection because some members were upset with a decision to reopen the process for a day after it was closed.
Wiseman was among the four finalists chosen this time out of 247 applicants, but she withdrew from the competition last week.
All three candidates questioned Tuesday have experience in police oversight, believe in gathering statistics on crime and allegations of police misconduct and sharing that information with the public and the police. They all advocated for mediation as a way of resolving some issues between individuals and officers but said it was not necessarily best when policies were violated or in cases of alleged abuse.
The questions from the board concerned how they would work with police and what they would do to get the public involved.
Questions from members of the public were more pointed.
Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, noted that the police department and city leadership have not "bought into" the idea of police oversight. "Are you still wanting this job?"
All three said "yes."
"My whole life has been a struggle," said Urbi, an attorney.
"I do have the courage to deal with those issues... That's what I've been doing for the past six years." said Reid, also an attorney.
Rasmussen, a former FBI agent, said the conflict seen in Atlanta is common for oversight agencies but "if done correctly that second set of eyes" can not just benefit the public but also individual officers . "The outcome [of any case] should be based on the facts and what can be proven"
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