The South Bend Common Council voted on Monday, Oct. 5, to establish a community police review board. Black Lives Matter – South Bend and the Michiana Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a joint press conference on Tuesday to celebrate and elaborate on the ordinance.
At the conference, Black Lives Matter – South Bend member Dé Bryant said that while the review board is a big step toward reforming community policing, it’s not an all-purpose solution.
“We now have to talk about not only how do we physically implement it, but also how do we help people understand what its impact can be,” Bryant said.
Instead, Emmanuel Cannady, also of Black Lives Matter – South Bend, said the ordinance should inform a broader sense of accountability.
“If we can really galvanize around this bill as a new culture of community involvement, I think this bill is gonna be worth a lot more than what it says on the few pages that it was written on,” Cannady said.
South Bend Second District Councilman Henry Davis Jr. said he hopes the review board will be up and running by January, but that developing that new culture will take time.
After months of back-and-forth, the council voted 8-1 Monday night to approve the review board, which will investigate civilian complaints against police officers.
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo
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