South Bend’s Community Police Review Board was set to meet Thursday to review an officer’s handling of a 14-year-old girl outside the downtown McDonald’s in August, but they had to cancel the meeting for a second-straight month. Still, the board’s director says they take their mission to review police misconduct allegations seriously.
Charles King, the review office director, on Wednesday said the board again can’t make quorum, meaning they lack at least five of the nine board members needed to take action. King says two board members recently quit for personal reasons.
”And secondarily, life is happening for some of our board members, having some pretty serious things happening in their lives," King says. "Unfortunately I can’t explain what they’re dealing with, but they’re dealing with some things that are pretty personal and pretty serious.”
King says common council members are working to quickly find two replacements and he hopes they’ll be seated in time for a yet-to-be-scheduled January meeting. He says council members hope to find people who already have some of the training that board members need, like going on officer ride-alongs and participating in the Citizens Police Academy program.
”I’m just like everybody else. I want to get these cases moving and going, so hopefully we’ll be able to do that as soon as they’re prepared to come back for their next meeting and reach quorum.”
