Columbia City Council amends Citizens Police Review Board responsibilities amid new state law

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia City Council approved an amendment to the city code on Tuesday that will impact the Citizens Police Review Board.

The council voted 4-2 to limit the complaints against police officers the CPRB can review, strips its power to make recommendations on police department policies and be able to host public meetings.

This comes after Gov. Mike Parson signed Senate Bill 754 into law, which states “civilian review boards established by political subdivisions shall solely be limited to reviewing, investigating, making findings and recommending disciplinary action against law enforcement officers.” 

Under the revised city code that was drafted, the CPRB will no longer be able to: 

• Host public meetings and educational programs for Columbia residents and the police department.
• Review and make recommendations to the police chief and city manager on police policies, procedures and training [except to the extent such recommendations may be related to findings on complaints of alleged misconduct "involving excessive use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, or use of offensive language." for which the Board has authority to review records].
• Conduct audits or reviews of the records of the Police Department for compliance with the requirements of this article [except to the extent such review Executive Summary Discussion City of Columbia 701 East Broadway, Columbia, Missouri 65201 may be related to complaints of alleged misconduct "involving excessive use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, or use of offensive language." for which the Board has authority to review records]
• Make reports to the Council on any matter not related to authorized activities of the Board involving the "receiving, investigating, making findings and recommending disciplinary action upon complaints by members of the public against members of the police department that allege misconduct involving excessive use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, or use of offensive language.”