Columbia Citizens Police Review Board chair asks for city to reinstate prior responsibilities

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The chair of Columbia's Citizens Police Review Board is asking City of Columbia leaders to undo restrictions put in place more than a year ago.

Council members voted 4-2 in September 2024 to limit the complaints against police officers the CPRB can review, stripped its power to make recommendations on police department policies and be able to host public meetings. The amendment in the city's code followed former Gov. Mike Parson's signing Senate Bill 754 into law.

Chair Doug Hunt addressed council members during Monday night's meeting, urging council members to reverse those changes. Hunt wrote a letter stating the changes took away the board’s ability to hear citizens’ appeals about racially-biased policing and appeals about inappropriate searches and seizures.  Hunt also wrote the changes eliminate the board’s authority to comment on police department policies or the training of officers.

Hunt told ABC 17 News on Wednesday that overall, the changes make the board invisible to the public.

"It made therefore citizens who were unhappy with incidents with the police less inclined to come to the Citizens Police Review Board for some relief," Hunt said. "And I'm afraid that it may be giving the impression that there's a robust system of police oversight in Columbia when, in fact, there's a kind of enfeebled one as a result."

Hunt said public meetings used to be held by the board to discuss police procedures, training and more. However, he said due to the board no longer being able to hold them, he fears the public who has had bad interactions with police may not be aware of their existence to the same extent.

"That's a very strong source of concern these days, when we look at what's going on with ICE for instance, is unreasonable search and seizures. It used to be we could investigate cases of unreasonable searches and seizures where again, the citizen was not happy with the result of the police investigation and that was taken away," Hunt said.

Hunt said the board received six appeals in 2025, compared to 15 the year prior.

Hunt also highlighted within his letter that other cities throughout the state responded to SB754 differently than Columbia. He said on Wednesday he was distressed that the city's legal team suggested the city vote to change their procedures as a result, and said that he never believed the law as written should apply to Columbia.

Ward 5 Councilman Don Waterman told ABC 17 News Wednesday afternoon the City Council has not had any further discussion on the matter. Waterman cited the revisions being made due to recommendations from the city's legal department to be in compliance with the law. He said he'd be willing to have further discussions in the future.

"I would like to hear more details before I say 'yay' or 'nay.' I mean, to me that's one of the things like OK we made the decision. We can always go back an revisit a decision," Waterman said. "I would surely be open to having the discussion and see where it leads."

General Counsel of the Columbia Police Officers Association, Donald Weaver had previously told ABC 17 News that the CPOA was happy with the bill and did not believe it would prevent CPRB from accomplishing its mission. Weaver said he was not able to comment on the matter on Wednesday afternoon because he had not heard the discussion during Monday night's council meeting.

Hunt said he's hopeful that the Columbia City Council will reverse the changes made to the ordinance and restore their ability to have educational discussions with citizens.

He also said he's hopeful that in the future, it can be made more clear what it is that the CPRB does, claiming the way the original ordinance was written is focuses on the misconduct of particular police officers. He said the board rather focuses on whether the policing system is working and on citizens who feel they've not been treated correctly, making recommendations to the police chief about the things they're concerned about and what went right.

Hunt said he thinks it's more important than ever that citizens not only have the ultimate say in what laws are, but also on how laws are enforced. He said he thinks incidents that are occurring nationally can teach the local area, highlighting a greater Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in cities across the city as the Trump Administration continues its illegal immigration crackdown.

He said those instances only prove how important it is to build trust between the community and police.

"We can see it in ICE moving into places like Minneapolis. You can tell transparently that they have not been well trained in or about how to interact with citizens," Hunt said. "It doesn't appear that they are even particularly sensitive to the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution about unreasonable search and seizure and that's creating these enormous tensions."

Under the revised city code that was drafted, the CPRB is no longer 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.”