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A little-known city panel this month sparked a major debate — one that has highlighted racial and political tensions — in Dallas neighborhoods.
City officials in January held seven oft-contentious town hall meetings about the future of the Citizens Police Review Board, a City Council-appointed body that looks into complaints about officers’ conduct. The discussion about the largely powerless board’s purpose was reignited last year after an officer killed 26-year-old Botham Jean, who was unarmed and inside his own Cedars apartment.
Now, the rifts will grow louder. Next month, the City Council will take up the politically sensitive issue pushed by influential activists while also trying to balance the need to retain police officers in the shrinking department.
Mayor Pro Tem Casey Thomas said he doesn’t yet know what form the changes will take, but he hopes that the council will leave the community believing they will address “their concerns with police brutality.”
Board history
The Dallas review board began in the 1980s after civil rights groups and black City Council members pushed for more oversight following a series of shootings by police and a congressional hearing about the department’s use of lethal force.
The board has few powers these days — a point of contention that has flared up over the years. Activists have pushed for changes in recent years, and U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, created a task force on police oversight in 2017.
But the shooting in October of Jean, a PricewaterhouseCoopers analyst, brought the idea to the fore. The officer, Amber Guyger, has been indicted on a murder charge. Her attorney has said the shooting was a tragic mistake — Jean lived directly above Guyger and she said she believed she was inside her own unit and mistook Jean for an intruder.
