After three months, little progress has been made on the creation of a civilian review board to evaluate complaints of police misconduct.
The student coalition that supports the board includes representatives from the Undergraduate Assembly, the United Minorities Council, the Black Student League, the Asian Pacific Student Coalition and other student groups.
Proposals for a review board arose as a result of an incident in January in which Penn Police stopped College senior Dimitri Dube early in the morning while he was on his way back to his dormitory. He claimed he was targeted partly due to his race, and a police investigation later found no wrongdoing on the part of either the police officers in question or Dube.
That incident led to a forum where students aired their concerns over minority encounters with police to Division of Public Safety officials, calling for a more open dialogue between the police and students.
So far, little progress has been made in actually creating the review board. According to some students, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush is resisting the proposal.
"You cannot have the board without the administration supporting it," Dube said. Officials "are not behind the proposal."
Rush also claimed that such a board would be impossible at this time, as it would violate the University's contract with the police department and the Fraternal Order of the Police, which is the police trade union. Students are having trouble arguing this point.
"She won't show us the contract," College junior Lincoln Ellis said, adding that the contract is being re-negotiated in August and that he hopes a clause allowing an external review will be included.
As an alternative, Rush proposed a seat on the Public Safety Advisory Board be allocated to a minority student at a University Council meeting last March. Students said they felt that while Rush has made a nice gesture, it is not a solution to their problems.
"It doesn't address the fundamental issues we've raised," Ellis said. The Advisory Board "doesn't have the power to subpoena officers." He added that the board does not include representatives from the West Philadelphia area.
Officials from Rush's office declined to comment comment on the civilian board, saying that it must be discussed with the Advisory Board.
Students said they think the civilian review board would be a firm step toward accomplishing the goal of keeping a check on UPPD officers.
The board is necessary to "ensure trust in the police," Dube, political action chairman of the Black Student League, said. "Right now, no one's holding them accountable."
"We need more accountability within the police department by opening it up to members that are not strictly part of the police force," Asian Pacific Student Coalition Chairwoman Eugena Oh added.
An encouraging precedent for a civilian review board exists at the University of California at Berkeley. A UA resolution in February even asked the University, the Penn Police Department and the Department of Public Safety for Penn's review board to have a similar structure to Berkeley's.
"They're both university settings," Dube said. "The UC-Berkeley model has been working for ten years, and police relations have been improving."
Currently, Penn Police do have a complaint process, but students said they feel it lacks objectivity.
"The review process is all internal," said Ellis, a member of Civic House Associates Coalition.
"Police are the only ones who see the complaint and review it," Dube added.
Students also claimed that complaint forms are inaccessible, as they are only available on-line or at the police station.
"If you've been violated by somebody and you're asked to go to the same violators," that person would be unwilling to go to the police station Dube said.
For students, an additional problem is that Rush would choose the board chairperson, and only the chairperson can review a complaint.
"We can't be sure how seriously their advice is taken," Oh, a College junior, said. "Legitimizing a flawed board may not be in the long-term interests of the students or the community," she added in a press release.
Some students seem worried that Rush is taking too narrow a view of their concerns and objectives.
"She's trying to reduce this issue to a minority community- police issue," Ellis said. "It's much bigger than that."
"We're not asking for [the board] because we want to alienate police," Ellis added. "We want to stay extra sure police and community relations be as good as possible."
