Alleged juvenile use of force case closed for South Bend Community Police Review Board
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The South Bend Community Police Review Board met for the first time in 2026 Thursday evening, taking a vote and closing a case from August 2025.
The August incident amassed city-wide attention when a South Bend police officer detained a 14-year-old girl after a call about a disturbance at a downtown McDonalds.
Video of the incident sparked outrage and protests, and shortly after, a citizen directly related to the case submitted a complaint to the review board.
Following that, the South Bend Police Department (SBPD) conducted an investigation, which concluded in them exonerating the responding officer for alleged use of force.
SBPD then sent their findings to the Community Police Review Board office. The director of the board, pastor Charles King III, did an investigation and sent his conclusions to the board, which started a timeline of 60 workdays to make a decision.
The review board was set to vote on whether or not they agree with that decision in two separate meetings in Nov. and Dec., but both of those were canceled due to a lack of a quorum.
Enough members were present Thursday to hold the meeting and take action on the case. The board’s attorney, Robert Masters, originally believed they had a January 6th deadline to take action on the case, but on closer review they still had time to take the vote.
There were four members who voted in disagreement with SBPD’s findings, meaning they believe the officer did break the use of force policy. One member voted in agreement with SBPD’s decision, and two members abstained from the vote all together.
Since the review board operates with 9 members, they need 5 votes in the same direction to have a majority consensus. This means the case was administratively closed for the board.
Pastor King explained in his review, he concluded that he agreed with SBPD’s findings that the officer did not break policy, but he said the board can still take action in the future to make recommendations to SBPD for juvenile deescalation training.
“According to policy… you can agree that…the officer followed policy but maybe the policy needs to be reviewed and looked at because most cities of our nature that are college towns, they have a de-escalation policy for youth, and I think that’s something that could help the police department and our community,” said King.
Not all members were on the same page about the case. Some believe the officer’s response was disproportionate to the situation, while others said the officer was following training.
“This officer was an exceptional officer, and no one could deny that, but that he was trained to do what he did the way he was trained to do it and so I think that was on our hearts a lot,” said 5th district board member, Roxane Hughes.
Pastor King said they reviewed 20 civilian complaints in 2025. They sent eight of those complaints forward to SBPD and some are still under internal investigation, so they should be in front of the board before the year is up.
They have seven cases left from 2025 they will continue to review and have started doing intake for new cases. Pastor king’s goal for 2026 is to get more training for him and the board through attending conferences.
Masters said they plan to meet quarterly in 2026 rather than monthly like in 2025, hoping to ensure members are present and action can take place throughout 2026 and beyond.
“It can be slower than people like, it can be more cumbersome than people like, but it’s thoughtful and it’s deliberate, and I hope that people of good will can continue to take an interest in this board and understand that we are approaching our task in that same spirit of good will,” said Masters.