SBPD looks to establish Police Merit Board

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Police Department is looking to establish a Police Merit Board.

The five-person board would assume the power of selection, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplinary action, and dismissal of members of the police department.

Those duties have historically been delegated to the city's Board of Public Safety, which acts as the administrative agency for both the South Bend Police and Fire Departments.

However, starting January 2025, the Board of Public Safety will essentially split into two separate merit boards for both the Police and Fire Departments, keeping in line with Indiana law signed last year.

FOP 36 President Joshua Morgan tells ABC57 they'd like to establish the merit board before that January 1st deadline, so the state doesn't have to do it for them.

"Some of the things that we've done with the police department have made it a lot more efficient, and to us, the state-mandated merit board slows down that efficiency," explains Joshua Morgan, FOP 36 President. "We're trying to maintain the status quo but at the same time give everyone some representation."

Things like mass hiring officers, Morgan says, would be much more difficult to do under a state-mandated merit board.

That's why they're trying to create this police merit board independently, along with the city.

Currently, all five members of the Board of Public Safety are chosen by the mayor, but with this new board, the FOP would choose two members, the mayor's office would choose two more, and the Common Council would appoint one.

Morgan says this will allow the city to have a fair representation into how the police department will be run, and he says members of this board will have a good knowledge and understanding of how police departments are run and what they have to do.

The primary goal of this board, he says, is to keep politics out of policing.

"The community has always wanted to have some type of input, like with the Citizen's Review board. This is giving every entity; the police department, the FOP, and even the common council who can appoint somebody that is from the community and can oversee these types of things," says Morgan.

This will now go to the Board of Health and Public Safety on November 25th for a third reading and public hearing.