South Bend Community Police Review Board hopeful to be productive by new year following another meeting cancellation
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Tuesday, The South Bend Community Police Review Board cancelled yet another meeting to discuss and vote on the viral situation involving a South Bend police officer over the summer.
The meeting was supposed to take place on Thursday.
It's the second time now the board has had to cancel a meeting to discuss that case because they don't have a quorum.
"I think it's too serious to not have it addressed," says Charles King III, South Bend Community Police Review Board Director.
Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski found nothing wrong with that officer's actions, and SBPD's internal investigation was closed as exonerated.
So, now it's up for the police review board to decide, but it's taking them longer than anticipated.
"We had a couple resignations, which is probably common for boards of this nature, but we also have some real serious life issues going on with some of our board members, that I cannot disclose their information, but it's serious enough where they cannot attend," King explains.
Without a five-member in-person quorum, the board can't vote on whether they agree or disagree with the department's decision to exonerate the officer.
"We want to look at it from every angle, from the community member's perspective, and the police officer's perspective to be able to see if there's anything that can be improved or anything that they can say 'Hey, this has been done right', or 'Hey, this has been done wrong,'" says King.
Several weeks ago, the board was given 60 workdays to come to that conclusion and send their findings back to the police department with recommendations.
The board, which will be reassembled with some new members by January, will likely ask for an extension in order to review the case.
"I can imagine that this will be at the forefront of that board who's going to be in a new tenure to ask to review this case," King says.
King is hopeful the panel can become productive with new members in the new year starting with this case.
"I do realize that this is something that a lot of community members want to see transpire and happen pretty quickly," King admits. "Due to life circumstances, we just have not been able to move as quickly as I would like. But we will get through this case, and we will come to an adjudication.
Black Lives Matter South Bend is publicly calling out the board; criticizing their quorum interpretations, questioning participation patterns with board members, and calling for a timely review of the case at hand.