St. Paul council will weigh changes to police review board

St. Paul City Council members are considering several changes to the Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission, the panel that handles complaints against police.

Civil rights leaders have said PCIARC is biased in favor of police. Last year Mayor Chris Coleman asked the University of Minnesota's Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking to audit the commission. The center drafted a long list of recommendations.

City Attorney Sam Clark said Tuesday that a city task force he served on hopes to implement some of those suggestions. Clark said that includes the addition of two more civilians to the seven-member panel and allowing complainants to go directly to the commission instead of the police department's internal affairs office.

But Clark emphasized any action by PCIARC will remain only advisory.

"It ends with the chief," he said. "And that's an important point I don't want lost here is that there's no proposal on the table to take away what is required by state law, which is that the police chief is the final say on discipline."

The task force is also recommending two police officers remain on the commission, but Clark said they should be commanders, not lower-ranking officers.

The St. Paul City Council is scheduled to take up the measure Wednesday, and is expected to hold public hearings on the proposed changes Nov. 16.