Union upset with St. Paul's move to pull officers from review board
The St. Paul City Council gave its final approval of pulling police from the panel that handles complaints against officers, and the police union head isn't happy.
The council voted 5-2 Wednesday night to remove voting officers from the Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission.
The commission makes recommendations to the St. Paul police chief on officer disciplinary matters. The chief still makes the final decision.
Dave Titus, head of the St. Paul Police Federation, said taking cops from the panel strips it of expertise.
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"Now you are going to have a bunch of civilians that have never ever walked in the shoes of being a cop," he said. "Granted they have other life experiences, which is important, but we're judging officers' actions whether or not they deviated from policy and procedure and their training."
Titus also made note that the union didn't fight other changes to expand the number of civilians on the commission.
Council President Russ Stark acknowledged raw feelings on the issue.
"Personally I think we landed in the right spot, I know that there are some hard feelings out there, including some folks in the police department," Stark said. "I think we've got some work to do to make sure we all kind of come back together on these important issues as a community."