Two top community leaders of a commission that reviews misconduct complaints against St. Paul police officers resigned Tuesday, saying they have “repeatedly seen evidence” the mayor and his staff are not serious about supporting their work.
“By failing to adequately support the PCIARC’s (Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission’s) mandate, the mayor and his appointees are denying St. Paul community members the opportunity to have meaningful participatory oversight of their police department,” chair Constance Tuck and vice chair Rachel Sullivan-Nightengale wrote in their resignation letter.
Mayor Melvin Carter thanked Tuck and Sullivan-Nightengale “for their service to our city. It will undoubtedly help inform our work moving forward,” he said in a brief statement Tuesday.
The commission votes on whether St. Paul officers should be disciplined for policy violations and forwards recommendations to the police chief. A decision on discipline then falls to the chief.
Tuck and Sullivan-Nightengale wrote the mayor “has never sought the PCIARC’s input on community policing concerns observed” in their work on the commission.
They also said Carter “consistently failed to use his platform to encourage community members to bring their policing concerns” to the commission.
EARLIER DEPARTURES OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS STAFF
Since Carter became mayor in 2017 — after campaigning on a police reform initiative — there has been upheaval of key staff working on police-community relations.
Jason Sole, who Carter hired as director of St. Paul’s Community-First Public Safety Initiative, departed earlier this year. And Jessica Kingston, who was director of the city’s Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity Department, left after reaching a $250,000 legal settlement with the city last year.
When the Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission was reconstituted in 2017, its supervision and administration moved from the police department to Kingston’s department.
Kingston filed a complaint with the state Department of Human Rights, in which she said the police department prevented public complaints from getting to the civilian review board, concealed evidence obtained during board investigations and prevented the board from gathering its own evidence.
In their Tuesday resignation letter, Tuck and Sullivan-Nightengale wrote the PCIARC “has voiced concerns that the St. Paul Police Department is not providing a full accounting of civilian complaints.”
The police department previously said they submitted every complaint to the civilian review board that was required by state law and an agreement with the NAACP.
OUTLINING THEIR CONCERNS
Tuck and Sullivan-Nightengale wrote in their resignation letter that “despite the mayor’s statement that he would ‘empower the Civilian Review Board [PCIARC] to act as a strong check on policing in St. Paul,’ he has failed to encourage community participation.”
They said Carter’s staff did not “adequately publicize openings” on the PCIARC, which resulted “in a severely limited applicant pool of community members.”
The former chair and vice chair also said they object to a proposed plan to “triage” civilian complaints about police. It would make the the commission’s “process more complicated and difficult for the community to navigate,” they wrote.
MAYOR SAYS HE CAN’T ‘PRE-COMMIT’ TO FUNDING REQUEST
Tuck and Sullivan-Nightengale raised concerns about funding for the commission. They said Carter not endorsing “even a small amount of urgently needed additional funding … is further evidence that he is not serious about the work of the PCIARC.”
In April, Tuck wrote to Carter and told him the PCIARC needs at least $50,000 to move forward with community outreach and other focus areas. She noted the commission’s budget is currently $16,000 and asked if Carter would be providing the necessary funds in next year’s budget.
Carter responded to Tuck, saying they were in the beginning stages of drafting the proposed 2020 budget. He asked her to continue working with city staff to develop the request for the Human Rights department’s budget proposal.
“The city budget is a comprehensive document, and subject to an endless set of demands and variables,” Carter wrote. “As such, I cannot pre-commit to specific investments outside of the full picture and/or ahead of the (community) engagement process.”
BOARD RECONSTITUTED WITHOUT OFFICERS
The St. Paul Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission was formed in 1994. It was reshaped in 2017, after racial and social justice activists urged that officers be removed from the commission.
The city council voted in December 2016 to have a community-only panel. They increased the number of commissioners from seven to nine, and eliminated the positions of two officers who were commissioners.
Commissioners, who are volunteers, are paid $50 per monthly meeting, though Tuck said at a community forum in April that they put in many hours of work.
Tuck and Sullivan-Nightengale wrote on Tuesday that because of their concerns, they believe resigning from the commission “is our only ethical alternative as representatives of the St. Paul community.”
