Beefed-up citizen oversight of the Anaheim Police Department will be considered by the City Council Tuesday with the underlying issue a report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU), which found Anaheim to be among the nation’s worst cities for deaths at the hands of police.
Council members Dec. 5 are scheduled to discuss the creation of a new police review board to replace a citizen review commission, the Public Safety Board, created in response to July 2012 police shootings that killed two young Latino men and sparked civil unrest and riots in front of City Hall.
The discussion comes on the heels of the Nov. 20 release of the ACLU report which found Anaheim ranks ninth among 60 of the largest U.S. cities for police-involved deaths. Anaheim Acting Police Chief Julian Harvey disputed the findings, and said the city actually ranks 27th.
Critics of the Public Safety Board – a pilot board that ran from 2014 to 2016 – contend it lacked purpose and authority.
