The George Floyd protests have brought the issue of excessive force to the forefront in many cities, including Ann Arbor. | Pixabay
The George Floyd protests have brought the issue of excessive force to the forefront in many cities, including Ann Arbor. | Pixabay
Amid the protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, members of an Oversight Commission tasked with looking into complaints of excessive force at the hands of police admit progress needs to be made.
“We’ve got a long way to go in Ann Arbor, and the progress we’ve made, and my ability to speak to you today was paid for by Aura Rosser’s death,” Lisa Jackson, chair of the Ann Arbor Independent Community Police Oversight Commission (ICPOC), told the Ann Arbor City Council on June 15. The comment was quoted by MLive.
Jackson referred to Rosser, a 40-year-old African American woman killed by a local police officer, David Ried, in 2014. The officer contended that Rosser charged him with a knife, and the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office declined to press charges.
The Oversight Commission was formed in 2018.
Jackson said it's a shame that it took Floyd’s murder to intensify calls for reform. She proposed to the City Council that discussions of police practices be a regularly scheduled agenda item the first meeting of every month, rather than the current practice, which is irregular requests of time for testimony.
“It’s my hope this is going to save the city administrators the trouble of calling me every time I want to get on the agenda, to try to elicit what I’m going to say, try to evaluate whether our talking points are valid before giving us permission and deciding for us to be on the agenda," she told MLive. "It’s kind of disappointing when police reform is the No. 1 topic in the country right now, and the Police Oversight Commission has to beg to be put on the agenda.”
Jackson has sought to change the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the Ann Arbor Police Officer’s Association, its union, by expanding access for complaints against officers. She also wants Police Chief Michael Cox to have an expanded role in the disciplining of officers. Currently he is not a part of the Ann Arbor Police Union.
“To suggest that we can provide oversight without knowing which officers are receiving multiple complaints is farcical,” Jackson told MLive. “It’s about determining whether current Ann Arbor Police Department disciplinary measures are sufficient."
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