April 22nd, 2021
For the past year A More Perfect Union (AMPU) has sought to be proactive on improving policing in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin. To this date AMPU has engaged in a series of meetings to persuade the City of Omaha and Omaha Police Department to adopt a number of proactive recommendations in the coming years. Today AMPU met with Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and the Mayor's Chief of Staff Marty Bilek who were able to negotiate successful terms on the release of the in custody death footage of Kenneth Jones.
In addition the City of Omaha has agreed to expand the function of the CCRB to include open real-time monitoring of body worn camera footage of OPD officers. This would be done by randomized live reviews of the review board, independent of the police department’s Internal Affairs department.
AMPU will continue to press for progress on issues of policing. To accomplish this further AMPU has sent out candidate surveys to all Mayoral and City Council candidates. Per our meeting today the Mayor's office states Jean Stothert intends to complete AMPU's Candidate Survey on Policing and Housing which can be found here or by following the Survey link at the top of the page.
Proposals to Expand CCRB Functions and Clarification on Release of In-Custody Death Footage
Goals
Restore trust in the independent oversight process after public discontent regarding in-custody deaths (ICD) of Zachary Bearheels and Kenneth Jones locally, and other victims of police nationally.
Expand public awareness of the independent oversight process.
Continue to hold improper and criminal police behavior accountable through open proceedings, criminal prosecutions, and adequate sentencing.
Shift the CCRB from a retroactive body to a proactive body with the implementation of a real time review board that can monitor officers 24/7.
The goal of public governance should be to ensure the safety of its community and integrity of its public service institutions. With recent grand jury acquittals of wrongdoing by OPD officers in the death of Kenneth Jones many in Omaha are left wondering why footage was not released prior to the grand jury and what happens to that footage after the grand jury. Among the public is the misconception that OPD has the directive and ability to release BWC and dashcam footage while this power falls under the auspices of the County Prosecutor Don Kleine. Many in the public are angry with the initial lack of charges by Kleine for Jake Gardner upon killing James Scurlock. A grand jury brought what many in the public felt were adequate charges but Gardner’s suicide left the legal process unused.
In Omaha, what were once calls for any form of independent oversight have transformed to calls for improved oversight mechanisms along with adequate charging and sentencing of criminal officers, and a reduction or shift in funds allocated towards the police department. When public servants in and out of office fail to address these calls for change I can attest to the fact that the work Todd and I have engaged in over the past 8 years is at risk of being undone.
To be able to cut through the rhetoric around policing and critics of criminal officer actions those with the power to do so must amend our current modes of operation to accommodate the need for greater accountability and transparency by ensuring the safety of our citizens from the only City Department that has the ability to take lives and injure without consequence. Those with the power to do so must make sure that criminal officer actions will not be accepted and will not go unpunished. Riots like Omaha experienced last summer are a response by the powerless to the lack of response by the powerful in situations of injustice.
It should not take protests, it should not take destruction to get our most powerful public servants to act on calls to take the input from the affected. With these proposals it is my intent to get the City of Omaha back on our positive trends in policing with improved oversight mechanisms and forging a new entity that is outside of OPD and the Douglas County Prosecutor’s office to collect, maintain, and publicly disseminate any and all footage related to criminal and homicidal actions by police. It would be my recommendation for the City of Omaha to act in good faith towards adopting these proposals in time with further input from the community and relevant Municipal and State bodies.
Mayor’s Office Meeting Notes March 5th, 2021
On March 5th Marty and I discussed the idea of amending the CCRB to include the ability to have real time monitoring and access to officer BWC and dashcam footage. I stated the CCRB should have the power to instantly pull footage for review and possible public dissemination before trial. The idea of releasing the footage legally and timely was discussed.
Marty mentioned the state statutes on grand juries introduced by Ernie Chambers and adopted by the legislature that all ICDs would go to grand juries. Per the NE Statute this footage would fall under a protected class of information. Confusion among the public comes from misconceptions about how and when ICD footage can be released. In different instances of OPD ICDs and assaults footage was released to the public before trials were underway. It is this misconception that breeds contempt for OPD where Todd has made statements in press conferences stating footage should be released, only to be contradicted by the County Prosecutor’s office in the same media article. In this same article below it states that 85% of people in Omaha think ICD footage should be made public. A goal of this proposal is to firmly determine when it’s released, who can access it, and who can share it.
Link: Should body camera video from police be public record? (3newsnow.com)
OPD Chief Meeting Notes April 12, 2021
On April 12th I met with Todd and discussed further clarification on release of ICD footage. Todd clarified the position that OPD has in the past only released stills of ICD or assault footage and can only do so in the future.
We discussed the idea of the CCRB being expanded to include the ability to have real time monitoring and access to BWC and dashcams activated during a police stop. Todd expressed concerns about the personnel and storage cost of holding that much footage indefinitely but felt the idea could have a positive effect on correcting problem officer behavior and rebuilding public trust.
We determined that the question of who can release ICD footage needs to be explicitly clarified for public knowledge, if even to build a working base of where to start to amend a process many in the public are unhappy with costing money and lives.
Future Meeting Agenda Items
Clarify and Identify a way to inform the public of current release laws around ICD footage.
Identify benefits of repurposed CCRB.
Discuss logistics and obstacles of repurposing CCRB.
Outline a timeline of implementation.
Identify and coordinate with other stakeholders for additional input.
Schedule follow up meeting with additional relevant persons, organizations, and governing bodies.