In over 3 years, Rock Hill police review board has only heard a few cases. Is it working?
In late May 2020, more than 1,000 people marched around downtown Rock Hill demanding police accountability and the creation of a civilian police review board.
Footage of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in police custody shocked the country. And the people of Rock Hill wanted action.
Rock Hill’s city council created a Citizens Review Board in late 2020, and it started operating in April 2021. But the board has heard just four cases since its inception, according to a review by The Herald of documents received through a public records request filed with the city.
Three of those were filed by one person. The other case was a mandated review of a police shooting, records show.
What’s more, the city does not allow the public, civil rights groups, or even a person’s family to file a complaint for the review board to hear. In an era where cellphone videos often provide crucial, initial context about arrests, traffic stops and police interaction with the public, even the person who shoots the video can’t ask the CRB to review what happened.
Only a person who files an official complaint with the Rock Hill Police Department can ask the CRB to look at their case — and that’s after police do an internal investigation.
And there are secrecy concerns: The Citizens Review Board bylaws do not allow it to conduct reviews in public.
“The CRB shall not report its findings publicly,” the city council added to the board’s bylaws in 2023.
The CRB — who can file a complaint
The review board has eight members. Each city council member and the mayor appoint a member for a two-year term, with one at-large member.
The board’s bylaws say it will interview ”only the complainant in a closed session with no media or guests. While not required, the complainant may have a lawyer present. If a lawyer is present, the City Attorney will also participate. Following the interview, the CRB will deliberate in executive session.”
Mayor John Gettys said the small number of cases reviewed by the board does not mean the board is not helpful, because it provides someone who made a complaint to police the chance for a second look after the police review it.
The review board bylaws were first approved by city council in March 2022 and then amended in June 2023, documents provided to The Herald show.
The bylaws specifically state no third parties can ask the board to review a case. So if a group like the NAACP hears about a problem and wants to make a complaint to the CRB, they can’t.
When the bylaws were amended by the city council in June 2023, the rules were changed to state the CRB shall “Screen all Cases to ensure no third-party submittals have been made and that the submittal originates from only the complainant or the lawyer for the complainant.”
The amended bylaws also added the automatic CRB review of excessive force, use of deadly force, an in-custody death, or serious bodily injury.
There have also been communication concerns. CRB members said in summer 2023 they were kept in the dark about proposed board changes, according to a 2023 story from Herald news partner WSOC-TV and minutes from the meetings.
The CRB cases so far
The three cases filed by the same person in 2023 were over a Rock Hill Police investigation that involved that person.
The CRB upheld the police department’s internal investigation rulings of “unfounded,” documents provided by the city show.
In the use of deadly force case from November 2023 — the fourth case the board has reviewed —Rock Hill officers shot an alleged bank robbery suspect in the hand. The internal investigation and body-camera footage supplied to the CRB showed the suspect was armed with a gun, according to CRB documents.
On June 10, the CRB unanimously agreed the two officers involved in the November 2023 shooting “followed all policies and procedures” regarding use of deadly force. The board had met to talk about the shooting on June 5.
Both sides weigh in
City officials say the few complaints sent to the review board are a measure of public satisfaction with the Rock Hill Police Department.
“One way of measuring is we don’t have a lot of complaints,” Rock Hill City Manager David Vehaun told The Herald in a phone interview about the board. “Our police department treats our citizens with fairness and respect.”
The board’s findings are recommendations and are released only to the city manager, who sends them to city council. The findings are reviewed by the council in closed session, the rules show.
The board’s bylaws also state the CRB will provide feedback to the police department about “policies and practices that impact residents of the community.”
But secret results and a system that does not allow for third parties to make complaints about police tactics or policies does not increase accountability, some say.
“The board was created for transparency, and it’s not,” 16th Circuit Public Defender B.J. Barrowclough said. “It is set up in a way that chokes off the flow of information. It undermines the goals.”
Barrowclough, one of those 1,000-plus marchers in 2020, said the idea was a board that could analyze complaints against officers to ensure the public trusted police actions.
What happens if the person does not ask CRB to review?
One of the most high-profile incidents related to police procedures in recent years was the arrest of a Black man by Rock Hill police in June 2021 that was caught on video by a member of the public. It sparked three days of protests in the city and led to a $500,000 settlement but did not generate a complaint to the CRB.
City officials have tried to be conscious of the public’s demand for police accountability.
In June of 2020 after the George Floyd rally in Rock Hill — as a review board was being considered but before it was created — Rock Hill Police Chief Chris Watts and the mayor held a public meeting to explain excessive force, how choke holds are banned, and other police tactics.
Because the CRB never received a complaint about the June 2021 arrest, there was not any CRB review of policies and procedures officers used that day.
After the incident in 2021, civil rights leaders said the need for civilian review of police interaction that day and for days afterward was another reason why the review board was created.
Barrowclough said the 2021 case is an example of where tens of thousands of people in the public saw the videos, but the civilian panel created by the city of Rock Hill to look at police policy never got to review the incident and make recommendations to the police department.
He said he’s concerned that citizens can’t submit videos to the board or ask for a board review because third-party complaints are not allowed.
“They created a system where that type of evidence — videos and the witnesses who saw what happened — is not allowed,” Barrowclough said. “Why would you do that if you are truly engaged in a pursuit of the truth?
Does the public know the CRB exists?
Vehaun, the city manager, said a lot of effort went into making sure the public knew what the board was and why it existed when it was created.
Its meeting times and place, agendas and minutes are listed on the city’s website, Vehaun said. It meets at the city operations center.
The last CRB meeting was in June. The city’s website does not show when there will be a next scheduled meeting. It’s unclear if the board has any pending cases for review, but records examined by The Herald did not indicate there were any.
The city website says the group meets “as needed.”
In CRB meeting minutes reviewed by The Herald, members talked from 2021 into 2023 about concerns over the public’s knowledge of the CRB role, and how complaints are filed.
In August 2021 after the city created the board, a member said “many in the community don’t know who is on the CRB or what the group is doing,” minutes show.
In a January 2022 meeting, board members said they “have concerns that the community is unaware that the CRB is working to get ready to actively hear cases.”
Members were told in early 2023 they could attend neighborhood meetings and other events to explain the board and complaint filing process to the public. Members also have discussed in meetings how to tell the public that third-party complaints to the board are prohibited.
The board produced annual reports for 2022 and 2023 that were sent to city officials, according to the documents.
How does someone know they have CRB access?
Anyone who files a formal police department complaint receives paperwork that states they have access to the CRB after the internal investigation at the police department, said Rock Hill Police Lt. Michael Chavis, a department spokesperson.
The CRB bylaws state a person who has a finished an internal RHPD investigation has 30 days to ask the CRB to review the decision made by police.
Yet the CRB is a city board, not a police department board, Chavis said.
The city administers it — not the police department, he said. A police civilian employee acts as a liaison between the board and the city regarding information requests and gathering for the board, Chavis said.
There are no active police officers on the CRB, but there is one retired police officer on the board.
The first year the board existed, one of its members was an RHPD supervisor who oversaw internal affairs. But that slot was later changed to an at-large board seat, the bylaws show.
This story was originally published August 31, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
