City Council Votes To Remove St. Paul Officers From Internal Affairs Commission

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The St. Paul commission that reviews complaints against police will soon not have any officers weighing in on those decisions.

In a surprise move Wednesday night, the St. Paul city council voted to remove the two police officers that sit on its police-civilian internal affairs review commission. Nine citizens will now make up the membership.

For more than 20 years, this commission has been in place in St. Paul. The members handle all external complaints made against police officers, from excessive force to discrimination. Now, for the first time in its history, police won't have a say on the panel.

St. Paul Police Federation President Dave Titus calls the city council's move shocking.

"They turned their backs on cops. Period," Titus said.

He compared the review commission to others that exist to hold lawyers or doctors accountable.

"A subject matter expert being a street cop should be on that commission," Titus said.

John Thompson sees it differently as a long-time friend of Philando Castile, a man shot and killed by a St. Anthony police officer in July.

"I think yesterday was a big step toward the change everyone said they wanted," Thompson said.

"We can't stand in front of the Governor's Mansion and protest and hold signs all day. We have to start making changes from within the system," he added.

It's a system that has been under the microscope for months. A recent audit of the review commission recommended removing police from the board.

Last month, the mayor's office suggested a compromise: Only police commanders could stay. But after expressing plans to keep police in place just two weeks ago, some city council members changed course after so much community feedback.

"There has to be a level of trust with the police department. They have to rebuild that trust because we didn't break it, they did," Thompson said.

As always, St. Paul's police chief will have the final say to impose discipline based on the commission's recommendation. A decision, the federation says now will carry with it too much political power.

"The council just passed a commission that will be less-educated, less fair and not even close to being balanced," Titus said.

To give you a better idea of just what this review commission does: We know in 2014, it recommended 87 separate charges of improper action by members of the department. In the end, 10 of those were sustained or allowed to stand by the police chief.

The St. Paul city council is expected to give this plan final approval next week.