Ahead of what could be a contentious Tampa City Council meeting to weigh the mayor's newly proposed citizen panel to review questionable incidents and issues involving the city's police, a group of activists is taking to a city park (weather permitting) to express their disapproval of it.
Tuesday, activists plan on gathering at Lykes Gaslight Park — directly across from Tampa Police Headquarters — to call on the city to adopt the kind of citizen review panel they want.
Their concern is that the mayor's proposal — a nine-member panel composed seven of his appointees and two appointed by City Council — wouldn't be independent.
“Communities cannot trust police to police themselves," Laila Abdelaziz of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Friday after Mayor Bob Buckhorn revealed the details of his plan. "And there needs to be this independent, transparent oversight measure, which is what we're proposing with our civilian review board."
Abdelaziz and others said they want the panel to consist of people appointed by a broad range of stakeholders, and for it to have subpoena power.
As we reported last week, police officials are advising critics to keep an open mind about mayor's plan.
But there also might be contention at Thursday's City Council meeting.
Council Chair Frank Reddick has said while he supports the mayor's plan, he opposes the makeup of the panel since it gives the mayor significantly more power to control who serves on the board.
Tuesday's press conference takes place at 11 a.m.
Thursday's City Council meeting starts at 9 a.m.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.