Applications For Police Oversight Commission Available Tuesday

Since Pasadena’s City Council began to focus on police oversight last summer, an officer-involved shooting left Pasadenan Anthony McClaine dead and reignited community calls for increased oversight of the Pasadena Police Dept. Photo by James Carbone of protestor signs at the scene of the shooting.

Applications for the city’s Police Oversight Commission will be available Tuesday.

The city still has not decided on the vetting process for members of the commission. The item is scheduled to come before the City Council on Jan. 25.

The council unanimously approved the framework of the commission in October. The issue gained traction and urgency following the police-involved deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and then the Aug. 15 shooting death of Anthony McClain by a Pasadena police officer.

City Council members from each of the city’s seven districts will nominate a commissioner, and the mayor will nominate another.

In addition, three at-large commissioners from “community-based” groups will be nominated. The council will have final approval on all the commissioners and an auditor.

Nominees will need to be city residents, though not necessarily residents of the particular district of the nominating councilmember. Another goal is for at least 50 percent of the commission’s appointees to be women.

In addition, practicing attorneys would not be able to serve if they or their firm or entity currently have pending criminal or civil cases involving Pasadena police officers.

There has also been discussion about whether current or former police officers would be eligible to serve on the commission, and that’s a debate that will be revisited.

Commissioners’ terms will be for three years and staggered.