Police Oversight Chair Calls on Public Safety Committee to Support Reappointment of Commissioners

The chair of the city’s police oversight commission is calling on the Public Safety Committee to recommend the reappointment of several commissioners recommended by local organizations.

“On behalf of the Community Police Oversight Commission, I, Chair, Raúl Ibáñez recommend that the Pasadena City Council Public Safety Committee reappoint all community based organization commissioners to a second term,” wrote Raúl Ibáñez. “All commissioners feel that our current community based organization commissioners are invaluable contributors to our body, our current work, and losing them now would be a terrible blow to the commission.”

Alexis Abernethy, Juliana Serrano, and Florence Annan, who represent the Altadena/Pasadena chapter of The Links, All Saints Church and the NAACP, respectively, term out on June 30.

The CPOC, which held its first meeting in October 2021, is composed of 11 members. Eight were nominated by the City Council while three were nominated from community-based organizations.

Originally those community based commissioners were to be drawn from local non-profits – but the City Council opted to widen that description to “community-based” organizations that don’t necessarily carry official “non-profit” status.

In October 2020, the City Council established a Community Police Oversight Commission (CPOC) by ordinance. The purpose of the commission is to enhance, develop and strengthen community-police relations and review and make recommendations regarding the ongoing operations of the Pasadena Police Department to the chief of police, city manager and/or City Council.

The commission was established after the national outrage in the wake of the officer-involved murder of Minnesota motorist George Floyd.

Councilmember John Kennedy pushed for oversight for several years, but could not garner the votes to pass a resolution until after the Floyd incident despite several local incidents.

The meeting begins at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.  http://pasadena.granicus.com/mediaplayer.php?camera_id=2&publish_id=9