HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The citizen review board continues to push for the authority to subpoena the Tampa Police Department. But now, Tampa City leaders are deciding not to move forward with an ordinance that would let voters decide if they want the same thing.
The board was enacted in 2021 as a way to create more trust between the Police Department and the community. But, local activists said the board doesn’t have much oversight.
"We want like the citizen's review board to be able to act independently and like be able to have a clearer picture of cases when they do look at cases from the Tampa Police Department," Simon Rowe, member of the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee, said.
Rowe and other local activists said subpoena power and an independent attorney for the board is necessary.
"There's definitely a need for oversight of the Tampa Police Department. We, African American people and Hispanic people, have been a victim of racist intent by them… This gives us a stronger set of eyes. It gives us some teeth that Tampa Police Department has to come and answer the questions when it comes to police brutality. When it comes to over arrest," Yvette Lewis, Hillsborough County NAACP president, explained.
But, four out of seven city council members voted against putting subpoena power on the ballot for voters to decide.
"You don't need subpoena powers to do what you want to do. That is just a fallacy, in my view. You have all the things you need, public records request, you can ask any government for that and they have to give it to you by law," Charlie Miranda, Tampa City Council member for District 2, said.
"Those things are held to a special judicial power, the grand jury, the judges, the state attorney's office, the public defender's office, and things of that nature. So I don't want to start a trend here in... Our great city that we live in by giving that to an unelected body to do something with it that could or could not be used for the right purposes. I don't want to take that risk," Miranda explained.
Council members did agree to draft up an ordinance to be put on the ballot, which would allow voters to decide whether the citizen review board should have an independent attorney.
"This is still a great step for Tampa and for the community to have a voice on how the citizen's review board operates. And I think it'll be a good change for police accountability here in Tampa," Rowe added.
