Auburn Human Rights Commission presses for police accountability, opposes another voluntary community meeting

The Auburn Human Rights Commission spent the bulk of its meeting on repeated concerns about the Auburn Police Department’s handling of several summer incidents and on proposed community-engagement work paid for by an outside contractor.

Lehi, commission member, told colleagues the Human Rights Commission investigated three episodes over the summer in which minority residents were aggressively handled by officers. “Three black folk,” Lehi said, “one of them was knocked unconscious,” and the commission’s review found the disciplinary responses inadequate.

The commission criticized outcomes in multiple cases: several officers received light discipline or were reassigned (one lieutenant was demoted and another officer received a day without pay), while Lehi said the incidents involving minority residents resulted in no meaningful accountability. Lehi and other commissioners said one juvenile had been handcuffed so…