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Civilian Review Board upholds Inspector General findings in multiple complaints, sustains several misconduct findings
Summary
The Civilian Review Board accepted DIG findings on a batch of complaints and sustained misconduct findings in several cases, including an allegation that an officer retained a cellphone without a property slip and an officer's inappropriate comments at a community meeting.
The Columbus Civilian Review Board voted to accept the Department of Inspector General's determinations on numerous complaint files and sustained findings of policy violations in a handful of cases.
Board Member Younger reported several cases reviewed by her committee, including case 0868, in which investigators found an officer took a complainant's cellphone during an arrest, failed to document a property slip and did not return the device. "The cell phone was not returned to her," IG staff summarized in presenting the case; the DIG recommended the allegation be sustained and the committee concurred.
The board also agreed with the DIG recommendation to sustain allegations in case 0935 after finding that an officer made inappropriate and unprofessional comments at a community meeting. The officer subsequently wrote a letter of apology; DIG staff characterized the apology as timely and sincere but recommended sustaining the finding because the comments were inconsistent with CPD policy.
In another matter (case 711), investigators determined an incident report was not uploaded to the records unit in a timely manner after an assault report; DIG found the officers did not file the report promptly and recommended a sustained finding. The board accepted the DIG finding and carried the motion.
Across the session the board accepted IG conclusions for many files and recorded motions carrying by voice vote. Several allegations were closed as unfounded or administratively closed where evidence or cooperation was lacking; others were exonerated after BWC and CAD review. The board said it would hold one off-duty conduct case (case 773) for further discussion and requested relevant directives for that review.
The Inspector General and board counsel will provide the directives and underlying materials that informed the DIG recommendations to the board for follow-up and to support any future policy or disciplinary recommendations.
