COLUMBIA - In a meeting on Wednesday the Columbia Citizens Police Review Board made a point to talk about a plan to possibly reverse changes made in September of last year.
The changes include only being allowed to look at appeals if they fell into one of four categories, the inability to host public meetings, make comments on policy and more.
"We are not able to interact with the public in the way we would like to and we're not able to make recommendations about policy, procedure and training. We would like to have that restored," Doug Hunt, a board member of the CPRB, said.
Columbia City Council took the steps to make these changes with the goal to adhere to state law. However, during the meeting the board discussed how other cities in that state with police review boards have not followed the law or taken the same restrictive measures as Columbia.
During the meeting, the board questioned weather they possibly overstepped.
"I predict that when we issue our report to city council, it will include a discussion about how we would like to have the council restore the powers previously taken away," Hunt said.
A decision or reversal can't be made without approval by the City Council, and the board will discuss the idea at their next meeting, which is on Dec. 10.
