MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Morgantown City Council Special Committee on Police Review & Advisory Board gave a presentation to the Morgantown City Council on Tuesday on the possibility of creating a Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board.
During Tuesday’s night virtual Committee of the Whole meeting, Morgantown – Kingwood NAACP President Dr. Jerry Carr Jr. gave the board the presentation, explaining the details of the Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board and why the committee believes it should be brought to the City of Morgantown.
Officials explained that the Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board would be an independent body that can review and make recommendations to the police on behalf of the community.
“The City of Morgantown has undertaken an endeavor to do community policing and we found the thing that’s missing is the community piece of it,” explained NAACP representative Richard Burks. So, what we wanted to do is put in a process where the community actually has input into how they’re policed.”
The special committee held more than 20 public meetings over the past seven months to develop a draft ordinance, which is now being sent to the West Virginia Attorney General’s office for review, according to Morgantown officials.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has been been critical of the effort to this point.
