[PA] Citizen Police Review board kept out of dv policy building?

City Council President Doug Shields has asked for a two week delay in order to look over the police officer domestic violence policy proposed by the police in response to his own earlier proposed policy. He's hopeful that things are going in the right direction and wants to study the details to be familiar with it, and sure.

But how has the Citizen Police Review Board been deliberately left out of this collaborative process? Who's benefited? Who loses? How can that be justified?

Police domestic abuse deal near
Outside oversight, hiring still at issue in city negotiations
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA
By Rich Lord
November 15, 2007
Pittsburgh council and police brass inched toward agreement on how to handle accusations of domestic violence by police yesterday, but differences on hiring and outside oversight remain pending a possible Monday vote. The Police Bureau sent council a draft policy... its eighth version since the June 18 promotions of three officers accused of family abuse. Council President Doug Shields postponed a vote on his proposed ordinance so he can try to merge the two approaches. "Many of the issues in my version are reflected in there," Mr. Shields said of the proposed bureau policy. "I'd say we're on third base." The bureau's seven-page draft says that no officer subject to a protection-from-abuse order, or criminal charge, could be promoted... Missing in the bureau's version is any rule on how abuse accusations should play into hiring decisions. Mr. Shields' bill would demand that they be taken into account. The draft says that when someone calls 911 to report domestic abuse by an officer, a higher-ranking officer must secure evidence and take photographs. If it looks like a crime was committed, the accused would be arrested and a disciplinary report filed... An eight-member Domestic Violence Review Board -- including police command staff, the personnel director, a psychologist and an adviser from the Women's Center and Shelter -- would review each incident and could recommend discipline. Left out is the Citizen Police Review Board, a city agency created in a voter referendum to investigate complaints against officers. Councilman Jeff Koch said that board should investigate, rather than OMI... The policy has no "objective, impartial, outside party measuring [bureau] performance," said Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board. She said she was excluded from a Nov. 8 meeting at bureau headquarters on the policy, while the Fraternal Order of Police has been consulted... (See full article here)

Pittsburgh City Council delays vote on domestic abuse issue
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Pittsburgh City Council on Wednesday delayed a vote on a proposed "zero-tolerance" ordinance that would crack down on police officers accused of domestic violence. Council is now scheduled to take a tentative vote Monday on legislation that would require police officers to report if they're involved in a domestic incident... (See full article here)