The Winston-Salem City Council’s public safety committee has voted to set up an independent panel to review the Jill Marker case.
Winston-Salem does have a citizen review board, but committee members reminded City Manager Lee Garrity about potential conflicts of interest:
Garrity had recommended that the Winston-Salem Citizen Police Review Board conduct the review, but that proposal was rejected after committee members brought up potential problems.
They said that they were concerned that members of the review board never signed on for such a big task. Their role generally is to review minor complaints against police officers.
In addition, they said, some board members might have been privy to personnel files of police officers, and that could lead to bias.
Seems to me this raises to the bigger question of whether or not citizens should have access to police personnel files.
