MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On Tuesday the Memphis City Council has delayed changed to the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board for three months.
The board, known as CLERB, is tasked with reviewing police complaints.
A deal was agreed to last week but the council won’t vote until November.
At one point CLERB had asked for subpoena power but in the ordinance presented before the council on Tuesday that was not part of the plan.
CLERB would have to ask the council to sponsor a subpoena.
Other changes would be putting a time limit on Internal Affairs investigations.
“CLERB has now placed inside that resolution 45 days before CLERB can get involved in that investigation,” explained Council member Wanda Halbert, who has sponsored CLERB.
At Tuesday’s meeting several members of the public spoke about CLERB as well as City Council members.
“I think we can be honest with each other this whole process has really been led by people who really don’t like the police,” said City Council member Kemp Conrad.
He was outspoken that City Council voting for CLERB would be the wrong move.
He said he supported a review board, just not the one before the Council.
Conrad showed a slide of Facebook pages of CLERB supporters who, he claimed, showed anti-police rhetoric.
After he spoke, Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong took the podium.
He asked in the wake of officer Sean Bolton’s death the vote be postponed until after Bolton’s funeral Thursday.
Council member Berlin Boyd moved for the council to make a decision the first week of November.
Council member Halbert said she respected the director’s request and supported waiting but believed waiting until November made no sense.
“I’m really disturbed at what I’m seeing from my colleagues because clearly something else is going on here,” she said.
Ultimately the council postponed the vote until November.
“What happened here tonight and what I asked council to consider tonight has no way, no reflection on my support for CLERB,” said Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong.
However proponents of CLERB said some members of the council and the Director are using Bolton’s death as a political agenda.
“It’s very unfortunate to see people with political agendas exploit that to push against police accountability in the city of Memphis,” said Paul Garner.
The vote has been delayed until November, after the October election.
Many of the council members will no longer be on the Council at that time because they are not seeking reelection.
