MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A judge may settle the debate over whether the board investigating complaints against Memphis Police can request subpoenas.
Subpoena power was a key point of the revamped Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board of CLERB, giving it the ability to dig deeper into cases but some are worried the subpoena power could cause legal problems.
“I hate to use such strong language but without subpoena power I don’t understand the point or purpose of CLERB besides being a show. Without subpoena power we don’t have strength,” said CLERB member John Marek at their meeting Tuesday.
Members of CLERB called having the ability to ask the Memphis City Council to subpoena someone on their behalf the “teeth” of their board.
On Tuesday the group met to discuss what’s next after CLERB’s city council liaison, Worth Morgan, proposed an ordinance that removes the word subpoena.
“It’s not so much about the question of should CLERB have subpoena power it’s does the city council have the authority to subpoena somebody to a meeting that’s not of the city council like a CLERB board meeting,” explained Morgan.
CLERB’s chairman said there were multiple organizations involved when the current ordinance was approved last year.
“Representatives from the police authority, the director, we had representatives from internal affairs and the union,” explained Ralph White.
Paul Garner with Mid-South Peace and Justice said requesting to subpoena will help back logged cases from years when CLERB didn’t exist and complaints were made.
“We really wanna see this board with their subpoena power process so that these folks have a fair shot at justice,” said Garner.
Now CLERB and Morgan plan to meet with attorneys to see if a judge should ultimately make the final decision.
“I think it would be great if we could have someone else make the decision because the council already had the debate over all of last year,” said Marek.
The ordinance is due for its second reading before the council next week. It needs to be read three times to officially pass.
There are other changes to the ordinance, including removing the council liaison as a voting member and clarifying language about transparency the CLERB board appears to be fine with.
Councilman Morgan said the part regarding requesting a subpoena can be suspended so a judge can evaluate and the rest of the changes to the ordinance can be approved.
Last Thursday’s CLERB meeting was cancelled because not enough members were present. Tuesday the council unanimously voted to change their meeting time from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The meetings are open to the public every second Thursday of the month.
