City of Springfield introduces new police-community advisory team

City of Springfield leaders introduced a new advisory board that they say will strengthen police-community relations during a city commission meeting on Tuesday morning.

Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland told News Center 7′s Jenna Lawson that the board is a revamped version of a previous advisory group that’s been inactive for about 10 years and will be called the Community Police Advisory Team.

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The board, if approved by the city commission, will be made up of nine community members who ideally come from different backgrounds such as the business community, the religious community, the human relations board, neighborhood groups and those in higher education.

Those in community must apply to be part of the advisory team.

The team will work with the Springfield Chief of Police and Springfield City Manager on issues like police policies, recruitment of a diverse police force and proposed equipment changes.

Other duties include reviewing use of force, traffic stop, SWAT call out and other incident-based data, serving as a conduit for comments about officers from the community and reviewing final investigatory notes relating to police activities.

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The group would also be involved if an officer’s conduct comes into question at a scene.

“Beyond that, we also want this group to make recommendations to the department about things they might do to better relate to the community,” Copeland said.

Mayor Copeland said the creation of the group was not because an existing problem between the Springfield community and the police division, but it is an attempt to be proactive.

“We aren’t expecting incidents, but I think we’ve seen what happens when communities have no way of connecting the police department to people in the community who are respected and believed by the community to talk about incidents that might arise,” he said.

City documents say that each member of the advisory team will serve for a term of three years and will be appointed by the Mayor with approval from the city commission.

Cox Media Group