After plans for establishing a police civilian review board in Henrico County recently stalled, a handful of residents advocated at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting for creating such an oversight body.
In May, Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, who is one of two Black members of the Board of Supervisors, pumped the brakes on establishing an oversight board after running into resistance from his colleagues. Nelson, a Democrat, wanted the civilian board to be able to investigate county police, but his conservative colleagues, all of whom are white, did not.
Fairfield resident Terrell Pollard, who is Black, told supervisors Tuesday that he has had negative interactions with Henrico police. He said that although the county has “an excellent police department,” a civilian review board is necessary.
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Pollard, who said he did not want to describe his negative encounters because such accounts can be misconstrued as misconduct being commonplace in all police departments, told the supervisors that “all bad apples deserve due process, whether it is a resident that is a suspect or an officer that has been accused of excessive force.”
“Henrico County can and should take this opportunity to create an enduring message that all of its residents are valued, and valued to the point where they have direct oversight in how they are treated as their government enforces the law,” Pollard said.
Of all the arrests and criminal summons given by Henrico police in 2020 to county residents and nonresidents, 60% were for Black people, 37% were for white people and 1% were for Asian people, according to an accountability report by Henrico police. According to census estimates, Black residents account for about 31% of the county’s population, while white residents account for 57%.
Henrico Police Chief Eric English recently said that if a civilian review board is created in the county, his department would make any necessary adjustments.
“I would just say that you know, as a police agency, we have no control on whether or not the community decides to have a civilian review board,” English said in a June interview.
English, who joined the department last September, has worked to increase transparency and strengthen community relationships. He has a chief advisory team and a use-of-force review board, both of which have civilian members. He also holds his officers accountable with random checks of body cameras.
Chlo’e Edwards, a Brookland resident and president of Black Lives Matter 804, outlined for the Board of Supervisors what her group would like to see in a civilian review board.
The review board should have the power to independently investigate incidents and complaints, to monitor and audit police, to discipline officers in serious cases, and to meet the needs of the community, she said.
In response to Tuesday’s public comments, Nelson said: “I spent one year on this subject. One entire year. I will reintroduce this idea if I have a third board member ready to support an independent board. If BLM 804 can make that happen, then sure.”
Edwards, who is Black, ran away from home as a teenager to escape abuse. She said she had a white Henrico police officer drive her home and say that he used to be a rebellious teenager like her but learned to be quiet. After being sent back home, she faced more years of abuse.
She said her grandfather had worked as a police officer — but that he himself experienced police brutality, while on the job.
“He was a Black man first, before a police officer,” Edwards said.
Seth Hill, a 19-year-old Henrico resident who has had experiences with police from both Henrico and Richmond in the past year, said in an interview Monday that Henrico needs a civilian review board.
“It is important to have people power on this board, as it is a conflict of interest to have the police investigate their own misconduct,” Hill said.
In April 2020, the same month he turned 18, Hill was charged with assault and battery after a workplace incident. He later pleaded guilty.
Last August, during protests in Richmond against police brutality, Hill approached a few Richmond police officers on bicycles. Hill recalled that, while wearing a full-face Halloween mask with a COVID-19 mask inside of it, he said to the officers that putting on a badge doesn’t make their lives matter.
“I really do believe that, because if our lives don’t matter, what makes your lives matter more because you have a badge?” said Hill, who is Black.
Hill was soon charged with a felony count of concealing his identity. He said he was wearing both masks to protect himself from tear gas and pepper spray, both of which were deployed by Richmond police on protesters last summer, and the coronavirus.
Hill said his arrest in Richmond made him feel he was being treated like a “bad person” and “a criminal” at a time when he was adhering to the state’s mask mandate. The case is still pending.