logo

Stew Lilker’s

Columbia County Observer

Real news for working families.  An online news service

Lake City News

Lake City Police Advisory Review Board: Councilman Sampson Has a Plan

photo of police with caption: a plan for police oversight for Lake City.
Photo: AJ Colores  |  Columbia County Observer graphic

Instructions to attend the meeting in person and on line are here.

LAKE CITY, COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL –  This evening, Lake City, City Councilman Todd Sampson revealed his ideas and a two-part plan for civilian oversight of the Lake City Police Department. Councilman Sampson said, “Transparency and accountability are the purposes of police oversight. The more trust and community spirit we can build, the better off we will all be."


Todd Sampson takes the oath with the Sampson women standing by. Mr. Sampson is invested in Lake City.

Tomorrow at 10 AM, at the Richardson Sixth Grade Academy Auditorium, located at 646 SE Pennsylvania Street, Lake City, the City Council will meet for the second consecutive week to discuss civilian complaint oversight.

Councilman Sampson was taking mandatory training from the Florida League of Cities during last week's workshop. However, he told the Observer that the training was "really valuable," and it “gave me time speak with other elected and appointed officials to get ideas about police oversight.”

After the League of Cities training, Mr. Sampson put together a plan for Lake City, which is composed of two oversight committees: an independent Police Advisory Panel and a Police Complaint Committee.

He tried to get his plan completed earlier, but a family of five daughters and a business to run press on his time.

The Police Complaint Committee

The State of Florida limits civilian investigation into law enforcement officers, which creates the need for a Police Complaint Committee whose purpose would be to assist the Chief of Police with the policies, practices, and procedures concerning the processing of complaints against police officers.

One of the main functions of the Police Complaint Committee will be in fostering transparency and encouraging the community to have more robust communication and involvement with the police department.

The Committee would receive reports from the Chief of Police, or designee, regarding complaints made to the police department and how they were addressed. Included in the reports of completed investigations of complaints against officers would be statistics of the cases involving internal discipline and their resolution.

The Committee would advise the Chief on matters arising from the reports which the Committee believes required attention.

The Police Complaint Committee would submit an annual report and other reports to the Independent Police Advisory Panel.

The Independent Police Advisory Panel

The Independent Police Advisory Panel (“Panel”) would be supported by the City Manager, an outside attorney independent of City government, and the Chief of Police. The City Clerk would function as secretary to the Panel and attend the meetings.

The Panel would receive reports from the Chief of Police regarding complaints made to the police department and how they were addressed.

The Panel would also receive reports of completed investigations of complaints against officers and statistics of cases involving internal discipline and resolution.

The Panel would advise the Chief on matters arising from the reports which the Committee believes require attention. 

Finally, the Independent Police Advisory Panel would submit an annual report and other reports, as needed, to the City Council.

Comments (to add a comment go here)

This work by the Columbia County Observer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

 
Meeting Calendar
No need to be confused - Find links to agendas and where your participation is welcome.
 
 

Make a comment • click here •
All comments are displayed at the end of the article and are moderated.