Citing Ferguson, councilman calling for independent review of Philly cops

A Philadelphia City Councilman again is trying to create an independent police advisory commission.

Councilman Curtis Jones says he wants to revive a failed plan to create an independent advisory commission to review the Philadelphia police department fairly.

“We don’t want to be anti-anyone we want to be for the citizens and for police officers in a fair open, transparent, process that people can believe in,” Jones said. “That they are going to get complaints actually through a system not in two years, there’s going to be enough of a budget for people to actually investigate fairly.” 

Jones says the recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri prompted him to re-introduce the idea.

“I would be disingenuous if i didn’t look to Ferguson as a cautionary tale of people who don’t believe in a process, people who feel no matter what they say they aren’t heard and we cannot have that in Philly,” he said. 

Currently Philadelphia’s Managing Director oversees the police advisory board, comprised of 13 mayoral appointees.

Jones tried and failed in 2011 to change over to an independent review commission.