Civilian Board of Control of the Johnstown Police Department

We, the residents of Johnstown Pennsylvania do hereby petition the Johnstown City Council, Mayor and City Manager to enact legislation to establish a democratically elected Civilian Board of Control of the Johnstown Police Department. This board will be empowered to make policy, hire, and fire police, review and investigate any and or all complaints against officers and petition for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute police accused of crimes such as battery, unlawful arrest, racial profiling, torture, murder, and the use of force to suppress the democratic rights of the people to organize and protest.
The Board of Control would be directly responsible for conducting investigations into allegations of the use of excessive force, police shootings where an officer’s discharges his/her weapon and strikes someone, deaths in custody, domestic violence, verbal abuse including bias and coercion. The board would also investigate allegations of off duty misconduct relating to excessive force and discharge incidents.
These investigations would include but are not limited to conducting interviews and formal statements with complainants, witnesses, accused and witness officers, and the analysis of all forms of evidence including video, forensic and documentary.
This legislation is due in part with the murder of Elip Cheatham on June 25, 2012 and for all the other instances of police abuse, brutality and or abuse of power. We feel the Johnstown Police Department needs to be policed and we the citizens of this community respectfully wish to be heard and these issues addressed.