JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On Tuesday, a new bill targeting civilian review boards passed through its second state Senate committee.
If passed, SB 576 would put an end to civilian oversight of complaints made against law enforcement and correctional officers.
Local activists have been fighting for a civilian review board in Jacksonville for a few years. The Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) said it's tried working with city leaders past and present and has also tried getting a referendum on a ballot.
If the legislation passes, it will put an end to their fight.
"I personally find it very troubling," JCAC outreach chair Neal Jefferson told First Coast News. "We've been working very hard to bring civilian review to Jacksonville with our ballot initiative that we are currently gathering signatures for."
In a Senate analysis of SB 576, it said 21 cities in Florida have civilian review boards. The boards look at several things including allegations of police misconduct, internal affairs investigations, and large-scale systemic reform.
A Florida-based study published by the Leroy Collins Institute said cities adopting a review board experience a 15% reduction in total Black arrest rates.
"We feel like a civilian review board would be the first step to getting more transparency from JSO [Jacksonville Sheriff's Office]," Jefferson said.
SB 576 passed in the 'Community Affairs' committee with an amendment on Tuesday.
"I would like to take away community review boards as it pertains to the individual incident and the individual officer," Florida Senator Blaise Ingoglia said. "We think [it] is important that you should have community involvement. The people who are on a civilian review board, do not understand law enforcement, do not understand the policy and procedures, they do not understand what they [police] have to go through."
The amended bill would allow sheriffs or police chiefs to create a civilian board to oversee department policies and procedures.
"To only allow people to review policies and procedures, on some level defangs the review board," Jefferson said. "If we are not able to also look at the specific instances in which certain things are happening, then we lack context. And if we lack context, then we don't have all the information we need."
In the past, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has opposed civilian review boards. First Coast News reached out to JSO asking if he could comment on the bill, but has not heard back.
Mayor Donna Deegan voiced support for review boards during her campaign. Her office said it could not comment as it hasn't reviewed details of the bill.