Council outlines police oversight committee

KYLE — While Kyle City Council was at a stalemate during its last discussion of Proposition F — a measure approved by an overwhelming 75% of voters in the 2020 election to create a police oversight committee — representatives of the Kyle Police Department and the Kyle Law Enforcement Association joined council members and city staff in a special meeting held on Saturday, April 1 to create an outline of the group’s members and functions.

As previously reported by the Hays Free Press, city council moved forward in the measure after heated discussion by directing staff to coordinate the workshop discussing the implementation of the charter in a 6-1 vote on March 7.

“We had some good discussion about Prop F at the previous meeting and that led us to this workshop,” Mayor Travis Mitchell said. “What I’m hoping to do is basically reoutline some of the things that we all agreed with and the changes that they [law enforcement representatives] have suggested.”

KPD Chief Jeff Barnett said, “We appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and provide insights from the perspective of law enforcement.”

Workshop participants were invited to the table to discuss how to implement the following charter language stemming from Proposition F:

“The city of Kyle Police Department shall collaborate with a committee established by the city council to have oversight over the development of standard operating policies and strategies, providing timely data sharing and deploying resources that aim to: (1) protect all citizens, businesses and property within the city; (2) promote transparency within the police department to the community, to also include data sharing communication in the forms of: in person briefings, news publications and social media on a quarterly basis; and (3) reduce crime by increasing positive community engagement and promoting cooperation with all citizens through training, education and community policing models. Annually, the police chief or designee shall provide the full city council with a comprehensive report about police department operations, crime statistics, training initiatives and other information requested by the city council. The city council shall adopt an ordinance implementing the terms of this subsection.”

“We are trying to get to the starting line here,” explained Mitchell, who outlined the agreed-upon requirements for preparing to launch the police oversight committee, which includes a three-person interview panel.

Per the city of Kyle rules on boards and committees, the department head is included in these committees; however, Barnett will not be included in an effort to keep it impartial.

“The deviation is to take the chief out to be independent,” Mitchell said.

The biggest discussion held at the Saturday meeting was who would comprise the police oversight committee.

Some rules include the following: must not serve on any other board; adhere to a term limit; be a registered voter and resident of the city of Kyle; have a clean record; no history of serving on any police-related organizations within the past five years; and no “demonstrated” bias for or against law enforcement.

“Who’s going to be fit for this group? I think it’s going to be really hard to prove [they have no bias],” council member Yvonne Flores-Cale said. “It opens the door for something discriminatory. It’s going to be a slippery slope. This is going to be difficult.”

Council member Michael Tobias explained that there is an interview process for candidates to go through in which potential bias could be exposed.

“That’s where the interview process comes in. We’re trying to get to the roots of what the committee is and have goals and a mission statement of what we’re trying to accomplish,” Tobias said. “When we have a conversation with an applicant, we can determine if this is someone we really need to be on a committee like this.”

While there was some debate about whether a potential committee member should participate in the Citizen’s Police Academy, the participants agreed that there should be some form of training or orientation to show the individual the basics of law enforcement.

“We could design an engagement program and it’ll be at a much higher level,” Barnett said. “We can design an orientation program.”

Finally, Mitchell outlined the primary, secondary and tertiary functions of the police oversight committee.

Its primary function will be to oversee the compilation and publishing of an annual report, the scope of which should be prepared within the first quarter after the board is formed and seated.

“The scope is focused on what they’re learning about KPD and what they want to know and currently don’t know,” the mayor said, adding that the scope will then be presented and approved by council before the committee can proceed with the actual creation of the annual report. “That is the main reason that they exist: is for the report.”

The secondary function of the committee will be to oversee quarterly briefings to be published in the news media and social media to update the public of the committee’s work and data uncovered in the process.

Council member Bear Heiser questioned the function of the board for its secondary purpose: “How is that helping us get better?”

“If we could be better, there is an issue,” Heiser said. “This committee evaluates if we should have utilized social media to get this information to the people faster, which is something we should all want to be doing; it’s the whole purpose of oversight. I hate that word. It should be a collaboration of improvement. We want to have a better relationship with the community, but we have to show the community that we’re evolving as the community evolves. I think that’s the whole purpose of putting together this panel: is to realize and not wrist-slap.”

The tertiary function of the committee will be to make recommendations to the council regarding standard operating policies and resource distribution policies. The recommendation component should be evidence-based, Mitchell added.

At no point shall the committee’s recommendations involve use of force policy, policy regarding KPD officers or meet and confer. There may be data regarding use of force included in the annual report — the primary function of the committee — but the committee will not be allowed to make any recommendations regarding that data, the mayor explained.

“All these things [police-involved incidents] drive a narrative, but what we’re focusing on is none of that,” he said. “So, when they voted 75% for oversight, what they weren’t saying, based on how I’m reading it, is that they think KPD is untrustworthy and we need to change how they operate. We want to make sure our police department operates to such a degree we can ensure that these bad things happening in other cities don’t come to Kyle.”

Mitchell then motioned to “create an ordinance for the police oversight committee consistent with the scope we have discussed and outlined here today [to come before council] for the first meeting in May.”

The motion passed unanimously.

While Flores-Cale voted in favor in order to “create continuous action,” she expressed concerns about the voters’ true intent regarding Proposition F.

“I worry the council did not retain enough feedback from residents regarding their thoughts and ideas, instead, the council was presented with Mayor Mitchell and council member Tobias’ interpretation of Prop F,” she said. “Council was never encouraged to discuss how we interpreted the verbiage. I found this to be contradictory to Mayor Mitchell’s request during the discussion to allow the committee to collectively discuss and create information [for a report] as opposed to being presented with information, in order to allow the committee to form their own thoughts and ideas. I was hoping Saturday’s workshop would have been the same outcome for us.”

Overall, city council was satisfied to be able to move the issue forward.

“These kinds of discussions are always challenging,” Mitchell said of the measure. “I applaud the council and our PD for working collaboratively and with purpose to achieve the mandate set by voters in 2020.”

Flores-Cale said, “I was relieved to see action being taken with Prop F. When residents vote, and that vote leads to action being required by the city, there should be very little delay in that action … Council, to include myself, should have followed up and requested updates. The fault of this delay falls on many.”

The measure will come before the council again at the first meeting in May.