MANSFIELD — The Mansfield Police Review and Community-Police Relations Commission voted unanimously Thursday evening to accept police department findings that two citizen complaints against officers were unsustained.
The commission, meeting for the first time since January due to the COVID-19 pandemic, also heard complaints in nine other cases from police Capt. Doug Noblet.
All of the complaints dealt with officer interactions with residents during 2019.
Five of the seven commission members attended the meeting in City Council chambers — Bill Freytag, Pam Williams-Briggs, Robert Chapmon, Chauncey Bragg Sr. and Teri Marlow.
Commission members Patsy Rambo and Mary Haynes didn’t attend the session, which lasted just over an hour.
The two cases the panel voted had been discussed in January, though Noblet again went over the details of the department’s investigation into the allegations. Neither complainant attended the meeting.
In one of the cases, a resident alleged two officers committed courtesy violations when he was stopped by police while walking in the middle of the road. In the second, a citizen complained police acted improperly during the search of a residence that involved an arrest.
Noblet went over the department’s investigations, which found the complaints to be unsustained.
In the latter case, he said, one of the officers was counseled for cursing in front of children and for also not activating the dash-cam on his cruiser when the incident began.
The complainants in the nine new cases will receive letters from the commission to attend the next commission meeting July 16 to speak on their behalf if they choose.
During Thursday’s session, Chapmon asked Noblet about specific police procedures in some instances as the captain detailed the allegations of the complaints and the department’s investigations, which found all allegations to be unsustained.
After the new cases were detailed by Noblet, Williams-Briggs pointed out one officer had been involved in multiple citizen complaints.
Noblet said, however, the department’s investigations, which often involve the dash-cams (audio and video), found the officer had not acted improperly in any of the cases.
At Chapmon’s request, Noblet said he would seek to be able to show the commission members dash-cam videos at future meetings.
After the complaints were detailed by Noblet, the captain also went over more than 20 instances of letters or emails thanking or praising officers for their efforts.
The commission was created by City Council in 2003. The panel reviews completed investigations of the police department which involve department-citizen contact.
“The review of any specific Division of Police investigation shall not take place until the investigation of the complaint is complete, provided that no records may be reviewed by the Commission that contain information that is confidential or their release is prohibited by state or federal law,” the city’s website states.
“In cases where charges are filed against the (police department) employee, the Commission’s review shall not be conducted until the disciplinary process has been concluded by a hearing before the Director of Public Safety.
“If criminal charges are pending against the citizen who filed the complaint or any person who is directly involved in the allegations of the complaint, the Commission shall not review the file until the prosecution of the case through trial has been completed,” the website states.
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