TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Community Action Committee is pushing for outside legal counsel for the board that reviews alleged police misconduct.
More than a dozen protesters gathered outside Old City Hall on Monday evening to demand Tampa City Council vote in favor of an ordinance that would provide the Tampa Citizens Review Board with legal counsel unaffiliated with the city.
Created in 2015, Tampa's Citizens Review Board was established to build trust between the Tampa Police Department and the community, but a local activist group says, right now, the board can't trust that its legal counsel is objective.
Carlos Valdes sits on the citizen's review board and supports the effort.
"We're being guided and represented by a city attorney who is not necessarily the attorney of the Tampa Police Department but falls under the city of Tampa," Valdes said. "So when reviewing certain cases, there could be certain types of conflicts of interest, and being able to have an independent counsel will give us unbiased opinions versus an individual that is trying to protect the city and its workers."
However, Devon Ingandela also sits on the review board and says legal counsel fills a procedural role that hasn't given way to conflicts of interest.
"I don't think it's an immediate need," Ingandela said. "It's something that should be explored, but if it was me writing the check, I wouldn't be ready for that yet."
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor agrees that the position, paid for with taxpayer dollars, is unnecessary.
"What was proposed by the council would be redundant in that we would be hiring in essence a third attorney that the CRB does not want and did not request," Castor said.
Tampa City Council is set to vote on the ordinance at its meeting on Thursday.