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City leaders discussing changes to CRB

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte City Council's community safety committee has been discussing changes to the Citizens Review Board for months.

The Citizens Review Board hears appeals about Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s disciplinary decisions.

This is the board that serves as a checks and balances system for the CMPD.
Council members want to make sure people feel comfortable raising their concerns.

City leaders want to make significant changes to the board.

The council wants to increase its diversity and require interviews for future members.

“If we don’t begin to go deeper through the implicit bias training, the racial training, we will continue to have a big problem,” said Corinne Mack, president of Charlotte’s NAACP.

City leaders are now banning current and former city and CMPD employees from serving on the CRB and require each member to have eight hours of training.

City leaders said those eight hours can be fulfilled by taking a ride along with CMPD.

They want to see mandatory implicit bias training so CRB members have a good grasp on current police and community relations.

Police Chief Kerr Putney said this is a good way to hold the department accountable, but community leaders say they aren’t satisfied.

“I think it is a positive,” Putney said. “They are looking at membership, what people need to know. An educational piece to it.”