Patrick O’Bryant
Tallahassee City Council voted 5-0 in favor of the mayor’s approval John Dailey‘s new appointment to the City Citizens Police Review Committee during Wednesday’s session.
Patrick O’Bryant, 28, will fill an open position after Tom Napier resigned on July 17th. O’Bryant is a graduate of Harvard Law and practices civil procedural law in Tallahassee.
Tallahassee formed the Citizens Police Review Board on September 23, 2020 after a Leon County grand jury determined that police officers were involved in the controversial shootings of Mychael Johnson, Tony McDade and Wilbon Woodard Earlier this month and a summer of nationwide protests against Black Lives Matter. The Board of Directors reviews completed reports of internal Tallahassee Police matters, cases and law enforcement-related issues, but cannot review ongoing internal affairs investigations or discipline officers for misconduct.
The board consists of nine members: five are appointed individually by the members of the city commission and four are appointed by the commission from applicants nominated by local civic or social organizations.
O’Bryant, who moved to Tallahassee with his family as a minor in 2003, said he applied to join the board because he wanted to promote police accountability to the Tallahassee communities.
“We’ve seen some kind of loss of confidence in communities and the police,” said O’Bryant. “For me, this is what I can do to establish that accountability, restore that trust, and help Tallahassee be a model of how we can have just, safe and equitable policing.”
O’Bryant said he recognizes that much of this lack of trust in the police comes from minority communities. An African-American friend in Tallahassee told him she was concerned about her children interacting with law enforcement.
“She needs to teach them when there is a cop around, make sure you say ‘yes sir’, ‘yes ma’am’, make sure your hands are always free and open,” said he.
At the national level, blacks are more than three times more likely to be killed in a police encounter than whites a Harvard study.
As a white man, O’Bryant said he did not receive these warnings while attending Lawton Chiles High School or as a student at Florida State University.
“That wasn’t the kind of world or Tallahassee I grew up in,” he said. “I never had to talk to my parents about what to do with police officers to stay safe.”
O’Bryant said he hopes his experience with the law will be of value to the board. His term of office ends on December 31, 2023.
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from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/mayor-john-dailey-appoints-harvard-law-graduates-to-the-tallahassee-citizens-police-review-board/
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