Should the Resident Oversight Board for the Amherst Police Have Investigative Powers?

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council, November 3, 2025, Part 2

This was a hybrid meeting held in Town Hall. It was recorded. 

Present
Lynn Griesemer (President, District 2), Andy Steinberg, Mandi Jo Hanneke, and Ellisha Walker (at large), Cathy Schoen and Freke Ette (District 1), Pat DeAngelis (District 2), George Ryan and Hala Lord (District 3), Pam Rooney and Jennifer Taub (District 4), and Ana Devlin Gauthier and Bob Hegner (District 5). 

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager) and Athena O’Keeffe (Council Clerk)

Consultants Brian Corr and Rabbi Debra Kolodny worked with a stakeholder working group assembled by Town Manager Paul Bockelman to develop a plan to create a Resident Oversight Board (ROB) to oversee actions by the Amherst Police Department (APD) and the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS). Corr is past president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement and a national advisor on community trust building and civilian oversight systems, is the former director of the City of Cambridge Peace Commission and the Cambridge Police Review and Advisory Board, and has nearly 40 years of experience in government and nonprofit leadership. Kolodny is a town resident and a facilitator specializing in community safety, equity, and inclusion, with over three decades of experience leading social justice initiatives. 

The stakeholders group was composed of representatives from the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC), thet town’s Human Rights Commission, the DEI director, the Amherst Police Department (APD) chief, former Town Councilors Shalini Bahl Milne and Anika Lopes, and representatives from the police union and firefighters/EMS. The group met eight times for two hours over the course of seven months and its members researched different topics between meetings. A 36-page report on the group’s work was submitted to the council, as well as an opinion from K-P Law about the implications for confidentiality, privacy rights of individuals and police officers, and open meeting law regulations for hearings of the ROB.

Despite the intensive work, the group could not come to agreement as to whether the ROB should use a review model or an investigative model. In the review model, Corr explained, there is civilian oversight of police actions and the ROB can make recommendations, but corrective action remains with the police. In the investigative model, the ROB has subpoena power to get information from the police, and corrective action is decided by the ROB. Cambridge has had a review model since 1980, with trained investigators reviewing evidence about complaints; New York City and Los Angeles have whole departments doing investigations under the review model.  The investigative model, on the other hand, is, most often used in “communities that have a long history of severe dysfunction in investigation processes, where people have felt that investigations have not led to accountability,” Corr said. 

Either way, he said, the key principle is that the oversight body is independent from the agency it is overseeing in order to promote impartiality, due process that has legitimacy,for procedural justice for everybody, and to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and with dignity. He noted that many communities around the country have created oversight agencies.

Although the stakeholders agreed that the ROB should center around anti-racist policies, transparency, and making sure all voices in a complaint are heard, they could not agree on whether it should only review complaints and make recommendations or whether it should be able to investigate complaints independently and decide on disciplinary actions. The two ROB models are summarized below:

The stakeholder group recommended a seven-member ROB accountable to the Town Council and the Town Manager. They felt that complaints regarding CRESS should also be handled by the ROB, and CRESS director Camille Theriaque agreed. Members of the ROB will need continuous training. Corr said that current and former police officers should not be part of the ROB.

Many issues around the ROB remain to be clarified. Freke Ette asked where complaints against the UMass police would fit in, and Kolodny explained that the UMass police are not town employees and would not be covered by the town’s ROB. She also stated that in participating in the working group, she became aware of the amount of trauma police officers live with and the need for trauma-informed therapy for both the officers and the residents who have frightening encounters with them.

Town Councilor Ellisha Walker asked if the anonymity of complainants can be maintained. Corr replied that most police departments take anonymous complaints, but it makes it harder to do an investigation. Walker felt it is important for the ROB to have investigative and subpoena powers in order to have access to police records.

The recommendations about the form that the ROB will take were referred to the Governance, Organization, and Legislation committee (GOL) of the Town Council, but its chair, Ana Devlin Gauthier, did not think the committee will be able to evaluate the options before the new council is seated in January. Bockelman said that he needs the financial implications of the recommended model by April, 2026 in order to incorporate them into the FY27 budget.

Human Rights Committee member Rani Parker, who participated in the stakeholders group, said in public comment, “The Community Safety Working Group established this as a very important and pressing need, to have a resident oversight board with investigation powers—a place where residents can safely submit complaints regarding their interactions with police and where their complaint can be heard and addressed. One important challenge is for us to address the concerns of BIPOC residents regarding their interactions with the police. We are a white majority Town Council, a white majority town staff, and a white majority police department. Clearly the experience of white people is different from that of BIPOC residents in every facet of society. I ask for explicit recognition of this difference. Please do not ignore BIPOC voices, because our experience doesn’t align with yours.”