Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial bill Friday stripping citizen oversight boards of their power to investigate police misconduct.
The bill, HB 601, instead allows local chiefs of police agencies to create their own “civilian oversight” boards composed of three to seven members, all appointed by the chief or sheriff. But these boards can only review policies and procedures, not oversee use-of-force complaints or internal affairs investigations.
The new legislation “puts the kibosh on these extrajudicial investigations against law enforcement,” DeSantis said at a news conference at the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, describing the boards as “stacked with activists.”
The law does not allow members of the boards to be appointed by local governments.
“You have review boards, that’s fine, but it’s got to be done in ways where you have the Sheriff or Chief of Police appointing people,” the governor said. “It can’t be people that have an agenda.”
While legislators who sponsored the bill said it did not remove civilian oversight boards entirely, critics said it effectively banned them, removing an important source of input and transparency for Floridians.
“I think the attempt is to eliminate these boards,” Marc Dickerman, the vice chair of the Fort Lauderdale Police Advisory Board, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, adding that the law “is, to me, almost a death knell for boards throughout the state.”
South Florida currently has at least two advisory boards with civilians on them, one in Fort Lauderdale and one in Delray Beach. West Palm Beach also established a use-of-force advisory board in 2019, though all of the board members are appointed from within the police department, except for a legal adviser.
Prior to the bill signing, those boards had the power to review investigations of officers. But Fort Lauderdale’s board, like many others, served purely in an advisory role and could not make determinations in any of the cases it reviewed, according to the board’s current chair, Paul Eichner.
Asked how the new law would change the board, Eichner reserved making any comment, saying he awaited instruction from the city attorney.
Board members currently review cases once internal affairs has completed its investigation and provided its results to the chief, Dickerman said. If the board decides the investigation was incomplete, it could go back to internal affairs and tell them. After reviewing the investigation, the board is told what the punishment for the officer is going to be, and is allowed to provide input on the punishment.
Sometimes, the board would recommend harsher punishments, but other times it would recommend softer ones, Eichner said.
“This is not a board that’s hell-bent to vilify police department,” he added. Fort Lauderdale’s board has often been made up of businesspeople, lawyers, and those in retirement.
“I don’t think any of them have come in with a preconceived notion that something is good or bad, or people are good or bad, or departments.”
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