were already in line<\/a> with some of the standardized demands of civil rights protesters.<\/p>\nOversight<\/p>\n
“There’s state agencies, there’s the City and Borough of Juneau,” Mercer said about oversight over the department. “There’s oversight of the JPD.”<\/p>\n
The city manager’s office has some oversight over JPD’s day to day, Mercer said. When there’s a use of force incident of sufficient gravity, the city manager will sit down with JPD leadership and review the video and the facts at hand. There are also other committees that ostensibly provide oversight from a higher level.<\/p>\n
“I would like to point out that our very own chief Mercer is on the Alaska Police Standards Council,” Campbell said. “At their meetings they do review cases, they do decide to pull certifications.”<\/p>\n
The Office of Special Prosecutions and Office of Victims Rights also help investigate potential excesses of force, Mercer said.<\/p>\n
“They (the OSP) can determine if an officer didn’t make a legal decision and can bring criminal charges against an officer,” Mercer said.<\/p>\n
The OSP gets involved any time there’s an officer involved shooting, and the OVR is there to help victims of a crime, able to pull records and determine if the officer and police department provided satisfactory service, Mercer said.<\/p>\n
None of these oversight committees or organizations are composed of members elected from the general public. Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs asked Watt to consider what the creation of a citizen oversight board would entail to be discussed at a future meeting.<\/p>\n
JPD has worn body cameras since 2016, Mercer said, and despite some issues with battery life and the physical durability of the hardware, the department is quite happy with them.<\/p>\n
“Overall the officers enjoy having the body worn on them. It shows accountability and it shows the public we’re out doing the best job we can,” Mercer said. “Biased based policing is a misconduct and will be investigated if a complaint comes in.”<\/p>\n