City taking applications for Wilkes-Barre Police Advisory Board

WILKES-BARRE — It’s taken a while, but the formation of a citizen committee to work with Mayor George Brown and the police department on improving community relations is back in gear.

Brown on Monday said more information about the Wilkes-Barre Police Advisory Committee will be released this week and applications are being accepted.

“I have received one so far,” Brown said.

The mayor and eight other people will sit on the committee that he first announced at the June 11 city council meeting. At the time, Black Lives Matter protests locally and around the world were taking place, calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Rather than begin the process immediately to fill the unpaid seats, Brown took time to get additional input from the public. “I wanted to make sure every avenue was covered,” he said.

The application for the committee is available on the city’s web site, wilkes-barre.city.

The committee does not require a vote by city council. An ordinance proposing a citizen police review board does, however.

Councilwoman Beth Gilbert McBride drafted an ordinance that she said will be presented at council’s meeting Thursday night. The proposed legislation would give the review board the authority to investigate allegations of police misconduct.

The Wilkes-Barre Police Benevolent Association, the union representing officers in the department, had been provided a copy of the ordinance and said it had concerns with the language. The PBA asked city officials to hold off on taking any action on the review board in the immediate future. It favored the advisory committee proposed by the mayor.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Wilkes-Barre Branch No. 2306 took the opposite stance. The local NAACP said the advisory committee did not go far enough and supported the creation of a review board.

With the activity surrounding the board and committee as a backdrop, the city advertised the Aug. 8 civil service test for entry level police officers. A total of 81 people applied for the test to fill three openings in the department.