County police oversight board ready to start, but has yet to probe a case

Four Independent Police Review Board members — (from left) Richard Garland, Regina Ragin-Dykes, Justin Leavitt Pearl and Stacey Hawthorne — meet in the Allegheny County Courthouse on Apr. 17, 2024. (Photo by Miranda Jeyaretnam/PublicSource) Three years after Allegheny County Council voted to create an Independent Police Review Board, its board members say it’s finally ready to step up. But confusion at its Wednesday meeting revealed a board plagued by vacancies, absences and a lack of jurisdiction. by Miranda Jeyaretnam, PublicSource In April 2021, Allegheny County Council established an Independent Police Review Board [IPRB] to review public complaints, potentially against more than 100 police departments in Allegheny County. Three years on, the board is now “actively running,” Chair Justin Leavitt Pearl said. But at its April 17 quarterly meeting, the efficacy of the board — which currently has two vacant seats and has taken zero action on the seven public complaints received this year — came into question. “Who are we working for?” Rev. Regina Ragin-Dykes asked at the meeting, expressing confusion over the scope of the board’s oversight. While the IPRB was intended to oversee the county’s police forces outside of Pittsburgh, which has& its own review board, only the...