more police oversight could be coming to New Jersey but only in certain towns lawmakers this week Advanced a bill that'll increase accountability for cops who are in trouble by creating local Civilian Complaint review boards and granting them subpoena power but a senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports Advocates had to make concessions on where those boards will exist in order to get it passed to have subpoena power is power assembly woman Angela mcnight is thrilled to see a bill that she's championed move out of committee this week that would create Civilian Complaint review boards or ccbs they would have the authority to investigate alleged instances of police misconduct and give them subpoena power which Advocates have long said is key to ccb's success new YK New Jersey they have a ccrb but they don't have subpoena power and a ccrb without subpoena power is mute is powerless the bill bill a1515 was introduced to this legislature in 2020 although previous versions have been introduced going all the way back to the 1960s but this bill faced major challenges and was modified to include some key changes first rather than ccbs being allowed throughout the state they'll only be in four of New Jersey's largest cities Newark Patterson Jersey City and Trenton the roll out will now be a 5-year pilot program and the ccbs will now have to wait 120 days to start an in investigation allowing for police Internal Affairs to investigate an incident first the ccrb is not to be a replacement for the police we need the police I love the police so what we're doing is allowing them 120 days to start their investigation now after 120 days the ccrb will be able to conduct their investigation and then it will be running concurrently so we're just giving them um you know let them do their due diligence within 120 days Larry ham has long advocated for Civilian Complaint review boards with subpoena power ham who is running against Senator Menendez for his US senate seat says these changes were an important compromise to finally push the bill through committee but he's not happy with a 120-day delay it makes the review board look like a junior partner to Internal Affairs and this is problematic the whole reason people want police review boards is to enhance police accountability and if the major control Still Remains with the police department some feel that accountability would be to some degree compromised civilian review board members would be appointed by Mayors and required to undergo training before they can serve but police unions say this training pales in comparison to that of their Internal Affairs units and they oppose the bill altogether providing a sever interviewer board with subpoena power ultimately gets to be almost the fourth bite at the Apple to to go after a police officer who has been alleged to of wrongdoing whether you look at at the internal affairs process is which is overseen and can be can be taken over by the County prosecutor in serious instances you've got situations that go to the attorney general by law that are investigated by Grand jewries Rob Nixon from the npba says the Attorney General's List of reforms to police oversight have been sufficient to hold officers accountable and when an officer's gone through all that or maybe they they've been they've been they've been punished for that and given their suspension or giving their time off and now you're going to go and bring in civilians who might not be happy with that result uh and and want to have a doover we would ask where's the officers due process rights with such strong feelings on either side the road is still long for this bill that needs to get through a full assembly vote next week and then make its way through the Senate all before this legislative session expires I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News [Music]