Law enforcement and justice officials held a two-day summit on St. Thomas this week to tackle compliance matters linked to a 15-year-old court order. The police official charged with overseeing the process expressed hope on Wednesday that their efforts will lead to completing the long process of reform.
Among the 40 people attending the summit were federal and local Justice Department attorneys, police supervisors and administrators from across the territory, said Deputy Police Commissioner Jason Marsh. Members of a court-appointed monitoring team joined the session as observers.
This week’s summit was the latest effort to meet the dictates of the 2009 decree filed by the U.S. Justice Department and adopted by the federal court. Its intent, authorities said, was to address a pattern and practice of misconduct by police during civilian encounters.
Many provisions in the decree had been met to the court’s satisfaction by 2018, Marsh said, but a few outstanding matters remain. “ … the topic discussed were the outstanding paragraphs that we have relative to the consent decree … The intent of the summit was to get feedback from the command staff in ways that they can help us come into compliance. So including them in the process, making sure that we feel inclusion because we do realize that once we have that, then we have buy-in and the expected results,” he said.
On Day One of the summit — held Tuesday — the group heard from the district police chiefs and supervisors about the factors they saw as impediments to compliance. Wednesday was spent seeking solutions, Marsh said.
A statement issued by the V.I. Police Department’s Communications Division described the feedback that guided those efforts. “The discussions also included feedback from the monitoring team which involved engagement from the management staff to foster creative ideas in which the supervisors can assist in moving the department towards compliance,” said Communications Specialist Kishma Chichester.
Officials will have a chance to share their efforts with Chief District Judge Robert Molloy at a status conference scheduled to take place Dec. 24.
Acceptance by the court may lead to a declaration of compliance, which, if maintained for two years, will release the police department from its obligations. “Everything that we have done relative to the consent decree has put us in a better place, especially when it comes to training our officers and keeping them up to standard with constitutional policing,” the deputy commissioner said.
