Months after the East Lansing City Council adopted ordinance changes that limit the powers of the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission, commissioners are growing more and more frustrated about the new constraints put on their speech and the information that can be shared with the public.
In October, the City Council voted to approve ordinance changes that some council members said are necessary to comply with a new collective bargaining agreement the city reached with a police union, though oversight commissioners have contested that the changes go beyond what is required in the bargaining agreement.
Since the amendments were adopted, some changes have been apparent at meetings. For example, commissioners are no longer allowed to use ELPD employees’ names at meetings or in reports. At certain points during Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners would slip up and mistakenly say Police Chief Jen Brown’s name, instead of just saying her title of police chief. They would then be reminded of the rules by other commissioners or stop themselves…