CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Meshea Poore has seen clients walk through her door, bruised and battered, with claims of police brutality.

Sometimes the stories are accurate, sometimes not, the Kanawha County public defender said.

Regardless, she said she often has nowhere to send them other than to the police.

Poore said her clients don't have the money to sue.

"They usually have to go to the law enforcement department of the officer [they're complaining about] and express their request to a co-worker of that officer," she said.

It puts both the police officer and the complainant in a bad situation.

When the actions of police officers in West Virginia are under scrutiny, it is fellow police officers who are most often charged with investigating them.

But in at least 120 municipalities across the nation that's not enough. Since the 1970s, cities have been setting up civilian review boards to address situations where police are otherwise left investigating fellow officers.

'To increase confidence in police'

Most large cities in the United States, nearly all with populations greater than 500,000, have civilian review boards, said Philip Eure, president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

"So much of this movement is to increase the confidence in police. If I'm doing my job as an oversight agency, then that should be consistent with the objectives of the police," said Eure, who is also director of the District of Columbia Office of Complaints - Washington's police civilian review board.

Of the 20 largest cities in the United States, only three do not have some type of civilian review of police. And in one of those cities - Jacksonville, Fla. - community leaders are pushing to have one put in place, according to the Florida Times-Union newspaper.

Small cities throughout the country have also been implementing review boards, Eure said.

"The next generation of growth that we hear about all the time is in cities of similar size to Charleston," he said.

In most communities, when police do something wrong, nothing happens, said Dr. Samuel Walker, the author of the 2005 book "The New World of Police Accountability" and an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska.

"There is no mechanism, except for really egregious violations of civil rights. So, for routine, low-level use of force, discourtesy, racial incidents, where do you go?" he asked.

"Accountability is an essential part of democratic forms of government. When some agency does something wrong, people should have a place to go to express their grievance and get it resolved."

Two men dead

Two disparate incidents recently in the local news - Roger Wolfe's police brutality settlement and the shooting of Brian Good and Charleston Patrolman Jerry Jones - highlight what happens when police are in charge of investigating their own.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Meshea Poore has seen clients walk through her door, bruised and battered, with claims of police brutality.

Sometimes the stories are accurate, sometimes not, the Kanawha County public defender said.

Regardless, she said she often has nowhere to send them other than to the police.

Poore said her clients don't have the money to sue.

"They usually have to go to the law enforcement department of the officer [they're complaining about] and express their request to a co-worker of that officer," she said.

It puts both the police officer and the complainant in a bad situation.

When the actions of police officers in West Virginia are under scrutiny, it is fellow police officers who are most often charged with investigating them.

But in at least 120 municipalities across the nation that's not enough. Since the 1970s, cities have been setting up civilian review boards to address situations where police are otherwise left investigating fellow officers.

'To increase confidence in police'

Most large cities in the United States, nearly all with populations greater than 500,000, have civilian review boards, said Philip Eure, president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

"So much of this movement is to increase the confidence in police. If I'm doing my job as an oversight agency, then that should be consistent with the objectives of the police," said Eure, who is also director of the District of Columbia Office of Complaints - Washington's police civilian review board.

Of the 20 largest cities in the United States, only three do not have some type of civilian review of police. And in one of those cities - Jacksonville, Fla. - community leaders are pushing to have one put in place, according to the Florida Times-Union newspaper.

Small cities throughout the country have also been implementing review boards, Eure said.

"The next generation of growth that we hear about all the time is in cities of similar size to Charleston," he said.

In most communities, when police do something wrong, nothing happens, said Dr. Samuel Walker, the author of the 2005 book "The New World of Police Accountability" and an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska.

"There is no mechanism, except for really egregious violations of civil rights. So, for routine, low-level use of force, discourtesy, racial incidents, where do you go?" he asked.

"Accountability is an essential part of democratic forms of government. When some agency does something wrong, people should have a place to go to express their grievance and get it resolved."

Two men dead

Two disparate incidents recently in the local news - Roger Wolfe's police brutality settlement and the shooting of Brian Good and Charleston Patrolman Jerry Jones - highlight what happens when police are in charge of investigating their own.

Wolfe alleges that in June of 2007 he was taken to a small room in the South Charleston State Police barracks and beaten. After the beating, he says, police covered it up. A lawsuit by Wolfe alleged four officers were directly involved.

State Police settled Wolfe's lawsuit for $200,001.01, plus attorney's fees and expenses.

According to court filings in the lawsuit, State Police conducted their own criminal and administrative investigation into the incident but did not prosecute or discipline the officers.

Good and Jones were killed in the Sept. 13 shooting incident, and it was up to the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department to investigate the case. On Sept. 28, Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford and Prosecuting Attorney Mark Plants held a press conference to announce they had cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing.

Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster said the city would conduct an internal review, which includes a deadly force review board's examining the incident.

Plants said he sees no reason to continue the investigation. He said police were justified in killing Good and that Jones' death was a tragic accident.

Webster said he was open to releasing details from the internal review to the public.

"We would be open to maybe going over the information but as to releasing the report as a whole, I don't know," he said.

'Transparency in government'

Frank Crabtree, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Charleston, said in the latest cases, a civilian review board could go a long way to satisfying public curiosity about what happened.

It provides a level of police accountability not now found in West Virginia, he said.

"We have to have transparency in government," he said. "People tend to forget that law enforcement is a part of government and works for the people. And in order to make informed judgments, the people need to know what is going on."

Crabtree cited a February state study showing that minorities in West Virginia are 1.5 times more likely to be pulled over and then 2.5 times more likely to be searched if they are pulled over. He believes a civilian review system could help in that area, as well.

"That data came from traffic stops filed by police. Had it been objective, who knows what it would be," he said.

The state Attorney General's Office gets a fairly regular stream of complaints about police from around the state, said Paul Sheridan, deputy attorney general.

"It's been my perception that one reason these come in with regularity is that there is a lack of a mechanism for citizens to have their concerns addressed," he said.

The Attorney General's Office has jurisdiction over civil rights cases, which lets them look into some, but not all, of the complaints they receive.

"If they beat you up because of race, we can talk to you. If they beat you up because of no reason at all, I'm sorry but we can't help you."

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.