- Advise the mayor, the president of city council, city council members and the chief of police and the chief of corrections on policies and actions of the police and corrections department.
- Inform the public about the board and its duties.
- Develop and administer an ongoing program for the education of the public.
- The chiefs of police and corrections or a designee shall meet with the, board periodically to aid in its fact-gathering function.
- Operate a community engagement program.
- Conduct investigations and hold public hearings.
- Discretion to select appropriate individual incidents to review.
- Discretion to review broader issues to study which may be of concern to the community, the police department and department of corrections, or the chiefs of police and corrections.
- Receive cooperation from all partner departments.
- Initiate studies upon request to the board by any member of the public or the police department and the department of corrections, or at the board's own discretion.
- Review specific complaints or incidents of misconduct against individual police officers; including those involving language related to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
- Have full access to interview relevant police department and department of corrections personnel and to obtain copies of and to review and examine relevant documents,
- Make specific recommendations, at any time, and issue a public reports summarizing its activities and recommendations.
- Cooperation of City personnel.
- Exercise subpoena power.
- Conduct public meetings.
- Recommend that the chief of police and the chief of corrections take certain actions.
- Recommend general reforms (such as changes in training, changes in the preservation of records, changes in counseling available to officers) or specific actions directed at individual officers (including, but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, punishment, or commendation)
- Report a summary of findings semi-annually to the public safety committee.
- Receive written responses with legal or factual justifications to board decisions from the chiefs of police and corrections.
- Operate a mediation program.
