:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/H5LYKBLY5BBC5EIN74DFMZH4LM.JPG)
Virginia Beach — While the majority of Virginia Beach City Council members do not support giving investigative powers to a police oversight board, the council has appointed 11 members to a task force to research the topic.
The task force will include a former Virginia Beach police chief, a recently retired police captain and a former deputy city manager who oversaw the police department.
On Tuesday evening, three council members who supported the creation of the task force — Sabrina Wooten, Aaron Rouse, and Guy Tower — opposed the appointments.
Wooten said she was concerned too many of the appointees had a law enforcement or legal background. She said she would prefer the task force include residents from a variety of professions and age groups.
Rouse agreed, and said the overall makeup of this committee should be more reflective of the community.
The council selected the members during a closed session, and Tower said each council member picked one appointee. Tower said he voted no to show he sympathized with the call by Wooten and Rouse for more diversity among the group.
The members include:
- Alfred “Jake” Jacocks, who retired as the Virginia Beach police chief in 2010.
- Steve Cover, a former deputy city manager and fire chief who retired in 2020.
- Theresa Orr, who retired May 1 as a Virginia Beach police captain after serving 33 years.
- Susan Mayo, the chair of the Investigation Review Panel, the city board that reviews police Internal Affairs investigations. The review panel has taken a position that it does not support giving subpoena powers to itself or any other board that could be created to review complaints against police officers.
- William “Cliff” Rice, also a current member of the Investigation Review Panel. He is a retired police officer with 23 years experience in New York City and a combined total of 17 years for Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University.
- Veronica Coleman, a pastor and member of the Virginia Beach Interdenominational Ministers Conference. She is also a member of the mayor’s African American roundtable, which supported subpoena and investigative powers for the Investigation Review Panel.
- Patricia West, a retired judge, who currently serves as a substitute judge for Virginia courts. She is the former state chief deputy attorney general under former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli from 2012 to 2014.
- Sean Monteiro, an inspections team chief in the U.S. Air Force.
- Karen Hills Pruden, Virginia Beach NAACP President, who has called for a citizen review board with full investigative and subpoena powers.
- Yusuf Tejada, a paralegal at the Law Office of Gary Byler and the chairman of Virginia Beach Young Republicans.
- Michael Imprevento, a lawyer and a libertarian radio host for the WNIS radio station on AM 790. He is a former Navy JAG lawyer.
Alissa Skelton, 757-995-9043, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com