A new board meant to provide outside oversight of the conduct of Richmond police officers only got four cases to review in roughly its first year of operation.

The city’s Civilian Review Board agreed with the Richmond Police Department’s internal affairs findings in all four cases. Only one resulted in a ruling that officers violated RPD policies. 

The misconduct in that case — which involved a foot chase in Shockoe Bottom — occurred when a Black officer uttered a racial slur while pursuing a Black suspect, and two officers used tasers in an unsafe manner while the suspect was climbing obstacles and in a position to fall.

During their training to serve on the eight-person board, members had been told to expect five to eight cases per month.

“The Board received far fewer cases than expected,” the board wrote in its first annual report to the City Council. The report covers the board’s work from October 2025 to September 2026.

The board has an annual budget of a little over $200,000.

The Council voted to create the board in 2022, but didn’t pass specific policies laying out how the process would work until 2025. 

The low number of cases has now caused some to wonder if those policies were written too narrowly, potentially limiting the effectiveness of the independent oversight the board was created to provide.

The review board doesn’t have full authority to pick and choose what RPD activities to investigate. Instead, the panel primarily reviews the results of RPD’s internal investigations, and can make non-binding recommendations for disciplinary action or policy changes if it finds persistent problems.

“Four cases are too small a sample,” the report says. “The Board cannot yet assess patterns in police conduct.”

According to the report, the board is unsure whether it’s receiving every case from RPD that could qualify for outside review. That’s partly because publicly available data shows the board is only looking at a small subset of the complaints RPD receives.

The police department’s internal affairs division reported 57 complaints in 2025, with 29 deemed substantiated, according to the review board’s report. From January through September of this year, the division reported 60 complaints, with 33 substantiated.

The review board automatically looks at every police shooting and all cases involving deaths or serious injuries in police custody.

The board also has the power to review less clearly defined cases involving allegations of physical or verbal abuse. However, under the board’s policies, verbal abuse is defined only as identity-based slurs and sexual language. It doesn’t cover “threats or intimidation,” the report says.

More minor accusations against officers about alleged rudeness or harassment are typically handled at the precinct or division level, the report notes, which could explain why they aren’t escalated to internal affairs or the outside review board.

The board also has the power to take up appeals from residents who are unsatisfied with a “finding or decision” by RPD.

Because RPD has different complaint categories that don’t neatly align with the categories used by the review board, the report says, it’s not fully clear why the number of complaints passed to the review board was lower than anticipated.

“We can’t speak to why there’s a huge discrepancy, although most likely it has to do with how we are identifying these cases,” Review Board Chair Angela Fontaine told the Council while presenting the report Monday.

No RPD representatives spoke during the presentation to the Council.

Council members signaled they want to find out more about why the number of cases seems low, and would support possible amendments to widen the board’s scope that could be coming in its second year of work. Any proposed changes to the board’s powers would have to go back to the Council for approval, officials said.

Board Manager Joseph Lowery said he’s working with RPD on a data comparison to better understand how complaints are categorized.

“It shouldn’t take much time,” Lowery told the Council. “We have a representative from RPD that attends our meetings and I’m collaborating with the chief’s office all the time. So we should get that information.”

Councilor Kenya Gibson noted the board could file Freedom of Information Act requests for the data. She said the discussion highlights “the importance of transparency.”

“It doesn’t work unless it’s all-inclusive and mandatory,” Gibson said.

Councilor Andrew Breton (1st District) also encouraged the board to speak up if it ever has trouble getting information it needs to perform its role.

“Please let us know, and we’ll do what we can to help you,” Breton said.

Lowery said RPD has been “nothing but cooperative.” The number of cases the Richmond board has received so far, he said, is “on par” with what similar police oversight boards get in other Virginia localities.

RPD spokesperson James Mercante also said the number of cases being referred to the board is about in line with what the department expected. The low number of cases, he suggested, could also reflect a low number of serious allegations being leveled against city police officers.

“The CRB’s purview involves some of the most serious categories of incidents, and fewer qualifying cases can reflect fewer circumstances involving serious force, custody-related injuries or citizen appeals requiring that level of review,” Mercante said in an emailed statement.

Mercante said the cases eligible for the board’s review are “quite specific,” but RPD is open to working with the board to address any questions about how complaints are handled.

Launched to great fanfare, Richmond’s Civilian Review Board is growing restless as its workload remains minimal

“You live in a city where those things don't happen all the time. That's a good place to live.”

The RichmonderVictoria A. Ifatusin

The cases so far

The review board concurred with the findings of RPD’s internal findings in all four cases it has reviewed so far. Those cases involved two deaths in custody, one police shooting and one accusation an officer improperly used a taser and uttered a racial slur during a foot chase in Shockoe Bottom that occurred in November of 2025.

RPD concluded two policies were violated during the Shockoe Bottom foot chase that occurred in November of 2025. While on foot patrol, officers stopped two people on suspicion of carrying concealed weapons. Both were handcuffed, but one ran. 

As the chase began, an officer used a racial slur “under his breath,” according to body camera footage, violating department policies on “unbecoming conduct.” Two officers also violated policies by firing “conducted energy weapons” at the suspect while he was on top of an AC unit and again while he was trying to climb over a wall at an apartment complex’s swimming pool. Under RPD policy, tasers aren’t supposed to be used on people already in cuffs, or on someone who could be injured from a high fall.

When the man was tased, he fell onto a metal banister and concrete pool deck, resulting in “minor injuries.” The review board concluded those injuries were a result of the improper taser use, but wrote it had “no direct knowledge of any disciplinary action that may be taken against the officers involved.”

The shooting case was related to a January 2026 incident when officers were called to a Greater Richmond Transit Company facility off Midlothian Turnpike for a report of a man firing a gun. The responding officers fatally shot a GRTC employee who was holding a pistol. Internal affairs ruled the officers “followed standard protocol for an active shooter situation,” and the review board agreed.

One of the death cases involved an August 2025 SWAT team response to the Belt Atlantic Apartments in South Richmond. During a standoff situation, a man inside fatally shot himself with his own gun, according to the report. RPD cleared the officers in that incident, and the review board concurred.

The other death occurred in October of 2025, when a woman called 911 asking for help after her adult daughter “had become nonverbal and was showing concerning behavior.” Officers handcuffed the daughter and drove her to a hospital, where she later died while in the care of medical staff, the report says. Internal affairs found no wrongdoing by the three officers involved. The review board agreed.

Board has first disagreement with RPD

The board has received at least one case that wasn’t covered in the report, which had a legally mandated deadline of Oct. 1.

During the presentation, Fontaine, the review board chair, disclosed that the board recently had a case where it disagreed with RPDs internal affairs finding. 

That case was too recent to be included in the report, she said, and details are still confidential.

“We are still going through the process of drafting what that report looks like and what the next steps are,” she said.

The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18.

Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org