Gellhorn Says Civil Review Boards Are Neither Efficient nor Necessary

Gellhorn told a Law School audience night that civilian review boards for police departments create too much animosity between the police and the public.

In the last of three Oliver Wendell Homes Lectures, Gellhorn, a professor of Law at Columbia, said that the only major review boards now in existence -- in Philadelphia and in Rochester, N.Y.--have been totally ineffectual. They can censure or fire police officers, he said, but they are unable to get at the root of Law enforcement problems.

The problem of police brutally and discourtesy is not nearly as acute as it was 30 years ago, Gellhorn said. "Today, the New York and Washington police forces are models of decorum."

Although the situation has not been so serious in recent years, there must be some way to check police abuses without causing tension between the police and citizens, he said.

Gellhorn proposed that a single local official replace the civilian review board. He could handle grievances against the police department and also against public housing, welfare, school and other municipal authorities.

'Mr. Fixit'

This local-level "Mr. Fixit," as Gellhorn calls him, would have some serious immediate problems to deal with.

He said that prisoners often resort to rioting because there is no other way to let the public know their grievances.

People are also poorly treated in municipal housing projects, Gellhorn added. "The process for expelling people from public housing is perfectly absurd and something should be done about it," he said.

Housing regulations are not up-to-date, Gellhorn continued. Women are thrown out of projects merely for having an illegitimate child. "Sexual intercourse, with or without pregnancy, is scarcely contrary to the American way of life," he concluded.