The Phoenix City Council voted twice in the last three years to make police officers subject to civilian oversight.
But a spokesman says starting to set up a key part of the Office of Accountability and Transparency requires council members to act again.
The Phoenix ordinance establishing the police accountability office describes a Board charged with watching over the office like how a school board keeps tabs on a district.
The police accountability office has to provide its Board with a yearly public report. The board can recommend which incidents the office reviews. And the Board was supposed to have been notified about each of the 16 investigations of police the office is now monitoring.
A spokesman says city leadership decided that the best practice is to fully staff the accountability office before creating a civilian review Board. Hiring continues.
