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Last year, the Charleston Police Department completed a years-long racial bias audit . It pushed the department to change policies and improve data collection that allowed for a more robust analysis of their practices. Despite near total compliance with the more than 70 recommendations, a recent review found racial disparities, especially among traffic stops, persist .
Still, Police Chief Chito Walker is ready to put the audit behind his department, along with the advisory council that was created alongside the analysis and ultimately helped it implement changes. Earlier this month, Walker asked City Council to replace the Citizen Police Advisory Council (CPAC). "It's not just CPAC," Walker said.
"It's the department. It's pivoting." Instead, Walker said he wants a more dynamic format to elicit feedback from the community — a key criticism of CPAC from the audit — so he's proposed a less formal group.
One in which he controls the agenda. Some volunteers who served on the advisory council question whether the chief wants to quash any more scrutiny of his department with the shift. "We would be reminded that we were advisory and not oversight," said Harrison McIver, a former CPAC member.
"No member of CPAC ever thought that we were an oversight committee of the chief of police and its operations." Members of CPAC believed Walker felt like they were overreaching their advisory role, and that's why he replaced the board. Walker denies he was trying to restrain CPAC or any power grab on his part, saying that the change is a positive one.
Charleston police, including Chief Chito Walker are investigating a downtown shooting involving one of its officers near the intersection of King and Line streets Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Charleston. What did CPAC do? In 2018, city officials launched CPAC and the external review, a pair of initiatives meant to build trust between the Charleston Police Department and the people it serves.
The efforts formed in the aftermath of a national reckoning that confronted law enforcement practices after Walter Scott , Freddie Gray and Michael Brown — all Black men — died at the hands of police in North Charleston, Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., respectively. The resulting racial bias audit found glaring issues with the Charleston department's leadership development, training and data analysis.
It also cited racial disparities in traffic stops and when force is used. And it criticized CPAC for a lack of community input. While the advisory council didn't have any real oversight authority, it could "suggest changes to CPD policy and procedures, practices and training," a power formalized in a general order that established the agency's written policies and procedures.
That review power is not explicitly spelled out in the guidelines for the new group, and it's unclear who, if anyone outside the department, will perform this function going forward. Guidelines for new Chief’s Citizen Liaison Group make clear it won't have any oversight authority. Under roles and responsibilities, it states that the group "shall have no power or authority to investigate, review or participate in" personnel, civil, administrative or criminal matters nor will it receive or review complaints.
Still, Walker said any resident can comment on policies, which are posted online , or recommend changes directly to the department. "That's not exclusive to CPAC," Walker said. "Everything that we do is based on that transparency and openness.
" Mayor William Cogswell (back) hugs Charleston Police Chief Chito Walker after being sworn in on the steps of Charleston City Hall on Jan. 8, 2024. Laura Bilson/Staff Leonardo Reeder, who was appointed to CPAC about six months before its last meeting in December , said he wants to continue to serve on the chief's new group.
"More interaction and more connection to the community," Reeder said in describing the new group. "It’s going to be boots on the ground. The questions still have to be answered.
" All CPAC members are welcome, Walker said, though he hasn't yet contacted every member. Anyone who has attended the department's Citizen Academy is also eligible to apply. A class started this month; the next session opens in the fall.
Did CPAC have impact? Some members question whether CPAC made any impact over the six years it met. "I think it was created as a feel-good thing at a time where the national media and everything else was saying, well, who's looking at your police department, right?" said Paul Tamburrino, who was the chair of the advisory council. "And I think it was a 'check the box,’ because City Council has never stood behind it.
We've had City Council members who've gone years without appointing people to CPAC." The advisory board struggled to attract enough members to even meet. At its last meeting in December 2024, the 18-member board still had four vacancies.
Tension between the department and the council started showing before that last meeting. When a subcommittee began looking into how the department handles complaints , cooperation waned, according to several members. A liaison that worked directly with the advisory council was reassigned elsewhere within the department.
When CPAC last adjourned in December, its members said they knew a change was coming but didn't learn about the new group replacing them until earlier this month, when it had appeared on a City Council agenda . Former member Joe Krause said he felt that just as they were starting to gain some momentum, it was dismantled. "It was really frustrating because I thought we were finally setting up a pipeline to actually make things happen," he said.
"The impacts were minimal, and much more minimal than they should have been." The audit called for ongoing communication from the department, Krause said, "not until no one is looking." The value that group brought was feedback, he added.
"Any advice, as minimal as it was, is gone." But it was Walker who insisted that group was impactful, helping the department rewrite policies so they are digestible to the public , build a "culture of best practices" and push beyond the "status quo." The chief said the change was more about efficiency than any indictment on the group's value.
Jamie Khan, a former Charleston police officer-turned-attorney, said the department already has officers who perform all the same roles that CPAC was doing. He said he felt the council on which he served was broadening its focus too much. Carol Palmer, DNA technical leader; Charleston Police Department Chief Chito Walker; Judy Gordon, forensic services director; and Mayor William Cogswell cut the ribbon on a new DNA forensics laboratory inside the CPD’s Forensic Services Division building, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Charleston.
Moving forward Walker is Charleston's first homegrown chief in at least a half-century and the department's second Black leader since its 1856 start. He officially became top cop in November 2023 and inherited the audit, which had been embraced by his predecessor Chief Luther Reynolds , who died from cancer in May of that year. Walker said he's excited to get the new group up and running — the department hopes to convene its first meeting in June — and "not afraid to pivot if it's not working.
" Mayor William Cogswell supported Walker's change in direction, saying that each chief has adjusted based on what best serves them. The new group will have between five and 13 members, all selected by Cogswell. While City Council won't appoint its members, they will approve the selections.
Councilmen Karl Brady and Stephen Bowden voted against the change, though both said they're hopeful the new group will continue to serve the community. Brady said that City Council relies on the board and commission it creates to "bring recommendations and look into things" so the 13 elected leaders don't have to investigate every issue themselves. He said the group's sunsetting could have been handled better.
"My great fear is any erosion of public safety," Bowden said. “We’ve lost a little something there that makes it a little harder on Council and the community to know what's going on within the department. You have to be doing that kind of work on an ongoing basis to have that trust.
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