City of Madison
From left: Aeiramique Glass Blake, Mary Opler and Brooke Blakey.
Finalists for the interim police monitor position are, from left: Aeiramique Glass Blake, Mary Opler and Brooke Blakey.
[Update: The Police Civilian Oversight Board has selected a finalist to go through a reference and background check process, according to a statement it released Oct. 14. The Board said it plans to announce the new interim independent monitor "as soon as that process is complete and an offer of employment is selected."]
Despite the controversy that has dogged Madison's Office of the Independent Police Monitor, 37 people applied to run the office on an interim basis following the resignation of former independent monitor Robin Copley in October. Three finalists made the cut, all of whom have worked in police oversight.
“We [want to] make sure that we can get someone who can help us make sure that work gets done,” Maia Pearson, chair of the Police Civilian Oversight Board, said at a Nov. 12 board meeting to hear from the finalists. “In that interest, this process has been expedited.”
The interim director, who is expected to hold the position for six to nine months, could not be considered for the permanent position, according to city Human Resources Director Erin Hillson, who is filling in as police monitor until an interim is hired. The salary for the position is $10,000-13,600 monthly.
At the Nov. 12 board meeting, Hillson said the board selected nine candidates to go through a screening process and interview questions. The board further narrowed down the candidates on Nov. 8.
“I did not have a vote in those interviews,” said Hillson. “It was strictly [board members] Devon [Snyder], Maia [Pearson], and Brandice [Hatcher].”
The three candidates for the position are Aeiramique Glass Blake, former chief of police accountability in Baltimore, Mary Opler, investigations supervisor in Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, and Brooke Blakey, former director of St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.
Glass Blake and Opler appeared virtually for the Nov. 12 meeting, which was held over Zoom; Blakey sent in a recorded video due to what she said was a “family emergency.”
Glass Blake began as the chief of police accountability in Baltimore in November 2023. She also worked for five years as an advisor for national conflict resolution nonprofit National Conflict Resolution Center and assisted in creating a civilian oversight board with subpoena powers in San Diego.
Glass Blake said she oversees police operations in Baltimore, its schools, and Baltimore County, and has handled up to 30 cases involving police conduct weekly; she noted that there has been a substantial amount of police “corruption” in Baltimore.
“I worked in criminal justice and public safety reform for the last 15 years, and in the last 10, I’ve honed in on police reform and accountability,” Glass Blake told the board.
Opler, a former criminal trial prosecutor, is currently an investigations supervisor in Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, the city’s equivalent of a police internal affairs unit. Opler said she has personally overseen more than 1,000 internal review cases.
“The easiest way to think of what I currently do is I’m the equivalent of a lieutenant or a captain over an internal affairs unit, except I’m a civilian,” said Opler. “We investigate all police misconduct in Seattle, and that ranges from minor [unprofessionalism] all the way up to loss of life, termination cases, high profile incidents, officer-involved shootings — we even had one international incident the other year.”
Opler said her background as an attorney would serve the office well, as she’d be able to “speak truth to power” and check determinations made by other attorneys. She said she would immediately focus on deliverables — chief among them, taking account of the office’s 14 outstanding cases and determining how to move forward with them.
Blakey, a former police detective and captain, was appointed St. Paul’s inaugural director of the city’s Office of Neighborhood Safety in 2022. She described the post as a “civilian-led, community-led office coordinating across police, fire and community organizations to address the root cause of violence and how we address it as a community.”
“In my previous roles, I’ve had to operate independently with minimal direct oversight,” she said in her recorded video. “As director of ONS, I reported to the city attorney, the mayor and the city council. But the day-to-day decision making, crisis management, goal tracking, were mine to own as well as my team to direct,” said Blakey. “If appointed interim director, the first thing I would do is develop a short-term performance plan.”
The board went into closed session to discuss the candidates after Blakey’s video concluded. Hillson told the city council on Nov. 11 that a hire is expected within three weeks.
Pearson did not immediately respond to an email asking whether an interim director was selected at the Nov. 12 meeting or since. The meeting’s agenda listed the “Deliberation of Evaluation of Candidates for the Interim OIM Position” in closed session, but did not specify whether a new candidate would be selected. Toward the end of the meeting, Pearson told board members that they could choose a candidate or delay the selection to another day.
Copley led the office from late 2022 until resigning this October. During her tenure she was widely criticized by city officials for a lack of communication and progress on investigating resident complaints against police officers and issuing policy recommendations for the police department. Citing these complaints, three alders unsuccessfully attempted to redirect the office’s $405,000 in annual funding to the Madison Police Department during the Nov. 11 city council meeting.
[Editor's note: This article has been corrected to note that Glass Blake is the former, not current, Baltimore chief of police accountability.]
