ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Protesters against police brutality of minorities say they were not impressed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Citizen Advisory Committee. 

The committee has been around for years but it is only just now getting a lot of attention because of the movement across the U.S. for racial justice in policing. 

A big part of protesters’ demands has been to create police citizen review boards who can hold officers accountable. 

Orlando activist Andre Bohrer says he tuned in to the Orange County Citizens Advisory committee Thursday to see how they could bring about meaningful change.

But after listening to it, he was not impressed.

“I was a bit disappointed, I think,” Bohrer said.

Since the recent deaths of George Floyd and other black men and women at the hands of police, he and hundreds of other protesters in Orlando have been calling for radical police reforms, thus creating a new interest in committees like this.

Bohrer said from what he saw, it seemed like the committee members did want to enact positive change.

“But it didn’t seem like they were actually challenging the status quo,” he said. 

After some confusion on how to give public comment, board members took questions that the public had emailed in and tried to address them, such as “Does the committee really have the power to change anything?” since it can only make recommendations. 

"I believe we have the wherewithal in our charter of what this committee is put together, to effect change in policy and to make recommendations to affect policy," said Committee Chair Allie Braswell.

"The evidence I've seen is that yes we are taken seriously," added Committee Chair Mark Bassett.

Bassett gave an example of how the committee recommended that the Sheriff's Office up the training time on how to deal with mental illness from 2 to 40 hours. 

Orange County Sheriff’s Training Capt. Todd Gardiner also described how the Sheriff’s Office already goes above and beyond the state’s minimum training.

"The Florida Department of Law Enforcement only requires use of force training for officers on a minimum of once every four years. We here at the Sheriff's Office do this training annually," Gardiner said.

Bassett did clarify however that unlike the Orlando Police Department's Citizen Review Board, they do not review specific cases where deputies acted inappropriately, but mainly focus on policy changes to prevent officers acting inappropriately in the future. 

But Bohrer said despite the enhanced training and policy changes, black and brown people are still being mistreated.

“It still affects black people and minorities the most,” he said.

And he worries the injustice will continue until more radical, fundamental changes happen.

“The amount of change we would like to see, will not come from this committee,” he said.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 21, and the committee members said they welcome public comment because they are there to represent their communities.

But citizens will have to register 24 hours in advance for public comment.