Civil Rights Attorney To Hear Complaints Regarding Gates’ Arrest

After a six-month search for a new executive director, the Cambridge Police Review and Advisory Board will now be able to investigate complaints filed in response to the July 2009 arrest of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., professor and director of the W.E.B Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies.

Marlissa S. Briggett ’88, a civil rights attorney living in Arlington, will serve as executive secretary of the advisory board—a committee of five Cambridge residents responsible for reviewing complaints about the Cambridge Police Department, according to the Cambridge Chronicle.

Following Gates’ arrest, City Manager Robert W. Healy and Police Commissioner Robert C. Haas formed a panel of 12 professionals from across the country to analyze the policies and procedures of the police department and its relationship with the community.

Shortly after the ad hoc panel was assembled, the Police Review and Advisory Board voted to look into three complaints about Gates’ arrest in September, but the lack of official leadership hindered the investigation. The advisory board has been without a director for much of the past year.

The Cambridge Chronicle reported that Briggett will also take on responsibilities as Cambridge’s new executive director of the Human Rights Commission, which investigates discrimination claims in housing, employment, education, and public accommodations.

Briggett, a civil rights attorney, was previously a commissioner on the Arlington Human Rights Commission and an attorney-adviser at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Briggett could not be reached for comment yesterday.

—Sofia E. Groopman contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.