Marin County has hired a national nonprofit to facilitate the creation of independent bodies to oversee the sheriff’s office. With help from a new 13-member A.B. 1185 community outreach working group, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, or NACOLE, will gather public input through stakeholder conversations, focus groups, community meetings and a survey. The feedback will help shape the county’s approach to statewide legislation authorizing oversight infrastructure that can compel testimony and materials through the subpoena process. The Board of Supervisors expects to hear a final recommendation on the structure and scope of oversight by the end of the year. The members of the working group have not been finalized, but Jamillah Jordan, the county’s director of equity, said her office honed down the applicants from a list developed through outreach by the Human Rights Commission. Curtis Aikens, a member of the commission, said his group has worked for years to get to this point. NACOLE is the only body in the country that trains and certifies people to serve on oversight committees. “They are the standard bearer,” he said. Oversight bodies around the country take different forms, but Mr. Aikens described how the two primary components—civilian committees and inspectors general—work best in tandem. “A complaint would go to a citizen oversight committee, which decides if it has merit. If so, the complaint then goes to an inspector general’s office, which conducts an investigation with the help of subpoena power and then clears an individual or brings charges. You need both,” he said. “One group takes the complaint in, the other investigates.” According to county data posted on the Racial Identity and Profiling Act dashboard, a disproportionate number of traffic stops involve people of color. Of the 4,158 stops last year, 53 percent of drivers were white, 22 percent were Latino and 17 percent were Black, though Marin’s racial makeup is 85 percent white, 16 percent Latino and less than 3 percent Black. A civil grand jury report from June urged supervisors to create a citizen oversight committee by the end of the year and said the time was right with the retirement of Sheriff Robert Doyle. “Oversight can improve the quality of internal investigations of alleged misconduct by confirming complaints or exonerating law enforcement officers who are wrongfully accused,” it stated. Sheriff Doyle disagreed, telling the Light this summer that the report was biased and that subpoena power was unnecessary and would lead to adversarial relationships. His successor, Jamie Scardina, was more open to the idea. Mr. Aikens said oversight has upsides for everyone. “To be effective, it can’t be one-sided against sheriffs. We should all feel fairly treated,” he said.