Due to a current labor shortage, the Seattle Police Department has been promoting itself as a model law enforcement agency on billboards in Manhattan in an effort to recruit New York City cops. But meanwhile, back at home in the Emerald City, civil rights leaders say the citizens panel created to provide public oversight of the SPD is currently engaged in a desperate battle for survival. The city council's decision to remove Seattle NAACP president Sheley Secrest from her position on the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board has raised some serious questions about the effectiveness of the citizen's police oversight panel. Despite the fact that OPA regulations entitle her to serve for another term, new Seattle City Council member (and ex-cop) Tim Burgess has asked Secrest to reapply for her position on the board. The Office of Professional Accountability Review Board was formed to provide public oversight of the Seattle Police Department, and Secrest has been one of the most outspoken crusaders for higher standards of police accountability. She will now be forced to re-interview for her position, and councilman Burgess says she will face competition from other potential applicants. The citizens review board, the OPARB, has been struggling to survive for years under intense pressure from the SPD, Mayor Gregg Nickels and the Police Guild, who've all worked to limit the review board's power to oversee police activities. The oversight panel is barely surviving at this point, with a very uncertain future. Many local police accountability activists and civil rights leaders say the citizens panel has become completely ineffective. --Mark Taylor-Canfield