Police officers, activists and other community members will be a part of a county working group announced Tuesday to review the coroner's inquest system and possibly recommend changes to how the hearings into police killings are conducted.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada commended Clark County commissioners for taking the first step toward changing a system that the group has criticized for years, saying it is biased in the favor of police and does not thoroughly and fairly investigate whether officers acted properly in fatal incidents.

One change the ACLU and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is calling for is "non-negotiable," ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Gary Peck told commissioners Tuesday.

"Police officers' version of events must be challenged," Peck said.

"Absent that, the process is little more than a public dog-and-pony show."

Assistant County Manager Elizabeth Quillin told commissioners that a small group of interested parties is creating a blueprint of how best to go about reviewing the coroner's inquest system.

Quillin said the group is currently identifying members for a contemplated larger group of key community "stakeholders" who should be involved in any review of the coroner's inquest ordinance, designing how that larger group will review the ordinance with public input and addressing the central aspects of the system that should be examined.

The group is likely to include representatives from the ACLU, the NAACP, law enforcement, the coroner's office, as well as citizens drawn from the public.

Among the likely areas the group will examine is how inquest hearing masters are selected, whether the family of the person slain by police should have an advocate at the hearing and whether the state attorney general's office rather than the county district attorney's office should present the cases to jurors, Quillin said.

At the end of its work in a few months, the group could help draft a new ordinance to present to commissioners for adoption.

Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald said the review group should determine if the 30-year-old process is "still applicable and relevant to today's Las Vegas."

"This is a very serious issue," Boggs McDonald said, "and time is of the essence."

The coroner's inquest is a public hearing to review all fatal shootings by police and all other in-custody deaths.

A jury listens to the nonadversarial hearing presented by the district attorney's office and rules whether a shooting or actions are justified, excusable or criminal.

While the ACLU has long questioned the propriety of the inquest system, other community groups and activists joined in the call to review the process last month after an unusually high number of officer-involved shootings.

Las Vegas police officers have fired at people 20 times this year, including one incident in which a juvenile murder suspect was fatally shot in the back while fleeing police in handcuffs.

An inquest jury found the two officers who shot 17-year-old Swuave Lopez were justified.