Document of Interest Provided By Councilmember Hamann on Civilian Review Boards

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the chief. Only the commission may remove the OCC director. OCC received 1,126 new complaints in 1997. Of 983 cases closed in 1997, OCC sustained one or more allega- tions in 100 cases, or 10 percent. In 1997, OCC held more than 50 hearings at the chief’s level and prosecuted 6 cases before the police commission. The complaint filing process Exhibit 2–16 diagrams the civilian oversight process in San Francisco. The following text describes each step in the process. Intake The police department’s internal affairs division (techni- cally called the Management Control Division) alone investigates complaints brought by officers against each other and incidents involving off-duty officers and nonsworn personnel. Internal affairs and OCC both investigate cases involving use of a firearm. OCC alone investigates cases citizens initiate alleging misconduct— or failure to perform a duty—by on-duty officers. Internal affairs sergeants offer to help citizens who appear at the police station to fill out the complaint intake form and forward it to OCC, but more than half of these citizens choose to go to OCC (a 15-minute walk from police head- quarters) to fill out the form. Complainants also may tele- phone, mail, or fax their complaint to OCC. Of the 1,126 complaints OCC received in 1997, 43 percent were made in person, 23 percent by phone, 21 percent by mail, 5 percent at the police department, and 6 percent by other means. Organizations filed 24 of the complaints in 1997 (see “Organizations May File Complaints”). When a complainant appears in person, the receptionist asks the person to fill out an intake form. The reception- ist calls the intake investigator for the day (each investi- gator generally does intake 11/2 to 2 days a month) or, if he or she is busy or on break, the backup intake investi- gator (who is the following day’s intake investigator). If the citizen telephones to file a complaint, the receptionist may refer the call to an investigator and generally mails the person the intake form to complete and mail back. After OCC has received the form, an investigator tele- phones the complainant and conducts a telephone inter- view or arranges to interview the citizen in person. In serious cases, OCC makes an investigator available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The initial interview with the complainant California State law and the police commission prohibit revealing any information about a complaint to the pub- lic unless the case is heard by the police commission (see “Police commission hearings” on page 59). The C HAPTER 2: CASE S TUDIES OF N INE O VERSIGHT P ROCEDURES 56 THUMBNAIL SKETCH: SAN FRANCISCO Model: citizens investigate (type 1) Jurisdiction: San Francisco Population: 735,315 Government: strong mayor, city/county Board of Supervisors Appointment of chief: police commission (appointed by the mayor) appoints, commission or mayor may remove Sworn officers: 2,100 Oversight funding: $2,198,778 Oversight staff: 30 full time An independent Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC), with 15 full-time investigators, investigates most citizen complaints against the San Francisco Police Department and prepares findings. If the department’s internal affairs division agrees with the OCC finding, the case usually receives a chief’s hearing at which the assistant chief presides. An OCC attorney prosecutes the case.The assistant chief typically approves the finding and metes out discipline subject to the chief’s approval.The police commission holds an administrative trial for cases of alleged serious misconduct at which an OCC attorney again acts as the prosecutor. OCC also provides policy recommendations to the depart- ment, arranges for mediation, and provides early warning system data.