Document of Interest Provided By Councilmember Hamann on Civilian Review Boards

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orders and department bulletins to determine whether the officers may have violated department policy. Investigators tape record all interviews except when citi- zen informants refuse to serve as witnesses. The typical interview lasts 15 minutes to 1 hour. OCC gives the com- plainant a copy of the complaint form and sends another copy to each named officer providing notification of the allegations as required by State law. OCC sends a copy to the officer’s commanding officer and to internal affairs. (See “Added Allegations.”) The officer interview The investigator develops an investigation plan that includes interviewing the involved officer(s) and any wit- nesses and reviewing available written documents. The plan may also include collecting evidence, such as visit- ing the scene of the incident, photographing vehicles, and using the police department’s photo lab to take pictures of injured complainants. Investigators interview officers after they have collected sufficient evidence to determine the best questions to ask. Investigators may not sustain a case without interviewing the officer in person. It is a violation of police depart- ment general orders for subject officers to refuse to attend and answer questions at an OCC interview. If an officer ignores the request after investigation by internal affairs, the department generally handles a first violation with an admonishment, the second with a reprimand, and the third with a 1-day suspension. Investigators generally prepare questions in advance and follow written guidelines in their initial questioning of subject officers. A union representative often comes to the interview with the officer. During the interview, some union representatives raise objections for the record, which the investigator has no authority to rule on. Objections may be resolved later at a chief’s hearing or police com- mission hearing (see “Police commission hearings” on page 59) if an allegation has been sustained. Findings The investigator writes a report presenting the results of the investigation and the factual basis for each recom- mended finding. After review by one of three senior OCC investigators, Mary Dunlap, the OCC director, reviews the file. Findings are based on a preponderance of the evidence. Although the city charter gives OCC the power to recommend specific discipline, it generally does not; OCC can influence the severity of the punishment by rec- ommending that the police commission—with its author- ity to provide the most severe sanctions (see “Police commission hearings” on page 59)—hear a case. Office administrative staff prepare and mail letters con- taining preliminary findings to each complainant and named officer. Either party may request an investigative hearing with an independent hearing officer granted at the discretion of the OCC director. OCC received 76 requests for investigative hearings in 1997, granted 12, and held 7 in 1997 and 5 in 1998. Internal affairs division If an allegation is sustained, OCC sends the case report containing a summary of the relevant evidence and law to internal affairs, whose staff decide whether they agree with the finding. Internal affairs agrees with OCC’s find- ings about 90 percent of the time. When this occurs, an IA commanding officer determines the level of severity guided by the department’s Disciplinary Penalty & Referral Guidelines,which recommends specific sanctions for specific types of misconduct. The IA officer sends the finding with the discipline recommendation to the C HAPTER 2: CASE S TUDIES OF N INE O VERSIGHT P ROCEDURES 58 “ADDED ALLEGATIONS” After explaining the complaint process and asking about the incident,the investigator also asks the citi- zen questions designed to determine whether the subject officer(s) engaged in misconduct that the com- plainant may not have identified or been aware of— for example,the investigator may ask,“Did the officer search your pockets or just do a pat search?” A juve- nile might be asked,“When you were taken to the station,were you cuffed to a bench? For how long?” If the complainant is a woman,she might be asked, “Were you transported to the station in a van with men in it?” The information the complainant provides may form the basis for the investigator to charge the officer with “added allegations”—misconduct that is related to the complaint but that the complainant did not mention to OCC.(See chapter 6,“Resolving Potential Conflicts.”)