Document of Interest Provided By Councilmember Hamann on Civilian Review Boards

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just, as with oversight review, individual officers’ behavior. According to Mary Dunlap, director of San Francisco’s Office of Citizen Complaints, “Policy recom- mendations may be the most important work OCC does: They improve police services and the department’s rela- tions with the public.” Some police administrators believe that citizens do not have the necessary understanding of police practices to make useful policy recommendations. However, according to Capt. Gregory Winters, former offi- cer-in-charge of the San Francisco Police Department’s Risk Management Office (which includes the internal affairs unit), “The OCC’s policy recom- mendations can be helpful precisely because they think of questions which, because the staff lack expertise [in police work], make you think.” Adds Chief Fred Lau, “A lot of OCC’s [policy] recommenda- tions make sense, but the police department doesn’t always realize they are needed.” The process of developing policy recommendations Oversight bodies can identify the need for policy change in several ways. •Through individual citizen complaints.The bracelet identification system described in “The Orange County Sheriff Implements a Citizen Review Board Suggestion” resulted from one family’s complaint. •Through review of closed cases.If the auditor in Tucson sees a need for a policy change, she can suggest the modification to the chief. The oversight board also can recommend the change to the chief. If the chief does not agree to implement the policy recommendation, the auditor can appeal to the city manager, to whom she and the chief report, and the city manager can require the change. The board can appeal the chief’s refusal to the mayor and city council. As a result, when the auditor and board agree on a policy change, they have a great deal of potential clout behind them. •As a result of a general citizen concern.Citizens in Berkeley may attend any regular Police Review Commission meeting or specially assembled public hearing to raise concerns that the board can use to develop a recommendation for a department policy change. One group of citizens petitioned for a public hearing to complain about the University of California campus police’s use of pepper spray and batons to C HAPTER 3: OTHER O VERSIGHT R ESPONSIBILITIES 70 THE ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF IMPLEMENTS A CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD SUGGESTION A mentally challenged man who had wandered away from his home during the night tried to enter a neighbor’s residence thinking it was his own home. Officers who responded to the neighbor’s call reporting a burglary in progress arrested the man, who spent 2 days in jail before his identity was discovered. The man’s parents filed a complaint, but the board exonerated the two officers involved in arresting him, as did IA. However, the board recommended that the sheriff work with the county commission to develop a method to identify people with diminished mental capacity so they would not languish in jail for 48 hours. Capt. Melvin Sears, the board’s administrative coordinator, located a local mental health association that agreed to adapt its existing software to administer a program to distribute bracelets to these individuals. Kevin Beary, the sheriff, agreed to provide $1,600 from his forfeiture fund to purchase the bracelets, print an informational brochure, and purchase two Polaroid cameras to take photos for the bracelets. Later, Beary wrote the board, “It is always a pleasure to see positive results from an unfortunate incident. As you may recall, this is the result of the CRB case involving Mr. ____.” Policy recommendations can influence an entire department, not just, as with oversight review, individual officers’ behavior.