Document of Interest Provided By Councilmember Hamann on Civilian Review Boards

Home Browse Search

C ITIZEN R EVIEW OF P OLICE: APPROACHES AND I MPLEMENTATION 71 force demonstrating students out of the school’s administration building, which they had occupied and refused to leave. As a result, the board developed rec- ommendations on the department’s use of pepper spray and batons that the city council endorsed and the cam- pus police agreed to implement. Examples of policy recommendations Citizen oversight bodies can provide two general types of recommendations to change police operations: • Changes in the way the department conducts its internal investigations into alleged misconduct. • Changes in procedures that prescribe officer behavior. Examples of both types of recommen- dations follow. Recommendations for improving a department’s own investigations of alleged police misconduct Portland’s oversight system has been especially active in recommending improvements to the police bureau’s IA investigations. • The Police Internal Investigations Auditing Committee recommended that IA handle all use-of-force complaints rather than send them to the precincts for investigation because of inconsistency of investigative quality at the precinct level. The department agreed. • The auditor became concerned that supervisors were overlooking officers’ patterns of complaints in deciding on discipline. As a result, the department has formed, and invited the auditor to participate on, a task force to address how discipline is being meted out and how pat- terns of complaints should fit into the disciplinary decision. Lt. James Shepard, commander of Rochester’s internal affairs unit, submits a form to board members to fill out and return assessing each investigation his sergeants conduct (see appendix A). Recommendations for improving policies governing officer behavior Most of the oversight systems examined in this report have developed policy recommendations designed to improve officer conduct. • In the wake of riots in a local park in 1991 and with more than 30 complaints from citizens regarding alle- gations of officer misconduct, the Berkeley City Council directed the Police Review Commission (PRC) to review and make recommendations on “all aspects of crowd control at large demonstra- tions.” As a result of its study and deliberations, PRC recommended 12 specific changes that the department later implemented. The recommenda- tions included: — Obtaining and using better ampli- fied sound devices to address crowds and monitoring the audibili- ty of dispersal orders. — Providing clearer instructions as to what specific location or area is the unlawful assembly site and the route by which persons will be allowed to leave and providing a reasonable opportunity for demonstrators to comply with the dispersal order. — Training specific officers to serve as crowd liaisons at demonstrations. — Barring the use of motorcycles as a means of force. — Proscribing the use of flashlights to harass or intimidate individuals in crowd control situations.2 • The Flint ombudsman’s office saw that the department had no procedures for addressing victims after a domestic violence incident. The department agreed to develop a policy. • The Orange County Citizen Review Board (CRB) agreed when IA did not sustain a complaint against a deputy who had used a “knee spike” to hit a noncom- pliant suspect in a specific portion of the body because the officer had special training in using this type of pain compliance technique. However, the board According to Capt. Gregory Winters, former officer-in- charge of the San Francisco Police Department’s Risk Management Office,“The OCC’s policy recommenda- tions can be helpful precisely because they think of ques- tions which, because the staff lack expertise [in police work], make you think.”