Document of Interest Provided By Councilmember Hamann on Civilian Review Boards

Home Browse Search

C HAPTER 3: OTHER O VERSIGHT R ESPONSIBILITIES 72 expressed concern that the agency’s allowing a few trained deputies to use this technique posed a potential liability issue for the sheriff’s office. The board observed that the department needed a clear written statement of when it was appropriate to use the kick and where the technique fell on the continuum of force. As a result, the sheriff’s office developed a train- ing bulletin that provides information on the relation- ship of the knee spike to the agency’s use-of-force matrix. For example, the bulletin observes that “A knee spike can be used as a Level 3, 5, or 6 response. If the knee spike is used as a Level 3 response, the target area of the strike must be a large muscle mass, such as the outside portion of the thigh.” • The Orange County CRB expressed concern about deputies who return to duty after they have been involved in a shooting. As a result, the sheriff’s office included new language in its use-of-force policy that states that the agency’s staff psychologist will evaluate employees who have discharged their firearms before they are released back to full duty. • St. Paul’s review commission heard a case in which an officer failed to handcuff a suspect before putting him in the cruiser to transport him to the station for book- ing. The officer had difficulty extracting the person from the cruiser, and they got into a tussle. The officer had not followed the department’s policy to handcuff every arrestee before transporting the person. However, officers and the board agreed that there are times when cuffing a noncompliant subject on the streets can excite the crowd. As a result, the department rewrote the wording of the handcuffing procedure to allow some officer discretion. • In response to concerns raised by the auditor, the Portland Police Bureau chief issued the bulletin shown in exhibit 3–1 requiring officers to document in a report every use of handcuffs with individuals who are subsequently not arrested. Mediation A second important additional function some oversight bodies perform is to arrange for selected complainants to mediate their complaints with subject officers. In some cases, the mediation is informal. For example, the Tucson auditor occasionally tells an officer’s captain or lieu- tenant that the complainant just wants to vent, especially when the officer did nothing wrong but simply did not explain his or her actions to the citizen. Typically, how- ever, the process involves trained mediators who lead formal sessions at neutral locations. Formal mediation: The process Typically, the oversight body asks if the complainant is willing to mediate the complaint. If the person agrees, the oversight body directly or through internal affairs finds out if the officer is also amenable to mediation. If both parties agree, the organization that the oversight body uses to conduct mediations arranges a time for them to meet with a mediator in a private location. If the complainant expresses satisfaction with the result to the mediator at the end of the session, the case is considered closed. The content of the mediation remains confidential and typically nothing appears in the officer’s file. In some jurisdictions, complainants may not appeal the results of the mediation—that is, if they leave unsatisfied, they may no longer file a complaint with either the over- sight body or the police department. How two jurisdictions conduct mediation Mediation is a major component of the Minneapolis and Rochester oversight processes. Although the content of the mediation sessions is similar in both cities, their over- sight bodies arrange the process in a different manner. Minneapolis.The Minneapolis Civilian Police Review Authority (CRA) refers appropriate cases to the Minneapolis Mediation Program. Pairs of trained volun- teers mediate most of the sessions; program staff mediate the rest (see “Using Mediator Teams Has Advantages”). The Minneapolis Mediation Program requires volunteers to already be certified mediators and to attend its own 40-hour mediation course. New volunteers sit in on several sessions with experienced mediators before mediating sessions themselves. If mediation is successful, the director dismisses the complaint; if it is not, she sends the case back to her staff for investigation. In Minneapolis, the parties reach agree- ment in about 90 percent of the cases.