Item B: Police Commission Annual Report and Work Plan

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To ensure the committee’s work continues with the success intended for the CIT program, a steering committee was formed. The committee will meet on a regular basis and includes department staff, a former committee member, and community stakeholders. The police chief responded to the report by pledging to implement a CIT program for the Eugene Police Department. An implementation team has been assigned and the group has started meeting with community stakeholders to develop the first community training. C. Use of Force/Tasers Another significant accomplishment of the Police Commission this year was work by the Use of Force/Taser Committee as a response to an emerging community issue involving less-lethal weapons. This committee was separated into two parts: overall use of force and Tasers. The Taser committee held a half-dozen meetings to discuss and help develop a draft Taser policy over four months (June-September, 2007). Public comment was included twice during each of these meetings and each discussion entailed several community members engaging with committee members in an open discussion. This was a valuable resource for the committee to better understand the central values and needs of the community around use of force. Following the committee’s extensive discussions with the public and community stakeholders, a draft Taser policy was developed. This draft was presented to the Police Commission in September 2007, and received the full commission’s approval. The draft policy was forwarded to Chief Lehner for his consideration. Having completed its policy recommendations, the committee held a preliminary discussion on the data to be gathered during the pilot project and provided the department with several data point recommendations for later evaluation purposes. The final Taser Pilot Project policy was adopted in September by the Police Department, which included all of the committee’s data point recommendations. In January, the Taser Pilot Project began and the Tasers were slowly introduced a few at a time. The pilot project will last at least one year (January 2008-January 2009) or until sufficient data is available to analyze the effectiveness of the project. As part of the commission’s work plan, a statistical report will be presented by the department after data is collected following the first six months. The commission will also receive a more comprehensive evaluation after the year-long project. This will occur in FY09 and is part of that proposed work plan. The other use of force policies not related to Tasers will also be part of next year’s work. C. Family Violence Committee The Family Violence Committee was created to undertake the review of police responses to domestic violence disturbances. This committee was originally formed during last year’s work plan. Three policies that this committee decided to review were the domestic violence/restraining orders, child abuse, and sexual assault. Following several discussions with community stakeholders, including the Domestic Violence Council and the Child Advocacy Center, a Domestic Violence (DV) modifier was established for officers to use when writing reports on domestic disturbance calls. This will help the department keep track of the number of family violence calls and monitor any trends in repeat offenses. In February, this committee convened for the last time. They offered their support to the department for future work on family violence should the need arise. They also asked for periodic status reports on the number of domestic disturbance disputes reported. Page 5 of 7 2008 Police Commission Annual Report