Item B: FY07 Police Commission Work Plan

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I. Introduction This staff report is submitted to the Eugene City Council to document the activities of the Police Commission during Fiscal Year (FY) 2006. The annual report describes how the commission has met the expectations of the City Council, as delineated in its work plan, has responded to issues of community concern, and has furthered its mission and objectives. The charge of the Police Commission, described in City Ordinance 20136, can be distilled into three main components: 1)improve communication between the police and the community, thereby decreasing misunderstandings about policies and practices and helping to build consensus around preferred policing alternatives for the city; 2)identify policy and resource issues related to preferred policing alternatives, and to assist the City Council in balancing police resources with community priorities; and 3)provide input on police policies and procedures that reflects community values. The Police Commission was operating under an interim work plan for the majority of last year. The interim plan was, in large part, a continuation of the projects already identified and underway. The main activities were to review the draft Eugene Police Strategic Plan and assist with the implementation of the civilian oversight model. These results of these efforts, and new endeavors, are described in the following sections. II.Accomplishments A. Improving Communication and Understanding of Police Practices One of the most important functions of the Police Commission is to provide a forum for open discussion on a range of policing issues in a public meeting setting. This year’s meeting schedule, while not as demanding as last year’s, provided numerous opportunities for community involvement in the commission’s work. In addition to the ten regular monthly police commission meetings, in FY06, the commission sponsored twenty-three committee and task group meetings. This does not include the work planning sessions with the City Council or the Chair’s participation in the City Council’s ad hoc committee on the police auditor recruitment process. Although there was often less public participation in this year’s commission meetings than during the development of the oversight model, meeting materials were provided to stakeholders, including the steering committee for Communities United for Better Policing, to keep interested parties informed of the process and issues under discussion. As mentioned earlier, the Police Commission was primarily involved in strategic plan review in the first half of the fiscal year.Following the November 2006 election, its attention turned to oversight model implementation tasks. However, several information work sessions on other topics were conducted throughout the year, which broadened opportunities for public participation and understanding on other policing issues. For example, two work sessions were held on police