Item B: Meeting w/Police Comm. - Laserfiche WebLink

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Police Complaint System and Civilian Oversight Recommendations Civilian Review Board Role Individual Case Review A fundamental responsibility of the review board is to oversee the work of the auditor's office and, from a civilian perspective, ensure that the case recommendations developed promote high quality, objective investigations. The board's oversight function can occur in two ways. First, the auditor's office will develop quarterly reports for board review that document the auditor's case handling decisions, input on investigations, adjudication recommendations, and identification of departmental procedure and/or training issues. The board may also participate with the auditor in more specific, periodic evaluations of the complaint system. These may include satisfaction surveys from complainants and other involved parties, case handling audits, and investigation trends analysis, etc. Secondly, the board can review closed investigations upon request of the complainant, at its own discretion through a majority vote of board members, or by the auditor's recommendation. Additional criteria to guide board decisions to accept or decline the review request should be developed. For example, can police employees request the board review a case or should they be required to use the established grievance procedures? The closed case review is prospective in nature, the focus of which is to establish if the complaint system worked as intended in that particular case and to develop recommendations for process improvements. The board's case findings will be provided to the auditor and Chief of Police. If the board agrees to a closed case review, it will be provided access to the full investigative file so that it can make a reasoned judgment about the quality of the investigation and the rationale for the case disposition. To enable more transparency into the process, actual discussion of the closed case will occur in a public meeting. A case summary that redacts identifying information will be provided at the meeting to protect confidentiality of involved employees. More formal procedures for closed case reviews in a public setting will need to be developed (i.e., auditor/lead investigator reporting requirements, questions and comment period, public input, etc.). The board, in turn, will develop and present an annual report to the Mayor and City Council evaluating the auditor's work, assessing whether the auditor's office is functioning as intended, and recommending improvements to current policies and procedures. The report will also note concerns about complaint investigations and/or the adjudication recommendation made by the auditor, which may precipitate policy and practice changes as directed by the Council and/or indicate deficiencies in performance expectations within the auditor's office. Community Impact Cases The commission had a thorough discussion on the function of the review board as it related to monitoring "community impact cases." The commission had considered a model where the board had access to these cases prior to the adjudication decision so that its comments and recommendations could be formulated and shared before the outcome of the case was decided. However, upon City Attorney review of this process, the commission recognized several significant risks with the proposal: 20