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

Home Browse Search

Re: Civilian Review June 7, 2005 Page 6 advisory to the Council and have authority to dictate or affect the outcomes of particular cases.2 If a change in the Charter were to provide such authority to the Council, the board it appoints would be a "governing body" under Oregon's public meetings laws. ORS. 192.610(3). Therefore, the board would have to conduct its business in an open session except when.there is a specific statutory basis for an executive session, which presents a series of issues that are described more fully below.3 For the purposes of this opinion, we assume that the CRB is advisory to the City Council. B. Involvement in investigations: Participation in ongoing community impact cases and closed case review The CRB would be involved in investigations at the pre-adjudication stage only when those cases meet predetermined criteria (community impact cases) and then only if the review board votes to participate. The CRB may recommend an outside investigation, but that decision ultimately lies with the Police Chief according to predetermined criteria. All other cases would be reviewed by the CRB only after the investigation is complete and the adjudication decision is made ("closed case" review). The CRB may conduct the review based upon pre-determined criteria, upon the recommendation of the auditor or at the request of the complainant. The board may review the case files within the parameters of the open meetings and public records laws and then forward its recommendations or concerns about policies and procedures to the Police Chief(or to the City Council or Police Commission, depending on reporting guidelines). As discussed above with regard to the auditor's role, the CRB may review a completed criminal investigation into matters that are also the subject of an internal investigation, but may ~ Under the current Charter, the City Council could appoint a CRB to advise the Council on matters of policy related to investigation and adjudication of complaints about police conduct. In this scenario, the CRB could review closed case files and make recommendations about policies and procedures related to investigations and adjudication standards and outcomes. The Charter would prohibit the CRB from involving itself in investigations and adjudications prior to their completion. 3 The City Manager could appoint a Civilian Review Board whose role is to review investigations in certain cases before adjudication and to provide advice to the City Manager and Police Chief on the appropriate outcome. Because the review board would be advisory to the City Manager and thus would not be a "governing body," the board would not be subject to the requirements of Oregon open meetings laws.