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ATTACHMENT C ~ City Manager's Office City of Eugene May 17, 2005 777 Pearl Street, Room 105 Eugene, Oregon 97401-2793 (541) 682-5010 Commissioner Tim Laue, Chair (541) 682-5414 Fax (541) 682-5045 TTY Police Commission www. ci.eugene.or, us Eugene Police Department 777 Pearl Street, Room 106 Eugene, Oregon 97401 Dear Tim: I want to thank you and Commissioner Angle Sifuentez for meeting with Chief Lehner and me last week to review the evolving work of the Police Commission on possible approaches to external review of complaints regarding the Eugene Police Department. I am impressed by the commission's work to-date on these important concepts. I also appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on what might be a workable model for the.City of Eugene. By way of this letter, I recommend the following ideas to the Police Commission for consideration as possible approaches to improving our investigation and review processes. The 'proposed complaint investigation and review process should be based upon several underlying principles: · The review process should ensure that investigations of community complaints are conducted in an appropriate, competent, and thorough manner. Investigations should also be conducted in such a manner that they ensure fairness to both the complainant and the Eugene Police Department (EPD) employee, as well as protect the procedural and substantive due process rights of the EPD employee. · The review process should provide community members with opportunities to review how the City is investigating and responding to complaints. It should also allow opportunities for people to provide the City with suggestions on how to improve the investigation process. · The review process should not discourage complainants from filing legitimate complaints, and it should ensure that complainants feel their complaints have been appropriately investigated. Complainants should also feel they have been adequately involved in, and informed of, the investigation process. · The review process should work within the existing City Charter structure so that additional expenses and bureaucratic layers are not unnecessarily created.