CC Minutes - 07/25/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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B. WORK SESSION: Annual Meeting with Police Commission and Presentation of Police Complaint System Recommendations Mayor Piercy welcomed the members of the Police Commission who were in attendance and noted that Ms. Ortiz and Ms. Bettman were also members of the commission. City Manager Taylor introduced Police Commission Chair Tim Laue, Vice Chair Angie Sifuentez, and members John Brown and Carla Newbre and invited them to join the council to present their report and recommendations. Mr. Laue thanked the Mayor and the council for the opportunity to present the commission’s report and said that two outcomes were desired: 1) approval of the commission’s work plan for the next year; and 2) direction from the council on the next steps in terms of civilian oversight for the community. He outlined the format of the presentation and thanked the many community organizations and members who participated in the process of developing recommendations for a police complaint system. He also thanked the members of the Police Commission and the commission’s staff for the project, Jeannine Parisi and Karen Hyatt, for their extraordinary efforts. Ms. Sifuentez presented highlights of the Police Commission Annual Report: FY 2004-2005 and the proposed work plan for July 2005 – March 2006. She said the work plan proposed that the commission continue refining the oversight model and outstanding issues, pending direction from the council, and begin working with the Police Department on the development of policies and ordinance language necessary to implement portions of the model. Ms. Sifuentez noted that in addition to the complaint system, the commission worked on in-car video/audio recording policies, which were given conceptual approval by the commission as well as approval for funding from telecommunications taxes for a two-year implementation period. She also drew the council’s attention to the commission’s work on a uniform standards ordinance that would ensure that Eugene police officers were easily distinguishable from other public safety officers. She said the ordinance would go into effect January 1, 2006. She was pleased to report that the effort also resulted in changes at the State level thanks to support from Senator Floyd Prozanski. She noted that the Downtown Public Safety Action Plan was submitted to the council in September 2004 and it included a range of strategies to support a safe and vibrant downtown. Ms. Newbre stated that in addition to extensive research on various oversight models, the commission conducted a series of public forums to determine the specific concerns of the community. She pointed out that specific questions asked at the public forums were included in the agenda packet materials. She said that fear of retaliation was the primary thing preventing people from filing a complaint against the police, along with concerns about possible bias and a belief that complaints would not be taken seriously. She said that based on those responses, the Intake Committee focused largely on how complaints were received and processed and it soon became apparent that an auditor’s office was needed. She said the intake model recommendations reflected a variation of a dual-intake process because it provided an independent, neutral location for people to file complaints and it redirected case-handling decisions, such as classification of complaints and possibilities for alternative resolution, to help ensure that all complaints were treated with due diligence. She illustrated the process with a schematic of the proposed model and noted the various access points based on community members’ request for several options for obtaining information. She said the committee strongly recommended that the term “inquiry” no longer be used because it generated MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 25, 2005 Page 3 Work Session