Item A: Police Oversight System - Roles and Expectations

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Police Complaint System and Civilian Oversight Recommendations about police services will need to be developed. The objective is to assist members of the public in getting swift resolution to their requests, andto the greatest extent possible, capture and route complaints about employee conduct to the auditor’s office for documentation and processing. The commission recommends a policy statement be developed that directs all police employees to route complaints from community members to the auditor’s office for processing and tracking purposes. The auditor’s office will be responsible for documenting all contacts and referrals for statistical reporting purposes. Similar to the Police Commission, the review board will be an access point to the City and serve a public education and outreachfunction to community membersregarding the police complaint system. As such, the board can receive and forward complaint information to the auditor’s office for processing. The review board can also provide a forum to gather community member concerns about an event where police actions generate considerable public concern. The board’s function is not to investigate the incident,but to collect public comments, help educate community members on the complaint process, and in the event that officers’ conduct is investigated, ensure that the original complaints brought to the board’s attention were addressed through the ensuing investigation. There are some situations where a community member has concerns about a police incident and utilizes redress options other than the complaint process. The commission believes that the auditor’s office should be able to review and potentially initiate a complaint investigation in specific situations where community members have clearly expressed concern about police practices absent the established complaint process, i.e., filing of a tort or risk claim, holding a press conference, etc. The Police Commission acknowledges that some portion of community contacts to intake staff will not necessarily be complaints, but will be questions about police practices or referrals to other agencies for assistance with a problem. The commission recommends that issues that can be easily resolved to the person’s satisfaction at intake are documented via a “Contact Log” and closed. A community contact appropriate for thecontact log has been preliminarily defined as “questions about police policies and practices, referrals to other agencies/resources, and dispute of facts where the contact is satisfactorily resolved at intake.” All other issues will be treated as complaints and handled as described in the next section. In its redesign of the complaint intake process, the commission agreed that a classification system was necessary to facilitate efficient use of resources, timely response to complainants and meet customer service expectations. It is recognized that any intake system will require a certain level of judgment and flexibility to most appropriately address each concern. While there is discretion built into the system to enable staffto exercise sound decision-making, there are also checks and balances in place to ensure that thesedecisions reflect the values established for the complaint system. In monitoring the work of the auditor’s office, the review board will periodically evaluate the complaint intake and classification system to ensure that the goals of an accessible, neutral, and responsive intake process are being met. A review of the number and types of contacts made to intake, case handling decisions, utilization of alternative resolution options, and other outcome measures will be conducted, and any recommendations for procedural improvements will be forwarded to the appropriate policy body. 10