CC Minutes - 09/12/2012 Work Session

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Bascom /Tykeson Room - Eugene Public Library 100 West 10 Avenue — Eugene, Oregon September 12, 2012 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Brown, Pat Farr, Betty Taylor, Mike Clark, Chris Pryor, George Poling, Alan Zelenka, Andrea Ortiz Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the September 12, 2012, Work Session of the Eugene City Council to order. A: WORK SESSION: Police Auditor / Civilian Review Board Annual Report Police Auditor Mark Gissiner introduced Tim Laue, chair of the Civilian Review Board (CRB). Mr. Laue reviewed some of the elements of the CRB annual report to the City Council, including: • The CRB is performing as intended and has fulfilled the role of reviewing process and procedures for Eugene Police Department (EPD) officers. • The biggest area of need is to have more in -car video capability in order to provide a much needed context for the interaction and conversation between officers and community members o The hard work done in setting up the program has led to things working well at this stage of the program. Several councilors expressed their thanks for the work that has been done and noted they appreciate the professional manner in which the report was prepared and how the information was provided to the council. Councilors also commented on the neutral and fair way in which case file information is reviewed . Mayor Piercy said she finds the newsletter very informative and wants to see it continue. Mr. Gissiner noted: • Appreciation for the work that was done to set up the program - it was very staff - involved. • EPD and the Auditor are now able to differentiate between criminal activity and nuisances, which is quite helpful. • One of the reasons he feels this system is working so well is that EPD, the Auditor's Office and the CRB are communicating with each other. o Many other cities with this model are not having the same success, in part due to the lack of trust and communication between the working parties. • Eugene has also seen a significant rise in mental health and substance abuse issues, so the work is a bit more challenging because of these changing and increasing dynamics. • He hopes to see improvement in definitions of roles for the officers within EPD. The lieutenants who work in Internal Affairs will need better role definitions regarding the differences between criminal vs. office or policy investigations. MINUTES – Eugene City Council September 12, 2012 Page 1 Work Session