Item 6: Report to City Council from Police Auditor

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as an alternative because of what I considered to be a higher valued outcome with a full internal affairs investigation. A hybrid of the mediation process is alternative dispute resolution or facilitated conversation. It occurs frequently with the service, policy and inquiry complaints. In these situations, supervisors interact with the complainant to attempt to discuss and resolve the issues. Often times these occur with traffic stops or if people believe they are not getting an adequate level of service when they report a crime. As part of this process, we added a question to our survey about whether the person would prefer to talk to the officer or the supervisor. Out of 35 responses, 24 said they preferred talking to the supervisor. While the number remains limited, facilitated conversations between community members and supervisors seems to be working well. 2. Continue to develop strategies for educating the community about the responsibilities of the OPA, OPA operations and EPD practices. Beyond the public review board member meetings, we reached out with seminars on force and search and seizure. Attendance was sparse. We also attended some community meetings. Absent hot button issues, given the broad range of community issues, we do not stand out above other issues. We are scheduled to have a joint community forum on policing with the Police Commission and we are working with the Human Rights Commission staff about coordinating more community activities. We will continue to work with the HRC to broaden the knowledge range about the complaint process as well as the roles of each element of the criminal justice system. The recent "ambassador" study done by HRC demonstrates that the need continues to exist, particularly when language barriers are present. 3. Work with EPD to improve our monitoring and investigation planning methodology and developing and implementing a framework for investigations performance measurement and perfecting the data collection systems. The introduction of the Blue Team, a tracking system for moderate to major incidents, is a shared EPD and Auditor database system. It is a quantum leap forward in tracking uses of force, pursuits, vehicle accidents, bias complaints and other allegations and major issues. It has been online only a few months in 2013 but the changes are remarkable. Prior to this system, officers were responsible for reporting their own uses of force and it was difficult for supervisors and command staff to track this information unless they went to the Records Section and asked for written reports. With Blue Team, sergeants, as first line supervisors, are responsible for reporting incidents of force, usually anything above non - resistive handcuffing. The opportunities for supervision, early intervention, and trend analysis are significant. This tool now provides a proactive measure to assist supervisors and officers in meeting organizational expectations. Even though our "design" was primarily a community complaint intake system, with command staff agreeing that full access to my office is important for the success of Blue Team, we are now able to look at all uses of force. As appropriate, many supervisors are initiating an investigation into an allegation of misconduct by employees. The Professional Standards Unit (Internal Affairs) takes a holistic approach in their investigation of misconduct, examining all actions of employees rather than simply the behavior identified in a complaint. Investigations have been objective, thorough and complete and with cases reviewed by the CRB, validated in the work done; not without critical review and corrective recommendations. Internal Affairs investigators have extended their efforts to work with complainants to help them understand processes, and even at times, brought in complainants after the conclusion of Office of the Police Auditor 2012 Annual Report 15