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Home My WebLink About05-14-2002 Articles h The Daily Iowan - iowa Citl, Iowa - Wednesday, Marc t 3, 2002 I Gasby's robbed ask h s coll,e, agues to support t: for adoptive parentS from five days owa CH pofice are investigat- expahdin'g U s leave-of-absence ing a robbery at a.local conven- to 10 days. The Faculty Council ~ ience store during which the later approved the recommenda- assailant obtained an undisclosed ti0n, which now heads to the amount of money. Faculty Senate for a final recom- Police received a ~report of a mendaton to the U .adminiStra- robbery .at Gasby~s East 2303 tion. ;' ~" Mus fin" Ave.,'ab°ut The' increase in leave wo.ld '- Tuesday.Police reports a' have benefited Porter, who says he subiect, who never displaysd a would have used the fimt five days weapon, entered the bk~siness and to prepare h s home before teceiv- 'money from the clerk lng his daughter and the rema ning .. before !ieeing south on foot. The five days helping her adjust to the .subjects photograph was cap- new environment. lured by a surveillance video. "[Five days] isn't a lot of time to The suspect is described as a prepare to arrange for daycare and black ~lale in his late 20s, a nursery in the home," said between 5-10 and 6-1 in height, Porter, who had bee,n, on a waiting weighing approximately ~ 180 list for three years. 'We really had. pounds. At the time of the rob- to juggle our schedules to meet bery, he was wearing a tan winter our respons~bttitie. coat that appeared to be down- One week of adoptive leave for figed and extended below his 11 UI employees cost the univemi- wai~[t. The coat hood was cover- ty more than $13,000 in 2001; lng his head, and he was wearing That cost would double under the blue jeans, white tennis shoes, proposal, sa d Jane Holland, the and a blue bandana coordnatorofUIFamilyServlees. ar'qund his face. Three other Big Ten universities -- by Kellie Doyle allow two weekS of paid parental leave for faculty members. Board to examine - by Olgl Wood whether 12.year-old UISG Bxpansion tabled can admit police The Student Assembly Mem,.bers of the iowa City Police declined to take action on a con- Citizens Review Board addressed stitufional amendment Tuesday citizens' complaints on Tuesday that would add seven student that a 12-year-old is too young to representatives to the UI Student decide to let police in the home. Government. The board will consider issuing a An insufficient number of vDt- recommendation asking the City ers tabled the motion to expand Council to change the policy that the UISG Executive Cabinet to establishes age minimums during bring the university in line with an April 9 meeting, iowa City police other Big Ten schools. Three proi- and its legal staff established the ect coordinators would also be age of consent as 12 fast year foF added to the cabinet. lowing an incident in which an 11- · A lack of voters in the Gradu, ate Professional Student Senate year-old girl gave palice permission to enter her home. forced the assembly to suspend Some councilors said they its rules to continue Tuesday wanted to change the policy by night's meeting. The group?ee?,- requiring a higher age of consent, ed 20 voting members, yet Dray "We're trying to represent com- eight of their representatives munity standards of what is and is were present. not acceptable," said board mere- Both UISG President Nick Klenske and Vice President Dan bet Loren Rorton. -- by Nathan Krofl Rossi had said they thought the amendmeot was going to pass NACOLE phones receive many questions from around the country. The most common is a variation of this: What kind of oversight really ,~orks best? The answer isn't simple. Communities must dis- cover the oversight that will work best for them. Any of the models can; and any can be co-opted. What all require is this: That the community and its leader- ship have the integrity and political will to make civilian oversight work. "Work" means that a better, fairer law enforcement process evolves. Citizen satisfaction and officer acceptance grows if the process is recognized as fair. "Political will" means the will of the many community leaders, not just elected officials. continued on page 4 >> Home [ History I FAQ Membership Application (pdf) Board of Directors [ Nacole Review (pdf) I New National Conferences NACOLE Update I Mailing ListI Information & Guidance I U.S. Oversight AgenciesI Resources for Oversight I Investigative Guidelines I Varieties of Oversight I Medlation ] BoardTraining I Bias Based Policing N ACOLE's ten member Board is up for with Knoxville's Carol Scott (865-215-3869) election at the General Membership and Sacramento's Don Cas~re' Meeting scheduled for November 3, in 5704) as members. The ~7~1/1925 Cambridge. Please see the Annual Report in this members to be NACOLE Regular membe~'~;~{c~r Newsletter to see what your Board has spent one year, and to have attended one of the past time on, and what tasks lie ahead, two national conferences. If you are interested in joining the Board, please talk with a Nomi- The Nominations Committee will be chaired by nations Committee member. · Indianapolis' Cameron Smith (317-955-2499), Seethe resources posted at nacole.org If you want to participate in NACOLE's free ListServe, sign up through our upgraded website · See Sam Walker's fine website, policeaccountability, org Recent issues of the Jail Suicide Mental Health U~)date are available at htt p://www.igc.org/ncia/su icide.html T he New York City Citi- office was evacuated Septem- with many of their tools - zens Review Board ber 11, and remained closed phones, faxes, computers-- reopened its lower until it was judged safe to still down. CRB staff, we hope Manhattan office in early reopen, to see you in Cambridge next November. Located a few fall and salute your endurance blocks from Ground Zero, the CRB staff resumed their work and grit. · __SP ri n g. Z.( .O_2 pa g j Who we are: Pittsburgh, PA D espite the clearly The CPRB is expressed will of Pitts- comprised of by El|zabeth Pittinger, burgh citizens, the seven volun- Executive Officer dynamics of implementing teer Members independent civilian review of three of whom Pittsburgh Citizen Po[ice Review Board police conduct in Pittsburgh are appointed remain complex, hostile, by the Mayor politicized, and elusive, and four from nominees #1. The essence of this cum- submitted by City Council; plaint is whether or not the The independent Citizen two must be inactive law Mayor must extend Garrity Police Review Board (CPRB) enforcement professionals, protection to officers at the was created on May 20, 1997 The 2002 allocation of CPRB if such protection is by voter referendum to the $447,995 supports eight staff, extended to officers at the Home Rule Charter of the City including an Executive Direc~ Office of Municipal Investiga- of Pittsburgh. The amend- tor. tions (an office in the City's ment passed, 57% - 43%. The Complaints are classified as Department of Law). The inaugural Board was impan- Pending Complaints (an Board anticipates a resolution eled by December 1, 1997 and unsworn allegation) or Citizen to the Mandamus action by began receiving complaints in Complaints (a sworn state- mid-year. This will further July 1998. ment). In 2001, the CPRB define the parameters of the received 573 complaints, 77 of Board's investigations. In the midst of the referendum which were Citizen Cum- campaign, a significant event plaints containing 130 allega- The power delegated to the occurred. The U.S. Depart- tions of misconduct and 362 Board by the people was ment of Justice and the City Pending Complaints contain- reinforced when, in the Fall of entered into a Consent Decree lng 479 allegations of miscon- 2001 the Board's subpoena due to suspected patterns of duct. power was upheld as enforce- police misconduct. The able by the County Courts Consent Decree has no effect Since July 1999 the Board has and subpoenaed police offic- on the CPRB. conducted fifteen public ers were ordered by the Court hearings into individual The Charter empowers the complaints of misconduct, continued on page $ >> CPRB to "hold public hear- one on Profiling and one on ings, subpoena witnesses and the Form and Content of compel their attendance, Board Findings & Recommen- administer oaths, take the dations to the Mayor and testimony of any person Chief of Police. In the NACOLE Reviewwe under oath and in connection continue to profile review therewith require the produc- In November 2000, the Board boards around the country. tion of evidence relating to filed a Complaint in Manda- How are they organized? any other matter under inves- mus against the Mayor, the What do they do? What can tigation or any questions Chief of Police and subse- other cities learn from before the board and do all quently amended the cum- them? Join us as NACOLE other things necessary to plaint to include the Fraternal members take this fulfill its purpose." Order of Police, Ft. Pitt Lodge opportunity to share their experiences with the wider community. page 3 2002 Spring Many of our inquirers want a Most jurisdictions in the U.S. les, the consent decree moni- more concrete answer, and have only one of parts of this tor can functio~,~§/th~ !s~- i( ask, "But isn't there a kind of system, sometimes a pseudo- ond compo~t~ ~ith~he '-¥~,' oversight that really works version, hamstrung by inad- Police CommiSsion's Inspec- best?" We respond, equate funding, or co-opted tor General capable of func- "Yes. What really works is by the department it is to tioning as the 3rd component, oversight oversee, if his powers are not curtailed that is independent; that selects people with Multiple oversight compo- Chevigny's discussion of why integrity who will go nents are not redundant, we need external and internal where facts lead them; They fulfill different functions oversight components to that supplies its over- and contribute to the effective effect and maintain fair, firm seers with adequate management law enforcement and consistent policing re- budgets, training and agencies, minds us: time; and "If the monitoring influence that expects them to comes from outside the listen deeply and to police, it tends to rouse the address detailed opposition of police manag- issues with fairness, ers as well as the rank and patience and compas- file; without some coopera- sion for all parties." tion from within, then, it is nearly impossible for the In a handful of cities, more outsiders to investigate, than one oversight compo- and any policy recommen- nent has been imple- dations they make are likely mented, which leads to to be ignored. On the other questions about the neces- hand, if the control is sity of multiple models, exclusively internal, it tends [n cities with external corn- to become socialized to Police accountability expert plaint investigation offices, existing mores in the depart- Paul Chevigny addressed this those offices can provide the ment and to be ineffective; in The Edge of the Knife. first component. If the city this effect is especially saying effective management also has a federal consent strong in the United States of law enforcement requires decree, the consent decree where there is little lateral an adequately funded tripar- monitor can fulfill the func- entry. Real accountability will tite oversight system includ- tion of Chevigny's empowered have to combine internal and ing: ombudsman, external controls. Page 267 [Italics added]. 1. An effective civilian Thus cities like Philadelphia complaint investigation or Pittsburgh, with external The specific, concrete needs component; complaint investigation pro- of oversight--any kind-- are 2. An empowered external cesses, have the first compo- integrity and political will put overseer who can compel nent. Pittsburgh's consent into transparent actions: evidence be produced; decree monitor functions as budget actions; appointments and the second component as can action; training and reporting 3. An internal inspector the Office of Integrity and actions. If the oversight sys- general committed to Accountability in Philadel- tem has these, it'll work. · reform, phia. In the city of Los Ange- ~ ...... S~p_ring 2.992 p_age 4._.] by St~ven Lecklitner r or a number of years ney the task of performing a legalise freed~m@y~a~o;a0~ ~, advocates of oversight in feasibility study for establish- - ! Key West have believed lng a Key West CRB. · ~ ~-~' "~ it is nearly impossible for local citizens to have their The Mayor asked for help good civilian review with the complaints about local selec- from national groups who City Manager. It was further tire law enforcement prac- have already been through suggested that the People tices heard. The Internal the process before, and United to Lead the Struggle Affairs agency responsible for specifically said he did not for Equality (PULSE), a black handling citizen complaints is want to see something from grass-roots coalition of accused of refusal to properly the City offices lacking this churches working on policing investigate complaints and external guidance, to ensure and oversight in Dade County dismissal of complaints that the "appearance of fairness." might provide assistance to should be investigated. When Key West. the police investigate the The City Commissioners and police, it leaves open too the Mayor admitted to not A newsletter list-server called many paths to corruption· knowing what a civilian review "Key West Civilian Review is, nor how to implement one. Board Forum" was created to Key West City Commissioners Oversight advocates provided support requests for informa- decided to examine the pro's the City Manager with re- tion and updates. To sub- and con's of a Civilian Review sources to research oversight, scribe simply send an e-mail Board (CRB). During the Specifically, they were asked this address: December 2001 meeting, to contact NACOLE. In addi- Commissioners gave the City tion, the advocates shared the KeyWestCRB_Forum- Manager and the City Attor- respected ACLU guidelines for subscribe@topica.com continued on page 12 >> to testify (or appropriately to quash a subpoena issued fulfill the will of the people exert constitutional privilege) by a criminal defendant to despite the innumerable at a public hearing; and the obtain the CPRB investigative challenges it has faced. The confidentiality of CPRB files file. struggle in Pittsburgh contin- was upheld when the County ues because the people Court granted a CPRB motion The Board has demonstrated deserve no less. · its tenacity and stamina to Editor's note: Pittsburgh gives us an instructive example of the fact that "winning the vote "just marks the start of the painstaking, detailed work oversight requires if it is to be effectively implemented· Expect it to take time to establish its roots and credibility; expect challenges; expect all varieties of attempts to silence the process. Expect an eventual shift in those who had hoped to defeat it, when they begin to recognize its value; expect acceptance AND expect that the painstaking, detailed work must continue· Then, expect improved community and police relations. page 5 Spring 2002 NACOLE's next conference, The Value of Civilian Oversight--Dollars and Sense, will be held October 31 th rough November 3, 2002 at the Marriott Cambridge Hotel, at 2 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA.The detailed conference flyer will be mailed out in several months, and will be posted to the NACOLE web site. In response to your input, we have simplified dues and conference fees. Dues: Dues remain $300 for Organizational (Agency) Members; $150 for Regular Members and $100 for Associate Members. Become a member by filling out the attached membership application. Conference Registration: NACOLEmembers'registration: $275 per person if early ($325 regular). Non-members'registration: $375 per person if early ($425 regular). Agencies with organizational memberships can register staff and Board members at the $275/$325 rate. Conference room rates are $135 per nig bt; three nights before and/or after the conference are available at the same rate. You can contact the hotel at 800-228-9290 or 617-494-6600. · Mark Schlosberg is the country in law school at NYU, DWB, and anti-terrorism newly appointed he observed oversight on the related threats to civil liber- Police Practices east coast. Mark returned to ties. Unknown issues will Policy Director for the ACLU the west, working in the doubtlessly emerge. of Northern California, filling Contra Costa Public the large shoes formerly worn Defender's Office in 2000. He Reach him at: by John Crew. was reappointed to the Berke- MSchlosberg@aclunc.org ley Police Review Commission Mark has been involved in in 2000, and served as Vice- Police Practices community and policing since Chair before leaving to start Policy Director 1997 when as a UC-Berkeley his new position. ACLU of Northern California student, he was appointed to 1663 Mission Street, Suite 460 Berkeley's Police Review His ACLU position covers San Francisco, CA 94103 Commission. Across the topics like civilian oversight, (415) 621-2493 · ~ ........ Spr!ng 20~2_pa~g_e 6 I Sustaining members are organizations and individuals who wish to make tax deductible contributions to the further the goals and principles of NACOLE. Donations begin at $500. [21 Organizational members are agencies of board who provide civilian oversight of law enforcement by legislative or executive mandate. These agencies will receive one transferable regular membership and associate memberships for the remain- ing members of their boards. Annual dues: $300 Regular members are individuals who are not sworn law enforcement officers but who work or have worked for agencies that are mandated by legislative or execu- tive authority to investigate and review complaints against law enforcement officers. Annual dues: $150. Associate members are individuals concerned with the oversight of law enforce- ment. The members shall be able to participate in all NACOLE activities, includ- ing serving on committees, but are ineligible to vote or serve as officers. Annual dues: $100. Student members are individuals who are full-time students and are concerned with the oversight of law enforcement. Student members will be able to serve on committees but are ineligible to vote or serve as officers. Annual dues: $25. All memberships include a one-year subscription to the NACOLE Review. (over) LPage 7 2002 Spring Name Organization or company Title Organization telephone (with area code) Organization address City, State, Zip Home address City, State, Zip Home telephone (with area code) Organization fax Home e-mail Organization e-mail Home fax Membership type Make checks payable to NACOLE Mail form and payment to: NACOLE R O. Box 1110 Lanham, Maryland 20703 Please call or e-mail if you have questions phone: 1-866-4NACOLE e-mail: Nacole9$@aol.com '"-~-~ '" Spring 2002 ~ ....................... page~] [ n 1990, after incidents of increase in the police IA [ police abuse damaged budget, and that the depart- by Sue Quinn ! community trust and ment would have to double NACOLE President caused significant liability, the or triple its IA investigators. . Minneapolis city council crafted the CPRA, out in The CPRA lost two posi- tions in the mayor's sugges- recognition that citizens and tions in 2001, and began 2002 tion box that the CPRA be police would benefit from with a $45?,000 budget. In abolished to save money. The oversight. The counciYs February, Executive Director office will close April 30. The commitment to the process Pat Hughes was told to pre- office is no longer accepting was reflected in adequate pare for a 2% or 3.5% cut to complaints. Staff will com- funding, the budget. Within the week plete as many of the pending r ........................................... 68 investigations as possible; [ most will not be completed. ] Within the week her Monday morning paper Citizens with complaints are i informed her the CPRA was to be abolished, being referred the mayor and ,~i By Friday, it was. city council. i 70% of CPRA's complainants are people of color; 58% of The CPRA evolved into a her Monday morning paper misconduct allegations are for nationally recognized model informed her the CPRA was to excessive force. 11% of corn- of independent oversight, be abolished. By Friday, it plaints include allegations of developing several innovative was. racial profiling. processes such as their "stipu- lation process" wherein What did the CPRA budget The Minneapolis CPRA's officers admitted allegations; buy Minneapolis? In 2001, successful programs are and their use of mediation. CPRA had 853 contacts re- discussed extensively in the garding possible complaints; two analyses of oversight By 1998 the police de- 518 were informally resolved, issued in 2001: partment's 919 sworn staff 114 signed complaints came served a population of in, 83 investigations were 1. In the U.S. Department of 358,785. The CPRA's seven conducted by CPRA's two Justice, Office of Justice staff consisted of an executive investigators. By way of Programs, National Institute director, three investigators, a contrast, the police de- of Justice report, "Citizen program assistant and two partment's 3 internal affairs Review of Police: Approaches support staff, with a budget of investigators completed 38 and Implementation," (2001, $504,000. investigations. MCJ 184430); and During a review of CPRA When Ms. Hughes questioned 2. In Sam Walker's Police effectiveness, officials admit- the decision to abolish the Accountability: The Role of ted that cutting the CPRA's CPRA, she was told that three Citizen Oversight, (2001, budget would lead to an employees had put sugges- Wadworth Professionalism in Policing Series). · page ......... 9 Spr!_ng :20.~_.2...__~ San Diego, CA: A n Appellate Court the county Board decision in the Caloca of Supervisors or case may significantly on its own initia- by John Parker, Executive Officer, alter the civilian oversight rive when such ~ San Diego County Citizens' Law hearing process in California. reconsideration is i Enforcement Review Board This decision establishes the in the public right of peace officers to interest. appeal review board findings to local Civil Service commis- Between 1995 and 1996, attorneys now employed the signs, even when no disciplin- CLERB sustained misconduct specific tactic of not naming ary action is taken by the allegations against Sheriff's CLERB directly as a defendant employing agency, detective Victor Caloca and or respondent in subsequent others in several cases, in all legal actions. CLERB had an Established in 1990, the of which included across-the- unbroken string of legal County of San Diego Citizens' board refusal of deputies to victories against the DSA's Law Enforcement Review cooperate with the investiga- many challenges to its opera- Board, or CLERB, is an "inde- tion. After CLERB sustained tional authority. CLERB coun- pendent investigative" model findings in each case, the sel possessed information that of oversight, authorized to Sheriff's Department rejected could have been raised in receive and investigate citizen the CLERB findings, seemingly response to this case. It is complaints against peace closing the matter. As it surmised that CLERB's non- officers employed by the turned out, the issue was not involvement in the legal Sheriff and Probation Depart- over for the involved depu- proceedings now made the merits. CLERB's investigative ties. DSA's case easier. reports and meetings are public and include recom- Without notice to CLERB, or DSA next took their case to mendations as to discipline the use of CLERB's own the Fourth District Court of and policy. The County Char- appeal process, the involved Appeal of California. In 1999, ter established CLERB as deputies collectively sought the court decided in their advisory; CLERB does not "liberty interest" hearings favor after hearing a one- impose discipline, before the Civil Service Corn- sided presentation. The court mission, or alternatively, an ruled that CLERB's mere CLERB rules have an appel- administrative appeal of sustained findings were "puni- late process providing parties CLERB's findings pursuant to tire action" against peace to a complaint the right to the California Public Safety officers, as defined by the request "reconsideration" of a Officers Procedural Bill of Peace Officers Bill of Rights. Final Report when previously Rights Act. The Civil Service The court granted Deputy unknown relevant evidence is Commission rejected the Cal0ca and others the right to discovered and there is a deputies' request, as did the an appeal hearing before the reasonable likelihood the new Superior Court at the next County Civil Service Commis- evidence will alter the findings appeal stage, sion. The decision was pub- and recommendations, lished, making it effective for CLERB may also reconsider a It is noted that the Deputy other jurisdictions in Califor- Final Report at the request of Sheriffs' Association (DSA) nia. Spring 2002 page 10 The significant factor in the rejection when they disagreed CLERB finding is not sustain- deputies' case was an unchal- with CLERB findings and able." lenged declaration by Assis- recommendations. When tant Sheriff Thomas Zoll, then hinting agreement with CLERB Why this language? Perhaps it head of the Sheriff's Human findings, the department has is because CLERB rules al- Resource Services Bureau. always indicated they would ready provided for an appeal, Zoll indicated that the Sheriff's conduct their own investiga- but the deputies had opted to Department, when consider- tion and take appropriate go to court rather than to use ing a deputy for advancement, action, it. "may consider findings and evaluations from other cred- Significant irony attends this Another controversial imple- ible agencies or boards," appellate court decision: in mentation detail was the including "credible reports or finding for the deputies, the proposal: "There shall be no findings from such sources as court's action raised CLERB's right to a public hearing of the ... a citizens review board." heretofore advisory determi- administrative appeal. The Further, he stated negative nations to be "punitive ac- commissioner, acting as the findings that a deputy commit- tion," giving CLERB's findings hearing officer, may close all ted an act of misconduct far greater significance than or any portion of the proceed- "published by a credible the Sheriff's Department or ing for the purpose of hearing source ... would be given the DSA had in the past. or receiving otherwise confi- consideration in personnel dential information not sub- decisions, and may have an The court further ordered ject to public disclosure." The adverse impact on the career that the Civil Service Commis- deputies' counsel protested of the deputy ... even though sion provide deputies an this element, decrying the the department may have opportunity for an administra- County's attempt to take away investigated the matter and tire appeal of CLERB's find- their right to an open hearing. reached a different conclu- ings. Implementation details This is surprising because the sion..." were left up to the county. DSA has always protested the The county then set out to public hearing element of the This was a significant admis- develop unique hearing rules CLERB process, using outright sion as the Sheriff's Depart- believed to be more appropri- refusal to respond and several merit had maintained an ate for CLERB's strictly advi- legal challenges to fight attitude ranging from near- sory capacity, including the openness of process. indifference to vociferous controversial proposal that should point out that after "[t]he succeeding in getting the burden of court to throw out most of the proof shall County's proposed rules, the be on the DSA counsel then indicated a peace reversal and moved in a officer to separate action to have all demon- Civil Service hearings involv- strate lng Sheriff's deputies closed.) through a preponder- Lastly, the implementation ance of the details importantly contained evidence this proposed rule: "The that the decision of the Commission is continued on next page >> page 11 Spring 2002 advisory only. The Com- "...A ruling by the Commis- Nothing in the mission's decision is final and sion that the CLERB findings, sion rendered CLEI~,. less not subject to reconsidera- or any portion of the CLERB effective. It simp, l¥ tion. The commission has no findings, are not sustained, County (and Sh~]~f s authority to overrule or shall be binding on the ment) not to use the advisory invalidate CLERB findings." County to the extent that the findings that have been The basis for this rule seems CLERB findings cannot be deemed not sustained by the to be the Charter-mandated used for any personnel deci- Civil Service Commission, independence of CLERB and sion or action regarding the something the department the fact that CLERB findings officer. A ruling by the Com- never did anyway. CLERB are only advisory in nature, mission that the CLERB find- continues to receive and However, in throwing out the ings, or any portion of the investigate complaints; to County's proposed rules and CLERB findings, are sustained issue public reports and granting a writ of mandamus shall not change the advisory recommendations; and to ordering the County to hold nature of the CLERB findings provide advisory findings to hearings under existing rules, or recommendations to the the Sheriff or Chief Probation the Superior Court stated: County related thereto..." Officer. ~ S an Diego County CLERB's John Parker has what it is; graciously agreed to collect, hold, orga- how much it cost; nize and share information on case man- how it's working; agement systems, data bases, and early warning what you tike about it; systems for oversight agencies or police agen- what you would change if you knew cies wanting to track officers' complaint histo- then what you know now. If you are looking for a system and want to If you are using an electronic data base system hear who is using what, contact John. to manage, please let John know all you can Reach him at 619-515-6029 or at about your system: John.Parker@sdcounty. ca.gov · Also, a new public discussion allow citizens to directly Because CRBs provide for an list-server created for Key impact the way their elected external review mechanism, West CRB advocates is open representatives respond to they can be an extremely to the public. The purpose of this issue and all its implica- effective way to curb police this forum is to allow commu- tions in providing public abuses. What people ulti- nity members to express their safety and security. To sign on mately want is fairness in views on civilian review as a send an e-mail to this address: government. They want to method for limiting police know that regardless of whom abuse. It is our hope in estab- KeyWestCRB_moderator- a person is, if s/he commits a lishing this public forum to subscribe@topica.com wrongful act, that conse- quences will result· · ~_~Sp[!ng 200~..page_l~ .] 2: SI, The National Association for Civilian Over- Midwest members are from Chicago, Illinois, sight of Law Enforcement, or NACOLE, is Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis and St. Paul, made up of persons and organizations in Minnesota; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, the United States who work in oversight in the Indiana; Washington, DC; Knoxville, Tennessee United States, or who are interested in its devel- Houston, Texas. opment. NACOLE incorporated in 1995; ap- proved Bylaws in 1998; obtained nonprofit status Westerners in NACOLE come from Denver, in 1999 and elected its first Board in 2000. That Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Or- Board assumed office January 1, 2001. egon; Boise, Idaho; San Francisco, Berkeley, City of Los Angeles; County of Los Angeles, The Mission: Oakland, City of San Diego, County of San Diego, Long Beach, Riverside, San Jose, Santa NACOLE is a nonprofit organization of civilian Cruz, Sacramento, and Novato, California; oversight practitioners and supporters working Tucson, Arizona; Honolulu, Maui, Kauai and to promote fair, firm and consistent law enforce- Hawaii Counties, Hawaii. ment in the United States through the practice of civilian oversight. NACOLE held its Annual General Membership Meeting on October 12, 2001 in Denver. NACOLE is based on the belief that law enforce- ment derives its authority from the community, The Board and the Conduct of Business: and requires a two-way dialog between the community and those charged with the duty to NACOLE's racially diverse Board serves two enforce laws. year terms. Current Board are President Sue Quinn (San Diego; Calif.); Vice President NACOLE provides training; referrals; information Malvina Monteiro (Cambridge, Mass.); Trea- sharing and technical assistance to the oversight surer Clyde Davis (Prince George's County, community and to persons and jurisdictions Maryland); Secretary Barbara Attard (Berkeley attempting to establish oversight Calif.) and Past President Brian C. Reeder (Indianapolis, Indiana). Directors are Jim TheMembership: Johnson (Cincinnati, Ohio); Joe Sandoval (Denver, Colo.); Teresa Guerrero Daley (San NACOLE's membership comes from all areas of Jose, Calif.); Robert Aaronson (Menlo Park, the United States. The East is represented by Calif.); Don Casimere (Sacramento, Calif.) and Cambridge, Massachusetts; New Haven, Con- Dede Wilhelm (Kauai, Hawaii). necticut; Rochester, Albany, and New York, New York; Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio; With no staff, the Board provides NACOLE's Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; programs. The Board contributed approxi- Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, mately 3150 hours to NACOLE in 2001. About Maryland; Washington, DC; and Miami-Dade, 1100 Board hours were spent on NACOLE's Florida. continued on next page >> Ip g ge 13 Spring 2002 governance and 2050 hours on NACOLE's to develop and manage NACOLE's fiscal programs. NACOLE members who are not on records. The Board recognizes the Board volunteer several hundred hours contribution in this report an~'e~_~§~ annually, gratitude on behalf of the membership. The Board met twice in 2001; held sixteen TheAnnualConference: teleconference meetings and conducted other business by telephone or mail. In March, a The Annual Conference consumes much of Development Retreat was held. Since its mid- the Board's time and labor. Vice-President 1990's inception, NACOLE's principle work has Malvina Monteiro continues to chair the been the delivery of an Annual Conference and Conference. Treasurer Clyde Davis manages publication of the newsletter. At the retreat, the off-site Registration. The full Board assists in Board recognized that to move NACOLE to its Conference program development and deify- next developmental level, it must: ery. · Hone the governance skills to "grow" NACOLE as an organization; "Inclusion, the Balancing Act of Oversight," was · Continue delivery of the Annual Confer- the theme for the 2001 Conference held in ence and Denver from October 9th through the 12th. · Expand NACOLE programs beyond the Despite occurring within a month of the New Conference, and York City and Washington DC attacks, the · Conduct ongoing review and revision of Conference drew over 135 persons from over NACOLE's Mission and Bylaws. fifty jurisdictions. Finances: Among its highlights were Merrick Bobb's Keynote Address; Maya Harris West's talk on NACOLE's cash income derives from member- "Community Centered Policing, Civilian Over- ships, conference fees and interest. A signifi- sight and Change." cant amount of in-kind income derives from the donated labor of the Board and volunteers to Panels were held on "Bias Based Policing," elevelop and maintain NACOLE's programs. In and "Carving Change from Crisis." Oversight 2001, the conference host city, Denver, pledged practitioners participated in complex group contributions of $38,587 for the conference. On cases examination workshops. Jurisdictions December 31, 2001, NACOLE's cash balance working to establish oversight were led was $34,876. through an analysis of various models. During 2001, a Finance Committee was estab- Expanding NA¢OLE Programs: lished. It met twice in person, and via telecon- ference, and sought the assistance of nonprofit In 2002, NACOLE financial consultants. As a result, NACOLE · Established its informational website revised its financial reports and shifted from (NACOLE.org) which now contains the cash to accrual basis accounting, following documents that are designed to assist oversight agencies and juris- The Finance Committee's work was greatly dictions considering oversight: assisted by Rose Ceja-Aragon's contributions, o Investigative Guidelines for She generously and indefatigably gave her time Oversight Agencies; o "Varieties of Oversight;" specifically over the question of when o Mediation Guidelines; S.W.A.T.-type levels of force,~,'te ~apprc~prj~, o Basic Training Recommendations ate in the service of arr~'~ for Oversight Boards; warrants, and when alternative actions o Past and present NACOLE News- are more prudent for community and letters; officers. The Commission Report is o A Roster of U.S. Oversight Agen- expected in 2002. cies; o Resources for Oversight; In April, the National Center for Women & o "Biased Based Policing," a paper Policing recognized Ms. Quinn and Ms. describing how police managers Guerrero-Daley for contributions in the can avoid unfair policing prac- development of oversight. rices; · Established the NACOLE ListServe wherein current articles regarding police Ms. Quinn participated in San Diego oversight and accountability are elec- Police Department Use of Force Task tronically distributed; Force. The Task Force issued a series · Enhanced electronic and telephonic recommendations; the report is available communications in order to respond to to the public. public inquiries without delay; · Produced two editions of The NACOLE Futureworkneededtoadvancethefield Review; civilian oversight · Conducted outreach activities through out the year and -Growth of NACOLE membership; fundraising · Provided ongoing Technical Assistance and obtaining grants in order to open an to individuals; jurisdictions and the national office and hire staff; media. -Establishment of minimum training stan- The Board expresses its gratitude to Rob dards for oversight Board/Commission Heverly for his many hours working with us members; to establish and maintain the NACOLE website and listserve. -Establishment of standards or accreditation for Boards/Commissions and Auditor mod- Board members brought NACOLE's voice and els: analyses to these other venues during the year: -Creation of advanced training for practitio- ners, Boards and Commission Members; Ms. Quinn, Ms. Monteiro, Ms. Attard attended the International Association for Civilian -Participation in national and local dialogues Oversight of Law Enforcement (IACOLE) about "post-September 11" policing and Conference in Quebec City, Canada. oversight. California's Attorney General convened a NACOLE's Board is grateful to the member- Blue Ribbon Commission to examine Special ship for having had the opportunity to con- Weapons and Tactical Forces or "S.W.A.T." tribute to the development of oversight in Teams. As a Commission member, Ms. Quinn 2001. We invite your participation in this brought NACOLE's concerns to the dialogue, work. · page 15 Spring 2002 The NACOLE Review is published twice a year for the members of NACOLE. ~!'i~ National Association for Civilian Oversight Law Enforcement [0~,~ RO. Box 1110 Lanham, Maryland 20703 1-866-4NACOLE · Fax (301) 794-0264 E-mail: nacole@nacole.org or contact the NACOLE board at htt p://www, nacole.org Editor-in-Chief: Malvino Monteiro, monteiro@nacole.org Editor: Suzanne Egbert, segbert@ya hoo.com © 2001 NACOLE, Inc. All rights reserved. National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement P. O. Box 1110 Lanham, Maryland 20703 first class mail Marian Karr From: samwalker@mail.unomaha.ed u Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 9:24 AM To: suelqq@aol.com Subject: Driving While Female Study Examines Police Sex Abuse Targeting of Women Is Issue of Concern, Professors Say By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 4, 2002; Page B02 Police officers who sexually exploit women during traffic stops -- as a Virginia state trooper is accused of doing -- are part of a disturbing national phenomenon, according to the authors of a recent federally funded study of police misconduct. Through a preliminary examination of reported incidents, the study by two University of Nebraska criminal justice professors concluded that local, state and federal authorities need to address the arrests of women targeted for traffic stops because of their sex. Samuel Walker, co-author of the study, which was released last month by the Police Professionalism Initiative, said most of the incidents involve officers who abuse their authority by asserting control over women or manipulating them for personal satisfaction. Walker said the cases range from minor harassment to sex assaults and, in extremely rare cases, have even led to murder. "I think we have enough evidence that it's all across the country, in big departments and small departments," Walker said, adding that the problem is under-reported. "A lot of women are embarrassed, they are traumatized, and they don't want to report it, the same way a lot of sex assaults aren't reported to police," he said. This week, William A. "Buck" Carter, 42, a Virginia State Police trooper, was indicted and arrested in Prince William County on charges that he sought sex from a woman in exchange for dropping drunken-driving charges against her. Prosecutors said it appears that Carter arrested a higher proportion of young women during his patrols than did his colleagues or county police officers. According to an investigation by the state police internal affairs division, women accounted for more than 50 percent of Carter's drunken-driving arrests. Authorities said yesterday that women account for less than 20 percent of drunken-driving arrests in Prince William County as a whole. "I think it's pretty clear that he was apprehending a far greater percentage of females than the other police officers," said Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert, who is prosecuting Carter on charges of bribery. "This type of selection is problematic." Carter has been charged with soliciting sex in one case. But sources close to the probe said yesterday that investigators are 1 looking into whether he may have targeted young, attractive women, in some cases following them to make legitimate arrests. Carter, an 18-year veteran with the state police, turned himself in Tuesday and was released. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and could lose the real estate license that friends say has accounted for much of his income. Carter declined to comment yesterday when reached through friends. Col. W. Gerald Massengill, superintendent of the state police, said he is considering an internal inquiry to find troopers who might have known of Carter's alleged misconduct but did not report it. "I think the public recognizes that we have human beings enforcing the law," Massengill said yesterday. "Being human beings, you're going to invariably have situations that go into areas that no one is proud of. It has happened in the past, and I'd like to say that it won't happen in the future, but I'm sure it will. We're sending strong signals that it can't be tolerated." According to Walker, whose study focused on more than 100 cases reported across the country and in the media during the last six years, many tainted traffic stops are for drunken-driving violations. In those situations, he said, officers have the upper hand, and motorists' credibility is already low because they have broken the law. "In many cases the drivers have been drinking and they're feeling compromised," Walker said. "Some officers understand that they're dealing with vulnerable people, and they take advantage of it." Prince William Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Richard A. Conway said most officers play by the rules. "If you have a situation like we did here, then it is improper, it is criminal, and it is a problem," Conway said. "There is a very, very, small percentage of law enforcement officers engaged in something like that." © 2002 The Washington Post Company Professor Samuel Walker Department of Criminal Justice University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE 68182-0149 402-554-3590 (o) 402-554-2326 (fax) 402-556-4674 (h) Marian Karr From: Attard, Barbara [BAttard@ci.berkeley.ca.us] Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 1:10 PM To: NACOLE95@aol,com; Sandovaj@mscdedu; dede@hawaiian.net; CReeder@indygov.org; cdavis@ultra-tech.com; DCasimere@gw.sacto.org; RHAaronson@aol.com; CejaaRE@ci.denver.co.us; Attard, Barbara; james.johnson@cinlaw.rcc.org; MMonteiro@ci,cambridge,ma.us; Teresa. Guerrero-Daley@ci.sj.ca,us; Sue Quinn (E-mail) Subject: Justice Dept Ruling on Local Police as Agents of INS, Cincinnati Ruling Local cops, INS can become partners Justice Dept. ruling on immigration laws SF Chronicle Eric Schmitt, New York Times <mailto:chronfeedbaok@sfchzonicle.com> April 4, 2002 Washington -- A Justice Department ruling clears the way for Attorney General John Ashcroft to declare that state and local police have the power to enforce federal immigration laws. While a final decision has not been reached to make such a declaration, the move, officials said yesterday, is seen as a way to promote a federal plan to deputize local police officers as agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, allowing them to make an arrest for overstaying a visa or entering the country illegally. If adopted as policy, the opinion by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel will encourage local police departments to embrace a plan that many have resisted in the past but are now reconsidering after Sept. 11. The immigration service, which has long focused its enforcement effort at the nation's borders, has fewer than 2,000 agents assigned to internal enforcement, but the agency estimates that more than 8 million immigrants live in the United States illegally. LEVERAGING LAW ENFORCEMENT "This would leverage a small number of federal law enforcement officers with much, much larger numbers of state and local police officers," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates stricter immigration limits. The Justice Department's legal opinion was first reported yesterday by the Copley News Service. A wide-ranging 1996 immigration law authorized the attorney general to enter into agreements with states and local governments permitting them to routinely enforce the immigration laws. Until recently, only a few localities pursued such agreements, and all were blocked by opposition from immigrant advocates and employers or, in some places like New York City, by laws prohibiting local police officers from arresting otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants. But that trend is shifting, law enforcement officials say. Florida will soon be the first jurisdiction to enter into a policing partnership with the Justice Department, the immigration service's parent. Officials in South Carolina have also expressed interest. BAY AREA POLICE REFUSE Concerned about eroding good relationships with the community, some Bay Area police agencies -- including San Francisco's and San Jose's -- have refused to question Middle Eastern immigrants for the Department of Justice. They say they would refuse to enter into the proposed agreements too. "If we come across somebody through normal police work who has a federal arrest warrant . . we will take them into custody, but we won't initiate (immigration investigations)," said San Jose police spokesman Sgt. Joseph Deras. Justice Department officials refused to discuss details of the legal counsel's opinion or how Ashcroft intended to proceed. Immigrant advocates criticized the latest proposal, saying it would hurt police officers' ability to gain trust among immigrants. "If the Justice Department is going to give the green light to local law enforcement to cooperate with the INS, it'll jeopardize the efforts of local 1 police to build relations with local communities," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. "It's a classic post- Sept. 11 Justice Department move. They want to improve security, but they're driving away the very people who can provide help to law enforcement." Chronicle staff writer Kelly St. John contributed to this report. Deal Reached on Policing in Cincinnati New York Times By FRANCIS X. CLINES April 4, 2002 A year after Cincinnati was rocked by racial protests and street violence, a tentative agreement has been reached to avoid racial profiling by revamping the city police department's methods of dealing with the public. The agreement, hailed as a breakthrough by city leaders and African-A~nericans, was announced yesterday morning after an all-night negotiating session that capped a yearlong collaboration started by a civil rights lawsuit. The tentative pact is still subject to formal approval by the separate negotiating organizations, including the city government, the police rank and file, the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union and blacks who had complained of police officers using excessive force in patrolling the streets. "We think we have an agreement that will be a landmark for this city and for this nation," said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the Cincinnati Black United Front, which brought the racial profiling lawsuit with the A.C.L.U. The full details of the agreement were not immediately made public. But officials involved said that, if properly enforced, the proposed changes would improve the police department's openness with the public and more clearly define the circumstances and methods for proper use of force. The proposal includes a court-sanctioned monitor to oversee the agreed upon changes in police training and patrolling. It also provides for a new Citizens Complaint Authority intended to allow the public a more responsive way of filing grievances against police officers. "This is a historic moment for Cincinnati," declared Mayor Charlie Luken, hailing the agreement as a national model for improving police-community relations. Mayor Luken requested a Justice Department inquiry into the city's policing methods last April after four days of street protests and violence followed the fatal shooting of a young black man by the police. The Justice Department recommendations for improving police methods eventually became part of the agreement. The death that caused street protests and violence last year was the 15th African-American suspect killed by the police in five years; no white suspects were killed by the police in that period. Even before that killing, the A.C.L.U. and Mr. Lynch had filed a racial profiling lawsuit. The street protests, police confrontations and vandalizing of Cincinnati businesses brought national notoriety to the city. Mayor Luken ordered a night curfew to stem the violence and keep residents off the streets. Black civic leaders urged a boycott of the city's convention services until progress could be seen in police-community relations. The unusual collaborative process, conducted under federal court oversight, was an alternative to full-scale litigation. Negotiators sought a wide spectrum of proposals in interviews and meetings with 3,500 people, including police officers, residents of all ethnic groups and government officials. The canvassing was carried out by the Aria Group, a private organization that specializes in conflict management. One question is how the tentative pact will be received by the rank-and -file union members of the Fraternal Order of Police. Union leaders complained a year ago that their members were unfairly accused by blacks. But union negotiators took part in the collaborative process that announced success yesterday. They offered no immediate estimate of how the membership would receive the tentative agreement. Mayor Luken, who is white and was elected last November to a full term under the city's new, stronger executive charter, recently chose a black woman, Valerie Lemmie, as the city manager. Ms. Lemmie, who had been city manager in Dayton, was inaugurated on Tuesday, promising the City Council, "We are going to make a profound difference in 2 the City of Cincinnati." Then she bounded down the steps from the ceremony hand in hand with the police chief, Tom Streicher, who is white. City leaders said another barometer of fresh optimism came at the end of the final round of 17 hours of negotiations. A sticking point was the question of whether the city would pay all the legal fees incurred in the racial profiling lawsuit. The solution, reached with relative ease, was the creation of Friends of the Collaborative to raise the needed $600,000 through private donations. Barbara Attard Berkeley Police Review Commission (510) 644-6716 Fax (510) 644-6570 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 6:44 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Cincy Settlement; Columbus Cops Say No Way; Tx Dogs & Drugs Deal Reached on Policing in Cincinnati By FRANCIS X. CLINES; April 4th, 2002 NY TIMES I I ! [] ~ year after Cincinnati was rocked by racial protests and street violence, a tentative agreement has been reached to avoid racial profiling by revamping the city police department's methods of dealing with the public. The agreement, hailed as a breakthrough by city leaders and African-Americans, was announced yesterday morning after an all-night negotiating session that capped a yearlong collaboration started by a civil rights lawsuit. The tentative pact is still subject to formal approval by the separate negotiating organizations, including the city government, the police rank and file, the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union and blacks who had complained of police officers using excessive force in patrolling the streets. "We think we have an agreement that will be a landmark for this city and for this nation," said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the Cincinnati Black United Front, which brought the racial profiling lawsuit with the A.C.LU. The full details of the agreement were not immediately made public. But officials involved said that, if properly enforced, the proposed changes would improve the police department's openness with the public and more clearly define the circumstances and methods for proper use of force. The proposal includes a court-sanctioned monitor to oversee the agreed upon changes in police training and patrolling. It also provides for a new Citizens Complaint Authority intended to allow the public a more responsive way of filing grievances against police officers. "This is a historic moment for Cincinnati," declared Mayor Charlie Luken, hailing the agreement as a national model for improving police-community relations. Mayor Luken requested a Justice Department inquiry into the city's policing methods last April after four days of street protests and violence followed the fatal shooting of a young black man by the police. The Justice Department recommendations for improving police methods eventually became part of the agreement. The death that caused street protests and violence last year was the 15th African-American suspect killed by the police in five years; no white suspects were killed by the police in that period. Even before that killing, the A.C.LU. and Mr. Lynch had filed a racial profiling lawsuit. The street protests, police confrontations and vandalizing of Cincinnati businesses brought national notoriety to the city. Mayor Luken ordered a night curfew to stem the violence and keep residents off the streets. Black civic leaders urged a boycott of the city's convention services until progress could be seen in police-community relations. The unusual collaborative process, conducted under federal court oversight, was an alternative to full-scale litigation. Negotiators sought a wide spectrum of proposals in interviews and meetings with 3,500 people, including police officers, residents of all ethnic groups and government officials. The canvassing was carried out by the Aria Group, a private organization that specializes in conflict management. One question is how the tentative pact will be received by the rank-and -file union members of the Fraternal Order of Police. Union leaders complained a year ago that their members were unfairly accused by blacks. But union negotiators took part in the collaborative process that announced success yesterday. They offered no immediate estimate of how the membership would receive the tentative agreement. Mayor Luken, who is white and was elected last November to a full term under the city's new, stronger executive charter, recently chose a black woman, Valerie Lemmie, as the city manager. Ms. Lemmie, who had been city manager in Dayton, was inaugurated on Tuesday, promising the City Council, "We are 9oing to make a profound difference in the City of Cincinnati." Then she bounded down the steps from the ceremony hand 4/14/02 Page 2 of 4 in hand with the police chief, Tom Streicher, who is white. City leaders said another barometer of fresh optimism came at the end of the final round of 17 hours of negotiations. A sticking point was the question of whether the city would pay all the legal fees incurred in the racial profiling lawsuit. The solution, reached with relative ease, was the creation of Friends of the Collaborative to raise the needed $600,000 through private donations. Cincinnati Police Settlement Wouldn't Fly in Columbus Dateline: Columbus, OH - 4/5/2002 Columbus Dispatch Bruce Cadwallader The settlement that could lead to major changes in the Cincinnati police department is evoking opposite reactions from those involved in Columbus' lawsuit over police conduct. The Cincinnati settlement, reached Wednesday between the city and plaintiffs in a racial-profiling lawsuit, would never win approval of police here, the president of the Columbus police union said. "Absolutely not," said Bill Capretta of Capital City Lodge No. 9 of the Fraternal Order of Police. "This is a consent decree of a different color. We are opposed to a federal monitor. We are opposed to a citizen review board." Both are included in the Cincinnati agreement, which that city's police union president has tentatively accepted. It still must be approved by the entire police union. In 1999, Columbus became the first city to refuse to sign a Justice Department consent decree. The decree spelled out ways the city, without admitting fault, could remedy problems of racial profiling, excessive use of force and discrimination. Although city leaders liked the proposal, the FOP and several members of the City Council refused to sign. The Justice Department sued the city in October 1999. The suit is pending in federal court in Columbus. James Moss, a retired Columbus police officer who helped bring federal investigators to town, said he agrees with much of the Cincinnati agreement because change is occurring too slowly here. "The citizen-complaint system here is not working, and the Columbus Division of Police determines what racial profiling is, and we feel that is outrageous," said Moss, founder of Police Officers for Equal Rights. His group is forwarding complaints from citizens to Justice Department lawyers in Washington. Moss said Attorney General John Ashcroft "has showed me more involvement." "I've called on a Friday, and they've sent somebody here on a Saturday," he said. Hoss suggested that Columbus hire a private law f'irm to handle citizen complaints against police while the Justice Department suit is pending. After that, he wants a citizen review board. The Cincinnati agreement would establish a seven-member citizen board to review police complaints and would create a community-relations department. A federal monitor would be appointed to enforce the changes. Capretta, who has repeatedly criticized the federal probe here as being vague, said the Columbus case is not ripe for a settlement. "We are still in talks with them. We're trying to find out what their bottom line is, but they keep changing it," he said. Justice Department officials, who have declined to comment on the case in the past, could not be reached 4/14/02 Page 3 of 4 yesterday for comment. City Attorney Janet Jackson's office also wouldn't comment on the Cindnnati resolution or the status of the Columbus case. "We think it's unfair to compare the two situations which will undoubtedly result in a different outcome," Scott Varner, Jackson's spokesman, said yesterday. Without addressing the Cincinnati agreement, Assistant Safety Director Barb Seckler said Mayor Michael B. Coleman's administration has taken steps to improve the police department. "We have worked very hard over the past two years to take the Columbus Division of Police to the next level, toward enhanced accountability," Seckler said. Under Coleman, Seckler said, the city has: Reorganized and added 25 sergeants to the division's internal-affairs bureau, which accepts citizen complaints on a 24-hour basis. Proposed moving the bureau out of police headquarters to a community-based office near Parsons Avenue and E. Main Street. Equipped 100 police cruisers with audio and video equipment for traffic stops, with a goal of equipping all city cruisers. The FOP is negotiating whether those tapes can be used to discipline officers. Collected racial data on all traffic stops since October. The union won an arbitration ruling that prohibits the city from disciplining officers whose behavior could be construed as racial profiling. Required all officers to take an anti-bias training course. Supported Councilman Kevin Boyce's efforts to create a definition of racial profiling in city codes. Altered police regulations prohibiting racially motivated traffic stops. Revised the forms officers fill out for use-of-force incidents to include the method used to restrain a suspect. "Many of these issues, like the IAB database, were being done before the DOJ became involved," Seckler said. "We are not doing these things for the DOJ, but to make this the best police division in the country." An FOP-circulated e-mail recently told members that a break in the Columbus lawsuit could come in the next two months, police spokesman Sgt. Earl Smith said. "Practically speaking, everybody wants to walk away saying that we've made some progress," he said. "Some affirmative programs were already on the plate, and frankly, we did some things they probably didn't expect us to do." Use of TX Police Dogs Allowed Without Search Warrant Dateline: Houston, TX - 4/5/2002 Houston Chronicle By DALE LEZON A judge's ruling Thursday said it's OK for officers to use police dogs to sniff for drugs on private property without a search warrant. 4/14/02 Page 4 of 4 State District Judge Joan Huffman refused to elaborate after denying a request to throw out evidence collected at the home of a Houston motorcycle gang member accused of possessing methamphetamines. Police had permission to search the home, court records show, but their warrant was obtained in part because a drug-sniffing dog had detected the odor of narcotics at the garage door. Defense attorneys, who said the sniffing amounted to an illegal search, blasted the decision as an attack on privacy. "This ruling allows the police the keys to our houses and obliterates the expectation of privacy that we've enjoyed in this country," said defense attorney Philip Hilder. Assistant District Attorney Sally Ring argued in court that police have the right to be outside a home on walkways and front porches, areas where the general public can approach a house that is not fenced or posted with "Keep Out" signs. Huffman's ruling came in a hearing in the case of David Gregory Smith, 39, of the 500 block of Shawnee, and Kristian Stauffer, 29, of the 3300 block of Ashton Park. Both are charged with possessing methamphetamines. Police received permission from state District Judge Ted Poe to search Smith's house after a police dog "alerted" to the odor of drugs at his home, according to court records. The Oct. 4, 2000, search was one of several conducted as part of an il-month investigation by the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force into alleged drug activity by the Bandidos. 3ury selection is expected to begin in Smith's trial today. Stauffer is considering a plea agreement, said her attorney, Edward Mallett. Stauffer also is charged with delivery of methamphetamines. Mallett and Hilder both said they would appeal Huffman's decision. In another hearing Jan. 18, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes suppressed evidence gathered with one of the search warrants for another Bandidos member after a drug-sniffing dog was taken to his home without a judge's permission. Hughes said evidence seized in that search was not clearly stipulated in the search warrant. He also said that the "dog use is a search." Ring said Hughes' ruling has no jurisdiction in state court. *** eSafe scanned this email for malicious content *** **~ IMPORTANT: DO not open attachments from unrecognized senders 4/14/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, April 'i3, 2002 7:28 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Mom on LA Police Commission & Chief Parks Quest for 2nd Term http;//latimes,com/news/!ocal/la-000096323apr 13 .story?co!!=!a%2Dh~ad/ines%2Dcalifornia [LA Chief] Parks Hires Lawyers to Fight Panelists' 'Smear Campa,gn' Record: Of their public statements, he says, 'Whatever faults I might have, one of them is not my integrity.' LATimes By JILL LEOVY April 13 2002 Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, lawyers in tow, lashed back Friday at questions posed about his integrity by members of the Los Angeles Police Commission, who voted 4 to 1 this week not to reappoint him to a second term. Parks challenged public statements by some commissioners that he had not been forthcoming and honest with them during his reappointment interview on a pair of issues, one involving a performance evaluation. Parks announced at a news conference outside Parker Center that he has retained two lawyers from the law firm of AIImd, Maroko & Goldberg, the firm of Gloria Allred, to help him defend his record to the City Council. "Whatever faults I might have, one of them is not my integrity," Parks said. After Tuesday's commission vote, Parks is fast coming to the end of his options for seeking a second five-year term. Although council members say they will consider whether to hear from him on Tuesday, the likelihood that they will overturn the commission's decision is slim. Asked if Parks intended to take legal action, Parks' attorney Nathan Goldberg said Friday that none was "contemplated at this time." Pressed further, he said: 'Tm not going to tell you what we will consider or not consider." Goldberg called the commissioners' allegations against Parks "a vicious smear campaign," attacking a man with "an unblemished career who has never missed a day of work." During his 37 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, including five years at its helm, Parks has sought to carve a reputation built on personal integrity, invoking principle and honesty in defending his policies, and demanding the same of his officers through a strict disciplinary system. But in the final hours of deliberations on the chiefs reappointment bid, Commission President Rick J. Caruso said, commissioners determined that Parks had tried, in essence, to mislead them by citing an incomplete performance evaluation from 2001. The review had been written by then-Commission President Raquelle de la Rocha and never was approved by the full board. At the time, Caruso had characterized the situation as a "heartbreaking" turn of events that helped swing the vote against Parks. Parks has countered that the problem arose from an honest misunderstanding, not a lack of integrity. Caruso and other commissioners gave the following account of the incident: Late Monday, in the final hours of what had been days of deliberations, commission member Silvia Saucedo noticed that she didn't have a copy of a 2001 performance evaluation to which the chief had referred in written submissions. Commission Executive Director Joe Gunn said he didn't know anything about it. Gunn then called De la Rocha. 4/14/02 Page 2 of 3 De la Rocha concurred that Gunn called late Monday "with one question, 'Was [the evaluation] ever approved?' I said 'no.' And [Gunn] said, 'Thank you very much,' and hung up." Caruso said that he and the other commissioners then concluded that Parks had knowingly used an unapproved evaluation to sway them. Parks' account is similar to De la Rocha's. But he insists the problem arose from an innocent mistake. Parks' account is that De la Rocha indeed told him that the document had not been approved by the full commission in a phone conversation about two months ago. But he claims he thought that she was going to work on it, and that when he received the hand-delivered evaluation several weeks ago, he assumed it was the result of her subsequent efforts and was therefore an official evaluation. Parks said he had arranged for additional information to be delivered to De la Rocha to aid her work in the interim-in particular, a blank format for evaluations had been sent to her. He emphasized this point because he said it shows both that he initially understood De la Rocha's evaluation wasn't finished, and that he was under a false impression that she was in the process of finishing it. On Friday, De la Rocha questioned Parks' version, asking why he would think she was in a position to finalize an evaluation when she was no longer on the commission. She further noted that he had told her the evaluation would be useful to him even if it was not approved, since it represented her thoughts. However, in Friday's interview, De la Rocha for the first time also allowed the possibility of a misunderstanding. '1 am trying to reconstruct in my mind if [Parks] could have been confused," she said. "1 never told him three votes were required [to approve an evaluation]. I assumed he knew that." De la Rocha explained that she and Parks talked on two occasions in early February about several topics. One was a newspaper opinion piece she was writing for which she needed Parks to send her materials. A second was missing pages from a previous, official evaluation. And a third was the disputed evaluation. De la Rocha said she told the chief that she had written the evaluation but that it had not been approved by the full commission and she wasn't sure where it was. She found it and sent it later. In the meantime, though, she was bewildered to receive a blank evaluation format directed to her by the chief. She said she thought, "isn't that weird! ... What do I need this for?" As she looked back Friday, she said, that suggested there may have been some confusion. But Caruso questioned how Parks, known for his encyclopedic knowledge of the LAPD, could not have realized the evaluation had not been approved, especially given that De la Rocha was no longer on the commission. "It should be remembered: The chief is a very precise man," Caruso said. "If anyone understands the rules and regulations and workings of the department, I think it's the chief." De la Rocha said she wouldn't speculate on whether the chief had lied, but added: "The facts are gray enough, you could go either way." Friday's events were evocative of the imbroglio that followed the end of Chief Willie Williams' term. Parks' predecessor threatened to sue the city over his failed reappointment bid. It also harked back to a controversy involving Parks and then- Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, in which the commission's inspector general produced a finding that Parks had made misleading statements. The commission later disagreed. Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn said he did not have any comment on Parks' hiring of lawyers, but added that he thought the Police Commission had given the chief a full and fair evaluation. The evaluation, "raised a question in their minds, and I think it was appropriate for them to comment on it," the mayor said. Asked Friday why he hired a lawyer, Parks answered: "1 did not think there was a need to get an attorney involved until I read the paper the last two days and seeing the attacks on my integrity." 4/14/02 Page 3 of 3 Goldberg, his lawyer, questioned why commission members had not confronted Parks about their suspicions during nine hours of interviews with him before their vote. Caruso acknowledged that he confronted the chief about the evaluation only after the vote. But since Parks had been told by De la Rocha that the evaluation wasn't approved, 'Tm not sure what more we were going to ask the chief about it," he said. Caruso said Friday that he stands by his earlier statements in which he questioned the chief's integrity. "I'd be more than happy to reconsider," the evaluation incident, he added, "But it's not going to change the ... vote." That's because other factors weighed against the chief, he said, including his leadership of the department. Times staff reporters Tina Daunt, Matea Gold and Scott Glover contributed to this report. Marian Karr From: Kelvyn.Anderson~phila.gov Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 11:21 AM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Summary Disposition. Hello NACOLE members: Our Commission is considering a number of procedural improvements, particularly with regard to 'Sugary Disposition" of complaints. Currently, many cases that do not result in full-blown hearings cannot be brought to conclusion without formal involvement by at least 3 members. This bogs down the process, as our board and Investigative Review Committee is voluntary, and meets monthly at best. Several of our board members are especially concerned about making "paper record only" decisions, without the benefit of face-to-face credibility judgements of complainants, witnesses and police officers. We're interested in how other oversight agencies move cases that, for whatever reason, don't warrant full hearings. I've gathered some info from websites, but would greatly appreciate any comments, anecdotes, etc. Thanks, Kelvyn Anderson Director of Info Services Police Advisory Commission Philadelphia, PA kelvyn.anderson@phila.gov Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.org Marian Karr From: Barbara Attard [Battard@ci.berkeley.ca.us] Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 9:18 PM To: Sue Quinn Subject: SF Gate: Reaching out, After complaints of b~utality, S.F. police work to improve relations with residents in Bayview-Hunters Point Pretty interesting article This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.c~m/cgi-bin/artic~e~cgi?fi~e=/chr~nic~e/archive/2~~2/~4/~4/BA34965.DTL Sunday, April 14, 2002 {SF Chronicle) Reaching out/After complaints of brutality, S.F. police work to improve relations with residents in Bayview-Hunters Point Susan Sward, Chronicle Staff Writer On the Hunters Point hill -- long a combat zone between police and many people who live in this predominantly black neighborhood -- two dozen residents and 12 officers held hands. Standing in a circle in the Milton Meyer Recreation Center community room, neighbors and police bowed their heads as one participant, 25-year-old security guard Tenisha Bishop, asked God for help. "There is pain here," Bishop called out in a strong, solemn voice. "There is hate here. Remove it now in the name of Jesus." In the history of Bayview-Hunters Point -- a close-knit area that has endured many gang-related killings of young black males in the past two years - - the April 3 hand-holding with police was very likely a first. It was the most visible sign yet that the San Francisco Police Department historically an all-powerful, feared presence on the hill -- is trying to present a more direct, positive face in a community where officers are often seen as robo-cops who despise and harass residents. The hand-holding came at the close of one of several meetings that have taken place since an incident in Hunters Point on Jan. 21 -- Martin Luther King Day -- when, witnesses say, police gave a concussion to a 14-year-old boy and conducted a humiliating search of two teenage girls. Police, responding to a tip that two men had been seen taking guns from a red car, approached a red car where four teenagers were sitting -- leading to a confrontation. None of the teenagers was charged; the department and the Office of Citizen Complaints are investigating what took place. This incident and three recent shootings were cited by a group of black families who filed a complaint Wednesday with the Office of Citizen Complaints, arguing officers had used excessive force. UNFAMILIAR TURF At the April 3 meeting, police Cmdr. Greg Suhr told the overwhelmingly African American audience that "100 percent of the Bayview police station's officers are going to go through a training this month to know where you are coming from." Suhr, who commands the city's 10 district stations, said most officers "did not grow up on the hill." The department is conducting a campaign to get police out of their cars, he said, so they will walk the Hunters Point streets and get to know residents. Capt. Michael Puccinelli, head of the Bayview station, says it has 103 officers -- about a quarter of them African American. Asked this week what officers will think of the training, he said: "I think in light of what happened on Martin Luther King Day, officers realize something has to be done to improve relations between the department and the community." Bishop, who acted as moderator of two police-community meetings this ! month, wanted officials and police to know that residents have not backed away from harsh criticism of police conduct on Martin Luther King Day. At the same time, she said in an interview, "We can't just be against each other because that way we won't progress, we won't heal." SEEING BEYOND STEREOTYPES Roger Mills, a social scientist who has conducted police-community training around the country, including in South Central Los Angeles and Oakland, will lead the training of Bayview officers and residents. Mills said he attempts to break down stereotypes and help find a common ground. "In some of the communities we have worked in, residents see the police as the Gestapo or the enemy that just comes in and bullies people, and police often see the community as a bunch of lowlifes and criminals who throw rocks and bottles at them and won't cooperate when the officers are trying to do their jobs," he said. During the training, Mills said, both sides "start to see beyond this and to see they are all human beings who want to see change, less crime, less violence and a healthier community life for everyone." A similar Mills-run training operation -- the Visitacion Valley Resiliency Program -- is under way for Ingleside station officers and residents of the neighborhood in southeast San Francisco. Police Capt. Marsha Ash, who until recently commanded the Ingleside station and now works in the Richmond District, said while the training "was not effective for everyone, it did have some amazing effects. Some officers who had the training were then able to respond to volatile situations very calmly and defuse them because they had a deeper understanding" of residents' views. A HISTORY OF ANTAGONISM In Hunters Point, located in the city's southeastern corner, Mills will face a difficult task when he gives the training for a community where antagonism toward police has been very high. At the April 3 meeting, several people described what they said was brutal, callous and disrespectful police behavior. At the meeting at the recreation center last week, one girl told officers, "A lot of time police pull over black people just because they are black." Puccinelli said he knew allegations are made about what is called "racial profiling, but I don't think that's true here in San Francisco." CRACKDOWN ON GANGS The training of officers in Bayview-Hunters Point comes as the Police Department is moving on another front to combat recurring violence in the neighborhood. Late last sum/her, police and federal authorities arrested members of the Big Block gang -- which hails from Harbor Road in the Hunters Point public housing projects -- on cocaine trafficking charges. Police say many gang- related deaths have been tied to a feud between Big Block and another gang, Westmob, over respect, turf and rap music supremacy. In another move, the department announced in December that it was cracking down on any gang tied to an act of violence, in an "Operation Cease-fire" campaign advocated by Harvard University researcher David Kennedy. In recent weeks, about 30 youths from two groups -- the Oakdale Gang and the BNT, which hangs out on Kirkwood Avenue -- have been taken into custody on a variety of charges as police seek to isolate repeatedly violent offenders, Suhr said. Gregg Lowder of Mayor Willie Brown's Criminal Justice Office said that since the start of the year, it appears there has been only one confirmed gang- related killing in Bayview-Hunters Point. "We studied 100 murders that occurred over an 18-month period in the city ending last surmmer, and we found just over half of those were gang-related. Many of them were in Bayview-Hunters Point." During Operation Cease-fire, Lowder said, "there have been community groups working parallel with our operation to provide these youths with help they need -- including job and educational opportunities and drug or alcohol counseling if needed." E-mail Susan Sward at ssward@sfchronicle.com. Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 12:44 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] US Justices Tackle Implications of Rule on Drug Sentences Justices Tackle Implications of a Rule on Drug Sentences New York Times By LINDA GREENHOUSE April 16,2002WASHINGTON,April 15 -- It was time for the Supreme Court today to begin confronting the practical implications of the sharp new direction it took two years ago incriminal sentencing. In an appeal from the federal government, the justices heard an argument about what should happen now to drug defendants whose extra-long sentences were impermissibly based on a judge's rather than a jury's conclusion about theamount of drugs involved in their crimes. A federal appeals court ruled last year that such sentences were subject to automatic reversal under the Supreme Coud's decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey. That decision, issued in June 2000, held that any factors that increase a sentence above the ordinary maximum must be charged in the indictment andpreved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Until the Apprendi decision, federal drug indictments did not ordinarily specify a quantity of drugs, leaving that finding to be made by the judge at sentencing. Federal drug laws impose a series of escalating sentences, depending on drug quantity. The government quickly changed its practice after the Apprendi ruling and now includes drug quantity in the indictment. But it has maintained that enhanced drug sentences should generally be regarded as valid if they were handed downbefore the ruling and the defendants did not object at the time. At stake in the case argued today, United States v. Cotton, No. 01-687, is arelatively small number of cases, perhaps fewer than 100, in which major drug defendants whose cases were still open on appeal at the time of the Apprendi ruling had received more than the ordinary 20-year maximum sentence that applies to those found guilty of trafficking in "any detectablequantity" of narcotics. TheCotton case involves seven defendants, leaders and participants in a major drug ring in Baltimore, five of whom received life sentences on the judge's finding that each was responsible for more than 1.5 kilograms of cocaine base. The other two received 30 years. The United States Court of Appeals for the FourthCircuit, in Richmond, Va., ruled that all must be resentenced to no more than20 years. Although the immediate impact of the Supreme Court's ruling may not be great, the implications of a decision that adopts the appeals court's reasoning could be broader. For example, it could affect sentences imposed under the Federal Death Penalty Act,under which the "aggravating circumstances" that make a defendant eligible for the death penalty are not charged in the indictment. Two weeks ago, in a case called Allen v. United States, No. 01-7310, the government asked the Supreme Court to defer action on a federal death row inmate's appeal until a decision in the Cotton case. The Cotton case also raises interesting questions about the role of the grand jury. Timothy J. Sullivan, representing the defendants, maintained that errors in an indictment could never be overlooked without jeopardizing the grand jury's rolein protecting the rule of law. "Theintegrity of the courts would be impaired if the decision is that you can beindicted for one offense and convicted of another," Mr. Sullivan told thejustices. Michael R. Dreeben, a deputy solicitor general arguing for the government, said that to the contrary, when evidence of guilt is so overwhelming that "any rational grand jury" would have produced a proper indictment if asked, an error in the indictment should be regarded as "harmless." TheCotton case is one of three Apprendi sequels that the court is considering thisspring. Next week, in Ring v. Arizona, No. 01-488, the court will considerwhether the death penalty laws in nine states, affecting some 800 defendants,are constitutionally flawed in providing for the judge rather than the jury toissue a death sentence. 4/17/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 12:46 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Mayor, Others Discuss LAPD After Parks http://latimes,com/news/Ioca!/!a-000027146apr16.story?co!!=!a%2Dhead/ines%2Dcalifornia LOS ANGELES Mayor, Others Discuss LAPD After Parks Police: Hahn wants someone less 'politically influential' than in the past. Chief makes his case to City Council today. By MATEA GOLD and TINA DAUNT LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS April 16 2002 Even as Police Chief Bernard C. Parks mounts a last-ditch effort to hold onto his job-with an appearance today before the Los Angeles City Council-Mayor James K. Hahn and some members of the council are looking past that appearance and sketching out what kind of replacement they hope to hire. Hahn, who has called Parks stubborn and inflexible, says he thinks the next chief should hold less political sway than the men who historically have run the Los Angeles Police Depadment. "We have got to the point in Los Angeles where we've basically created this colossal figure of the chief of police who towers over appointed civilian oversight, who towers over political figures," Hahn said in a radio interview last week. The next chief, Hahn added in another interview, will be one "who understands that civilians run the Police Department." If Parks fails in his bid with the City Council, Hahn would select the next chief from recommendations made to him by the Police Commission. The mayor's nominee would be subject to confirmation by the council. Council members were making arrangements Monday for what many expect to be a contentious session. The City Council is expected to allow Parks to make a presentation at 10 a.m. on his accomplishments as police chief during the last 4 1/2 years. The lawmakers will then decide Wednesday whether to overturn the Police Commission's decision to deny Parks a second five-year term. Under the city charter, the City Council has until Friday to overturn the Police Commission. But so far, only three of the 15 council members have expressed interest in getting involved in the debate. That number has held constant since last week's Police Commission vote not to reappoint Parks. Show of Support for Chief Expected Nevertheless, city officials expect hundreds of people to show up at City Hall to voice their support for Parks. Members of the public will not be allowed to address the lawmakers until after Parks finishes his presentation, officials said. Parks' supporters-City Council members Nate Holden, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Jan Perry-say they are hopeful that their colleagues will be open-minded. "1 think they will be fair," Holden said. "We are just trying to follow through with the administrative procedure so no one can say later on that he was denied his due process." Last week, Parks retained two attorneys to defend his record against the criticisms of some police commissioners that he had not been honest with them during his evaluation. "1 believe the chief's interest in coming to the council is rooted in his deep sense that he has been treated very, very 4/17/02 Page 2 of 2 poorly," Ridley-Thomas said. "His desire to make a statement before the council is an expression of his hope that there is enough goodwill to give him a fair shake." But if the council declines to overturn the commission, the matter returns to the police panel, which can begin laying out the timetable of a search process for Parks' replacement as early as next week. The commission has the duty of narrowing a list of candidates to three and forwarding those names to the mayor. Hahn, who had no formal role in the reappointment evaluation of Parks, said he plans to be an active participant in that process. "1 want to make sure when they give me that list of three candidates that we've done the best job in searching to find the best possible person, so I will be actively involved to make sure that the outreach is there, that we're leaving no stone unturned," he said in an interview. The mayor said he does not have a short list at this point, and has encouraged the commission to look for candidates both inside the department and around the country. Police Commission President Rick J. Caruso has said he hopes a strong candidate can be found from within the ranks of the LAPD. Other city leaders Monday urged a broad canvass for potential candidates. "It is critical to have someone who is committed to reforming the Police Department, which still has a long way to go," City Councilman Eric Garcatti said. "We also need someone who is representative of the city. I hope we will have qualified applicants that include African Americans, Latinos, women, gays and lesbians." All the chiefs of the LAPD have been men, and all but the last two have been white. Still, Hahn insists political pressure will not guide his decision. "There'll be a clamor, I'm sure, from a lot of different groups who are saying, 'It's our turn,'" he said. "But this decision shouldn't be one based on political correctness or expediency. We ought to try to find the best person." Hahn said he wants the next chief to be "inspirational," someone who is a good listener and a leader who can both delegate well and hold his subordinates accountable. "The police chief of Los Angeles is a national figure, right off the bat," Hahn said. "So you're going to be a very important individual when you assume that post. But I think what's happened in the past is that, I think, police chiefs have been far more politically influential I think than their job required." 4/17/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 12:15 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Ashcroft: Cincinnati a Role Model [for police reform]. Details of Settlement Ashcroff: Cincinnati a role model By Craig Garretson, Cincinnati Post staff reporfer 4-13-02 A year after Cincinnati made national headlines when rioting followed the police shooting of an unarmed black teen, Attorney General John Ashcroft called the city a role model for police reform through collaboration Friday as two historic agreements were signed with city, police and local leaders. "We all remember the images broadcast in the national media one year ago," Ashcroft said at City Hall Friday morning"One year ago, Cincinnati was a city of strife. Today, Cincinnati has shown itself a model of reform and an example of the success that can be achieved when a community comes together in the pursuit of a common goal." Ashcroft, flanked by Mayor Charlie Luken and Black United Front president Rev. Damon Lynch Ill, signed the agreement with the Justice Department that will require the Cincinnati Police Division to change its procedures regarding the use of force and the city to establish a civilian review authority. The settlement ends a Justice Department investigation into the city that began one year ago today, and keeps the city and the federal government out of court over police practices and policies. Ashcroft praised the city and police for cooperating with the Justice Department during the investigation, and working with it on recommendations. Ashcroft and others called the settlement "unprecedented." "This is probably the first time in America that you have in full partnership the federal government, local government, the police force and the community," said Scott Greenwood, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.' 'Cincinnati wants to get better," Luken said. "Cincinnati wants to take advantage of the best practices and procedures."The mayor said the police division wanted to be "not dragged into this, but to lead Cincinnati."Luken also signed the proposed settlement of a racial profiling lawsuit, one week after City Council unanimously agreed to the deal. The ACLU, Black United Front and the Cincinnati chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police also voted to approve the deal."We have this agreement we all have to live up to," said the Rev. Lynch. "The harder work now begins." "1 am gratified by the breadth of support for today's agreements and hope the spirit of cooperation and reconciliation that led to these agreements can be replicated elsewhere," Ashcroft said."lt is our hope that jurisdictions will choose to follow the model that has been established here in Cincinnati, and that the success of today will be followed by similar successes in other cities."Ashcreft said the "unifying goal" of everyone involved in the two settlements was to improve police services. "Our priority is to fix the problem, not fix the blame. Our mission was to identify areas of opportunity for immediate reform and remediation. In one year's time, Cincinnati has been transformed from a city of division to a city of reconciliation." Ashcroft said he "dreams about the day" when people facing similar problems say, "Let's get some of those people from Cincinnati in here." Pubiication date: 04-13-02 On the WebThe collaborative settlement: http://www.ariagroup.com/ FINALdocument.html New policies, procedures for police By signing the five-year agreement with the Justice Department, the city has agreed to new policies on: The use of fome by police. When force can be used. How such incidents are reported and tracked. 4/17/02 Page 2 of 2 The deal establishes an independent monitor to oversee the agreement. In return, the Justice Department ended a year-long investigation into the Cincinnati Police Division.Agreement requirements Revised policies and training regarding the use of force, including guns, non-lethal ammunition (such as bean bag shotgun rounds), chemical irritant and canines. The new guidelines also restrict the use of choke holds. Documenting and investigating each use-of-force incident. Supervisors are required to assess whether the initial contact was appropriate as well as if the officer's actions were in line with policy. Making complaint forms and information widely available, and implementing new procedures for how complaints are handled and resolved. Tracking use-of-force incidents and misconduct allegations in a computer database. Supervisors will use the database to evaluate the performance of officers across all ranks, units and shifts. Creation of the Citizen Complaint Authority, which will replace the Citizens Police Review Panel and take responsibility for investigating police complaints from the Office of Municipal Investigations. Selection of an independent monitor to report on implementation of the agreement. 4/17/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: RBJerome@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 2:29 PM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Information Request I am working with the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) on an evaluation of Albuquerque's police oversight system. Comparative information on a few topics would be very helpful. Please reply if you have information responding to the items below. Thank you. 1. Deadline for filing a citizen complaint. Albuquerque requires complaints to be filed within 90 days of the incident. Is there a "limitations" period in your jurisdiction? 2. IA investigations are generally required to be completed within 90 days. Also, the city takes the position that the Chief has to take action (including discipline if appropriate) within that 90 day time period. Is there time deadline for completion of the investigation in your jurisdiction? If so, how long is it? Does review of the investigation by the Chain of Command or a civilian oversight entity count within the time deadline? Is there a different deadline for investigations undertaken by any civilian investigating body? What happens if the deadlines are not met? Can discipline still be imposed? 3. If mediation is an option for citizen complaints, is the mediation conducted by an outside entity? by the oversight board or auditor? by a police commander? 4. Does the oversight entity in your jurisdicition have subpeona power. If so, has it been used? Have you found it to be effective and useful? 5. if your oversight entity hears appeals of findings on citizen complaints, are the appeals heard in open or closed session? Does the oversight entity have access to officers' compelled statements, or just summaries? Does the oversight entity address disicipline recommendations or just the findings of the investigation (sustained, not sustained, exonerated, unfounded, etc.)? 6. Does the police department distinguish between formal or written complaints, and informal or verbal complaints? If so, does it document the informal resolution of complaints? Have any studies been done of discouragement of complaints? Thank you again. I appreciate any information you can provide. Richard Jerome Richard Jerome, PC 3227 Rittenhouse St. NW Washington, DC 20015 202-329-1166 4/17/02 Page 1 of 6 From: Michael Novick <part2001@usa.net> To: stop-polabuse@yahoogroups.com <stop-polabuse@yahoogroups.com> polabuse@yahoogroups.com> Date: Thursday, April 18, 2002 12:54 AM Subject: [stop-polabuse] Police crime in the news from The Internet Anti-Fascist POLICE CRIME IN THE NEWS: 03) Training officer facing firing: Metro Academy cop charged in drug case Keith Paul (Las Vegas Sun) 4 Apr 02 Supervisors of a Metro Police academy training officer arrested in February on drug-related charges recommended he be fired, department officials told the Sun Wednesday. Officer Sean P. Curd faces the punishment after an internal investigation sustained a department charge of use of narcotics or controlled substances. Curd still faces criminal charges on eight counts of drug possession and one count of being under the influence of drugs, said Lt. Vincent Cannito, a department spokesman. Curd faces a pre-termination board, which will then make its recommendation to Sheriff Jerry Keller. The board can recommend Curd's firing or a lesser punishment, but Keller has the final say regarding disciplinary action. "Drugs are something we are trying to get out of our community, so obviously we can't have our officers under the influence of a controlled substance," Cannito said. Neither Curd, who is currently on paid administrative leave, nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Curd tested positive for the chemical components of cocaine in his system, a police report states. "He was tested and the results were positive, but the internal investigation findings are different from criminal findings," Cannito said. "He has not been tried on the criminal charges." Curd has a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 16 in Henderson Justice Court. Police searched Curd's Henderson home on Jan. 9 and found suspected cocaine, steroids and ketamine -- an animal sedative dubbed a club drug in recent years. Narcotics detectives arrested Curd Feb. 28 after tests proved the substances were drugs. Police believe Curd hid his drug use while teaching new recruits at the academy. When other officers noticed he had lost a lot of weight, he claimed he had a staph infection. He also wore additional sweatshirts under his uniform to mask his weight loss, police said. But other officers at the academy suspected Curd may be using drugs and told a supervisor of their suspicions. When police went to Curd's home on Jan. 9, Curd "was observed to be under the influence of a controlled substance and in a potentially harmful condition," according to the police report. He was taken to University Medical Center, where he was briefly treated and released. The department currently randomly drug tests officers in some specialized units such as narcotios, vice and intelligence along with the command staff. However, Metro officials have previously started creating a new plan to conduct random drug tests for all officers. The program is expected to be in place by the end of the year. The Police Protective Association, the union for the rank-and-file officers, agreed to the random testing during the last contract negotiation. The Police Managers and Supervisors Association will start negotiating a new contract in July and Undersheriff Richard Winger said allowing random drug tests will be discussed. 4/19/02 Page 2 of 6 04) Cop charged with assault faces court date Sarah Huntley (Denver News) 2 Apr 02 A Denver police officer accused of kicking a handcuffed suspect in the groin has been ordered to appear in court May 1. The district attorney's office formally charged Ed David, a 14-year veteran of the force, with third-degree assault last week. The charge is a misdemeanor, but a conviction could cost David his job as a result of a law that was passed last year. Prosecutors say David used excessive force March 20 when he kicked Patrick Rodriguez in the groin as Rodriguez lay restrained and facedown in a front yard at 2930 W. 34th Ave. Rodriguez had led police on a chase after officers tried to arrest him for failing to appear in court on charges that included attempted murder of a police officer. Internal affairs investigators have not decided whether any other officers who helped restrain Rodriguez and witnessed the kick should be disciplined. David was placed on administrative duty after the incident and remains on that assignment pending the outcome of the prosecution, said department spokesman Detective John White. 05) Police officer fires at man armed with Chinese food AP 4 Apr 02 MEDFORD, Ore. -- The commander of the Jackson County, Ore., narcotics unit has been placed on administrative leave because he shot at a man who tossed a box of Chinese food through the window of his unmarked police car. Lt. Jim Anderson fired one shot from his police handgun at 24-year-old Jorge Armando Cisneros, after Cisneros threw a white take-out box containing rice and possibly another dish through Anderson's open passenger window, said Medford police Lt. Mike Moran. Investigators say Anderson feared for his personal safety. "He was not able to identify (the box), but he felt threatened at that point," Moran said Wednesday. It's too early to say whether Anderson correctly followed the sheriff's department's firearm policy, Capt. Ed Mayer said. After a grand jury hears the case, Mayer said the sheriff's department will conduct an internal investigation. Anderson, 51, was headed home Tuesday when he noticed and followed a black Dodge pickup beside him driving recklessly, Moran said. Apparently unaware that Anderson is a police officer, Cisneros and two other men got out of their pickup at an intersection and approached Anderson's car -- Chinese food in hand, Moran said. Anderson's answering shot missed Cisneros. The bullet slammed into the side of a house. The two retired residents were working in their unattached garage when they heard the shot. "Thank goodness it didn't hit higher and go through a wall," said Robert Randles, the home's owner. Cisneros was jailed on a charge of harassment. He was also charged with criminal mischief because he got food stains on the police car's interior. Another man in the truck, Jose Banuelos, was charged with reckless driving and possession of methamphetamine. Both were released on bail yesterday. The third man in the truck was not arrested. Maria Swann, Medford Police Department's cultural outreach coordinator, said she plans to go on the area's Spanish-language radio station to answer any questions about the case. 06) Evansville officer apologizes over inflammatory drawing AP 28 Mar 02 EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- A police officer who was suspended for sketching a picture of hooded Ku Klux Klan members staring down a well at a black person is now apologizing. 4/19/02 Page 3 of 6 "I made a bad mistake," Brent Melton told the Evansville Courier & Press on Wednesday in his first public comments on the incident. "It was a tasteless joke, and I realize that." Melton, who is white, also sent a letter of apology to local media. "I hope all the good things that I've done over the years overshadow the one bad mistake I made," he told the newspaper. Melton, who has spent six years as an Evansville officer, once won an award for helping rescue two girls -- who were black -- after they were abducted and thrown in the trunk of a car. Melton's drawing showed hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan staring down a well at what was implied to be a black person. The city's Police Herit Commission voted on March 11 to suspend Helton for three days without pay, deciding that a written reprimand recommended by Melton's supervisors would be too weak. Helton said Wednesday that he made the sketch as he and two other officers were in a police branch office in January discussing tasteless jokes and illusion-type drawings. Melton said he sketched a drawing of a circle with triangular shapes on the inner edges, which were meant to imply Ku Klux Klan members staring down a well. A short time later, he threw the drawing in the trash. A fellow officer, who is black, found it when he went to look for a piece of scrap paper, and it was brought to the attention of a supervisor. "Once I learned a black officer had found it and was offended, I went directly to him and apologized," Melton said. 07) Police chief made up story about being shot, sheriff says AP 28 Mar 02 PERRYSVILLE, Ohio -- One fabrication led to another. Soon, this village's police chief, who claimed he was shot by a motorist, was entangled in a story that didn't make sense, a sheriff said. Ashland County Sheriff Wayne Risner said Wednesday that Chief Tim Sor~mer actually shot himself in the leg accidentally. That occurred after Sommer accidentally fired a shot through his cruiser's windshield, then tried staging a traffic stop to cover up what had happened. Sommer shot himself in the leg while reloading his gun, Risner said. Sommer had claimed he was shot by a man he pulled over for driving without license plates. Sommer, 52, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A message was left at the police station in this town about 60 miles northeast of Columbus. A home telephone listing for the chief could not be found. Risner said his investigators found inconsistencies in Sommer's story that he was shot March 19 while struggling with a man he pulled over on a county road. The chief also said the suspect fired a shot into the windshield of his police cruiser. "When some things don't make sense, you have to question it," Risner said. "When we tried to match up the facts, they didn't make sense." Sheriff's officers determined that after Sommer accidentally fired a 9mm rifle in the police garage, damaging his windshield, he drove out to a county road and staged a traffic stop. Sommer made tire marks in the grass along the road and, while on the radio to report the traffic stop, fired his handgun at the ground to make it appear there was trouble, Risner said. The police chief then accidentally hit the magazine button on his gun, which caused the ammunition to drop from the weapon. When he reloaded the weapon, it went off and a bullet struck Sommer in the leg, the sheriff said. Sommer threw a drug pipe and the casing from the accidental shooting out the window to make it look like someone else was there, Risner said. The sheriff said he was upset because 43 officers from various agencies responded when Soms~er said he was shot, and hundreds of man-hours were 4/19/02 Page 4 of 6 wasted looking for a suspect and a vehicle that did not exist. No charges have been filed, but Prosecutor Robert DeSanto is reviewing the case. "It's amazing the foolishness of it," DeSanto told the Ashland Times- Gazette. Mayor Renee Mort said she would not comment on whether Sommer was still the village's police chief. He has held that job since Dec. 1, 1999. Risner said that if Sommer had come forward when he damaged the cruiser, he probably would have faced minor discipline. "He might have got his hind end chewed a little bit, but that would have been the end of it," Risner said. 08) Child-Raping Cop Sentenced to 20 Years USA Today 2 Apr 02 New Hampshire: Newport -- A former police officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage boy 10 years ago. The victim, now 23, said in court that Officer Barritt Bodkins, 46, assaulted him for three years and ruined his life. Bodkins worked for 20 years as a police officer in Unity, Cornish, Goshen and Claremont. County Attorney Marc Hathaway said the victim is serving a two- to seven- year sentence for burglary and theft. 09) Bystander injuries from police pursuits are on the rise Andrew Blankstein (Los Angeles Times} 31 Mar 02 The number of police chases and the number of resulting injuries among pedestrians increased significantly last year, according to Los Angeles police statistics. Pursuits rose to 769 in 2001 from 597 in 2000, the figures show. Pedestrian injuries climbed to 69 in 2001, nearly double the number in 1998. "Any time there's injuries, there's obviously cause for concern," Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. George Gascon said. "This shows we need to continue to assess our [pursuit] practices to minimize injuries to the community and the officers." The recent figures contrast with 1995-2000 statistics compiled by the California Highway Patrol, which reported LAPD pursuits decreased 36%. Statewide, the five-year decrease was 32%, according to the CHP. The LAPD also reported that traffic accidents during chases increased between 2000 and 2001. Accidents involving the suspect's vehicle climbed to 372 in 2001 from 280 the previous year, while accidents involving other vehicles jumped to 151 in 2001 from 116 in 2000. Debate over police chases was rekindled after a driver fleeing police earlier this month struck pedestrians Anna Polivoda, 76, and her husband, Henry, 79, near the Beverly Center. They sustained broken bones and head injuries. Tremine Tillman, 23, of Van Nuys was later arrested and charged with evading arrest and hit-and-run driving. The LAPD says the police cruiser was no longer chasing Tillman--initially noticed because of a questionable registration--when the accident occurred. Under LAPD rules, patrol officers have the discretion to chase any driver who attempts to flee. But Gascon, who heads the group that trains recruits and officers, said a cornerstone of the policy is assessing the safety risks to bystanders and officers. Police, he said, are supposed to weigh many variables before and during a chase. They include traffic volume, whether the area is residential or commercial and whether the driver can be identified and apprehended later. As for any changes in policy, Gascon said the department constantly monitors pursuits and makes any necessary adjustments in training. The number of police chases had been dropping after a 1996 report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California that highlighted 4/19/02 Page 5 of 6 increased numbers of pursuit-related crashes, injuries and deaths. ACLU Executive Director Ramona Ripston expressed concern Friday over the rise in injuries and said the LAPD needs a more concrete policy, especially when it comes to pursuing people accused of minor traffic violations. "If police are pursuing someone who has murdered, raped or robbed a bank, that's one thing," she said. "But they should not engage in these high- speed chases for minor motor vehicle violations. They're too dangerous." The most recent LAPD numbers show 57% of pursuits were initiated by traffic violations, 35% by felonies and 6% by misdemeanors. The ACLU's 1996 report focused on whether officers should be allowed to pursue drivers and whether any offense or crime should justify a chase. It also found that most of the LAPD's fatal chases involved drivers wanted for violating the vehicle code, generally less serious offenses. Some police agencies, such as the Santa Monica Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's Department, prohibit officers from starting a pursuit over minor traffic violations. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. Join the "stop police abuse" list at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stop-polabuse> Anti-Racist Action/People Against Racist Terror (ARA/PART), PO Box 1055, Culver City, CA 90232 Tel.: 310-495-0299 E-mail: <part2001@usa.net> URL: <http://www.geocities.com/ara_losangeles> Send for a sample of our quarterly print publication: "Turning The Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research & Education" Free Mumia! End the racist death penalty! Clemency for Leonard Peltier now! Free Marilyn Buck, Mutulu Shakur, Oscar Lopez, Jamil al-Amin (former H. Rap Brown) and all political prisoners and P.O.W.'s in U.S. prisons! Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT 4/19/02 Marian Karr From: Kelvyn.Anderson @phila.gov Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 10:51 AM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Proposal to establish Oversight starred at UPenr~ NACOLE members, re the story below: Aside from UCBerkeley, are there any other schools in your jurisdictions that have established or attempted to establish oversight mechanisms? We plan to jump into this debate with both feet - Kelvyn Anderson, Police Advisory Commission. Civilian review board stalled after months The board would evaluate allegations of misconduct by University Police. By Farouk Samad April 18, 2002 After three months, little progress has been made on the creation of a civilian review board to evaluate complaints of police misconduct. The student coalition that supports the board includes representatives from the gndergraduate Assembly, the United Minorities Council, the Black Student League, the Asian Pacific Student Coalition and other student groups. Proposals for a review board arose as a result of an incident in January in which Penn Police stopped College senior Dimitri Dube early in the morning while he was on his way back to his dormitory. He claimed he was targeted partly due to his race, and a police investigation later found no wrongdoing on the part of either the police officers in question or Dube. That incident led to a forum where students aired their concerns over minority encounters with police to Division of Public Safety officials, calling for a more open dialogue between the police and students. So far, little progress has been made in actually creating the review board. According to some students, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush is resisting the proposal. "You cannot have the board without the administration supporting it," Dube said. Officials "are not behind the proposal." Rush also claimed that such a board would be ! impossible at this time, as it would violate the University's contract with the police department and the Fraternal Order of the Police, which is the police trade union. Students are having trouble arguing this point. "She won't show us the contract," College junior Lincoln Ellis said, adding that the contract is being re-negotiated in August and that he hopes a clause allowing an external review will be included. As an alternative, Rush proposed a seat on the Public Safety Advisory Board be allocated to a minority student at a University Council meeting last March. Students said they felt that while Rush has made a nice gesture, it is not a solution to their problems. "It doesn't address the fundamental issues we've raised," Ellis said. The Advisory Board "doesn't have the power to subpoena officers." He added that the board does not include representatives from the West Philadelphia area. Officials from Rush's office declined to comment comment on the civilian board, saying that it must be discussed with the Advisory Board. Students said they think the civilian review board would be a firm step toward accomplishing the goal of keeping a check on UPPD officers. The board is necessary to "ensure trust in the police," Dube, political action chairman of the Black Student League, said. "Right now, no one's holding them accountable." "We need more accountability within the police department by opening it up to members that are not strictly part of the police force," Asian Pacific Student Coalition Chairwoman Eugena Oh added. An encouraging precedent for a civilian review board exists at the University of California at Berkeley. A UA resolution in February even asked the University, the Penn Police Department and the Department of Public Safety for Penn's review board to have a similar structure to Berkeley's. "They're both university settings," Dube said. "The gC-Berkeley model has been working for ten years, and police relations have been improving." 2 Currently, Penn Police do have a complaint process, but students said they feel it lacks objectivity. "The review process is all internal," said Ellis, a member of Civic House Associates Coalition. "Police are the only ones who see the complaint and review it," Dube added. Students also claimed that complaint forms are inaccessible, as they are only available on-line or at the police station. "If you've been violated by somebody and you're asked to go to the same violators," that person would be unwilling to go to the police station Dube said. For students, an additional problem is that Rush would choose the board chairperson, and only the chairperson can review a complaint. "We can't be sure how seriously their advice is taken," Oh, a College junior, said. "Legitimizing a flawed board may not be in the long-term interests of the students or the community," she added in a press release. Some students seem worried that Rush is taking too narrow a view of their concerns and objectives. "She's trying to reduce this issue to a minority community- police issue," Ellis said. "It's much bigger than that." "We're not asking for [the board] because we want to alienate police," Ellis added. "We want to stay extra sure police and community relations be as good as possible." Update mailing list Update~nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.erg Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 1:42 PM To: Kelvyn.Anderson@phila.gov; william Johnson; update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] (no subject) $RFC822 emi Training Officer Facing Firing: Metro Academy cop charged in drug case Keith Paul (Las Vegas Sun) 4 Apr 02 Supervisors of a Metro Police academy training officer arrested in February on drug-related charges recommended he be fired, department officials told the Sun Wednesday. Officer Scan P. Curd faces the punishment after an internal investigation sustained a department charge of use of narcotics or controlled substances. Curd still faces criminal charges on eight counts of drug possession and one count of being under the influence of drugs, said Lt. Vincent Cannito, a department spokesman. Curd faces a pre-termination board, which will then make its recommendation to Sheriff Jerry Keller. The board can recommend Curd's firing or a lesser punishment, but Keller has the final say regarding disciplinary action. "Drugs are something we are trying to get out of our community, so obviously we can't have our officers under the influence of a controlled substance," Cannito said. Neither Curd, who is currently on paid administrative leave, nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Curd tested positive for the chemical components of cocaine in his system, a police report states. "He was tested and the results were positive, but the internal investigation findings are different from criminal findings," Cannito said. "He has not been tried on the criminal charges." Curd has a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 16 in Henderson Justice Court. Police searched Curd's Henderson home on Jan. 9 and found suspected cocaine, steroids and ketamine -- an animal sedative dubbed a club drug in recent years. Narcotics detectives arrested Curd Feb. 28 after tests proved the substances were drugs. Police believe Curd hid his drug use while teaching new recruits at the academy. When other officers noticed he had lost a lot of weight, he claimed he had a staph infection. He also wore additional sweatshirts under his uniform to mask his weight loss, police said. But other officers at the academy suspected Curd may be using drugs and told a supervisor of their suspicions. When police went to Curd's home on Jan. 9, Curd "was observed to be under the influence of a controlled substance and in a potentially harmful condition," according to the police report. He was taken to University Medical Center, where he was briefly treated and released. The department currently randomly drug tests officers in some specialized units such as narcotics, vice and intelligence along with the command conduct random drug tests for all officers. The program is expected to be The Police Protective Association, the union for the rank-and-file officers, agreed to the random testing during the last contract negotiation. The Police Managers and Supervisors Association will start negotiating a new contract in July and Undersheriff Richard Winger said allowing random drug tests will be discussed. 1 04) Cop charged with assault faces court date Sarah Huntley (Denver News) 2 Apr 02 A Denver police officer accused of kicking a handcuffed suspect in the groin has been ordered to appear in court May 1. The district attorney's office formally charged Ed David, a 14-year veteran of the force, with third-degree assault last week. The charge is a misdemeanor, but a conviction could cost David his job as a result of a law that was passed last year. Prosecutors say David used excessive force March 20 when he kicked Patrick Rodriguez in the groin as Rodriguez lay restrained and facedown in a front yard at 2930 W. 34th Ave. Rodriguez had led police on a chase after officers tried to arrest him for failing to appear in court on charges that included attempted murder of a police officer. Internal affairs investigators have not decided whether any other officers who helped restrain Rodriguez and witnessed the kick should be disciplined. David was placed on administrative duty after the incident and remains on that assignment pending the outcome of the prosecution, said department spokesman Detective John White. 05) Police officer fires at man armed with Chinese food AP 4 Apr 02 MEDFORD, Ore. -- The commander of the Jackson County, Ore., narcotics unit has been placed on administrative leave because he shot at a man who tossed a box of Chinese food through the window of his unmarked police car. Lt. Jim Anderson fired one shot from his police handgun at 24-year-old Jorge Armando Cisneros, after Cisneros threw a white take-out box containing rice and possibly another dish through Anderson's open passenger window, said Medford police Lt. Mike Moran. Investigators say Anderson feared for his personal safety. "He was not able to identify (the box), but he felt threatened at that point," Moran said Wednesday. It's too early to say whether Anderson correctly followed the sheriff's department's firearm policy, Capt. Ed Mayer said. After a grand jury hears the case, Mayer said the sheriff's department will conduct an internal investigation. Anderson, 51, was headed home Tuesday when he noticed and followed a black Dodge pickup beside him driving recklessly, Moran said. Apparently unaware that Anderson is a police officer, Cisneros and two other men got out of their pickup at an intersection and approached Anderson's car -- Chinese food in hand, Moran said. Anderson's answering shot missed Cisneros. The bullet slammed into the side of a house. The two retired residents were working in their unattached garage when they heard the shot. "Thank goodness it didn't hit higher and go through a wall," said Robert Randles, the home's owner. Cisneros was jailed on a charge of harassment. He was also charged with criminal mischief because he got food stains on the police car's interior. Another man in the truck, Jose Banuelos, was charged with reckless driving and possession of methamphetamine. Both were released on bail yesterday. The third man in the truck was not arrested. Maria Swarm, Medford Police Department's cultural outreach coordinator, said she plans to go on the area's Spanish-language radio station to answer any questions about the case. 06) Evansville officer apologizes over inflammatory drawing AP 28 Mar 02 EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- A police officer who was suspended for sketching a picture of hooded Ku Klux Klan members staring down a well at a black person is now apologizing. "I made a bad mistake," Brent Melton told the Evansville Courier & Press on Wednesday in his first public comments on the incident. "It was a tasteless 2 joke, and I realize that." Melton, who is white, also sent a letter of apology to local media. "I hope all the good things that I've done over the years overshadow the one bad mistake I made," he told the newspaper. Melton, who has spent six years as an Evansville officer, once won an award for helping rescue two girls -- who were black -- after they were abducted and thrown in the trunk of a car. Melton's drawing showed hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan staring down a well at what was implied to be a black person. The city's Police Merit Commission voted on March 11 to suspend Melton for three days without pay, deciding that a written reprimand recommended by Melton's supervisors would be too weak. Melton said Wednesday that he made the sketch as he and two other officers were in a police branch office in January discussing tasteless jokes and illusion-type drawings. Melton said he sketched a drawing of a circle with triangular shapes on the inner edges, which were meant to imply Ku Klux Klan members staring down a well. A short time later, he threw the drawing in the trash. A fellow officer, who is black, found it when he went to look for a piece of scrap paper, and it was brought to the attention of a supervisor. "Once I learned a black officer had found it and was offended, I went directly to him and apologized," Melton said. 07) Police chief made up story about being shot, sheriff says AP 28 Mar 02 PERRYSVILLE, Ohio -- One fabrication led to another. Soon, this village's police chief, who claimed he was shot by a motorist, was entangled in a story that didn't make sense, a sheriff said. Ashland County Sheriff Wayne Risner said Wednesday that Chief Tim Sommer actually shot himself in the leg accidentally. That occurred after Sommer accidentally fired a shot through his cruiser's windshield, then tried staging a traffic stop to cover up what had happened. Sommer shot himself in the leg while reloading his gun, Risner said. Sommer had claimed he was shot by a man he pulled over for driving without license plates. Sommer, 52, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A message was left at the police station in this town about 60 miles northeast of Columbus. A home telephone listing for the chief could not be found. Risner said his investigators found inconsistencies in Sormmer's story that he was shot March 19 while struggling with a man he pulled over on a county road. The chief also said the suspect fired a shot into the windshield of his police cruiser. "When some things don't make sense, you have to question it," Risner said. "When we tried to match up the facts, they didn't make sense." Sheriff's officers determined that after Sommer accidentally fired a 9mm rifle in the police garage, damaging his windshield, he drove out to a county road and staged a traffic stop. Sommer made tire marks in the grass along the road and, while on the radio tO report the traffic stop, fired his handgun at the ground to make it appear there was trouble, Risner said. The police chief then accidentally hit the magazine button on his gun, which caused the ammunition to drop from the weapon. When he reloaded the weapon, it went off and a bullet struck Sommer in the leg, the sheriff said. Sommer threw a drug pipe and the casing from the accidental shooting out the window to make it look like someone else was there, Risner said. The sheriff said he was upset because 43 officers from various agencies responded when Soramer said he was shot, and hundreds of man-hours were wasted looking for a suspect and a vehicle that did not exist. No charges have been filed, but Prosecutor Robert DeSanto is reviewing the case. "It's amazing the foolishness of it," DeSanto told the Ashland Times- Gazette. Mayor Renee Mort said she would not comment on whether Sommer was still the village's police chief. He has held that job since Dec. 1, 1999. Risner said that if Sommer had come forward when he damaged the cruiser, he probably would have faced minor discipline. "He might have got his hind end chewed a little bit, but that would have been the end of it," Risner said. 08) Child-Raping Cop Sentenced to 20 Years USA Today 2 Apr 02 New Hampshire: Newport -- A former police officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage boy 10 years ago. The victim, now 23, said in court that Officer Barritt Bodkins, 46, assaulted him for three years and ruined his life. Bodkins worked for 20 years as a police officer in Unity, Cornish, Goshen and Claremont. County Attorney Marc Hathaway said the victim is serving a two- to seven- year sentence for burglary and theft. 09) Bystander injuries from police pursuits are on the rise Andrew Blankstein (Los Angeles Times) 31 Mar 02 The number of police chases and the number of resulting injuries among pedestrians increased significantly last year, according to Los Angeles police statistics. Pursuits rose to 769 in 2001 from 597 in 2000, the figures show. Pedestrian injuries climbed to 69 in 2001, nearly double the number in 1998. "Any time there's injuries, there's obviously cause for concern," Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. George Gascon said. "This shows we need to continue to assess our [pursuit] practices to minimize injuries to the community and the officers." The recent figures contrast with 1995-2000 statistics compiled by the California Highway Patrol, which reported LAPD pursuits decreased 36%. Statewide, the five-year decrease was 32%, according to the CHP. The LAPD also reported that traffic accidents during chases increased between 2000 and 2001. Accidents involving the suspect's vehicle climbed to 372 in 2001 from 280 the previous year, while accidents involving other vehicles jumped to 151 in 2001 from 116 in 2000. Debate over police chases was rekindled after a driver fleeing police earlier this month struck pedestrians Anna Polivoda, 76, and her husband, Henry, 79, near the Beverly Center. They sustained broken bones and head injuries. Tremine Tillman, 23, of Van Nuys was later arrested and charged with evading arrest and hit-and-run driving. The LAPD says the police cruiser was no longer chasing Tillman--initially noticed because of a questionable registration--when the accident occurred. Under LAPD rules, patrol officers have the discretion to chase any driver who attempts to flee. But Gascon, who heads the group that trains recruits and officers, said a cornerstone of the policy is assessing the safety risks to bystanders and officers. Police, he said, are supposed to weigh many variables before and during a chase. They include traffic volume, whether the area is residential or commercial and whether the driver can be identified and apprehended later. As for any changes in policy, Gascon said the department constantly monitors pursuits and makes any necessary adjustments in training. The number of police chases had been dropping after a 1996 report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California that highlighted increased numbers of pursuit-related crashes, injuries and deaths. ACLU Executive Director Ramona Ripston expressed concern Friday over the rise in injuries and said the LAPD needs a more concrete policy, especially when it comes to pursuing people accused of minor traffic violations. "If police are pursuing someone who has murdered, raped or robbed a bank, that's one thing," she said. "But they should not engage in these high- speed chases for minor motor vehicle violations. They're too dangerous." The most recent LAPD numbers show 57% of pursuits were initiated by traffic violations, 35% by felonies and 6% by misdemeanors. The ACLU's 1996 report focused on whether officers should be allowed to 4 pursue drivers and whether any offense or crime should justify a chase. It also found that most of the LAPD's fatal chases involved drivers wanted for violating the vehicle code, generally less serious offenses. Some police agencies, such as the Santa Monica Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's Department, prohibit officers from starting a pursuit over minor traffic violations. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT [IMAGE] [ IMAGE ] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. *** eSafe scanned this email for malicious content *** *** IMPORTANT: Do not open attachments from unrecognized senders Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 11:43 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] San Jose Audit: Women Cops Have Fewer Complaints; Recruit More Women Posted on Wed, Apr. 17, 2002 '~ Audit urges S.J. police to recruit more women By Rodney Fcc Mercury News Women are vastly underrepresented on the San Jose police force, an independent auditor said Tuesday, while calling for new recruiting strategies to increase the number of female officers. Women make up about 10 percent of the city's police force, according to the auditor's annual report, but the department should come closer to reflecting Santa Clara County's workforce, which is 46 percent female. Police Chief Bill Lansdowne said he wants to hire more female officers, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Targeting women is problematic because of Proposition 209, which eliminated gender or racial preferences in hiring for such jobs. "We're being told by our Human Resources Department that you can't target one individual over another," Lansdowne said. "It's got to be generic in outreach efforts." Female officers generate fewer complaints than their male counterparts, the audit pointed out. Last year, women constituted 9 percent of the force but represented only 2 percent of all unnecessary- force complaints filed from 1997 to 2001. Still, convincing women to consider a life as an officer -- a rewarding but dangerous and grueling job in a male-dominated profession -- can be a hurdle to overcome. "Women have so many career choices now that sometimes it's difficult to interest them in this one," said Deputy Chief Adonna Amoroso, the department's highest-ranking woman. The report -- prepared by police auditor Teresa Guerrero-Daley -- also noted that citizens filed 461 complaints against officers last year -- the second consecutive year complaints have dropped at least 30 percent. During the year, an officer was found to be at fault in 53 of the 148 investigations that were completed -- or 36 percent. In 2000, officers were found at fault at a 24 percent rate. Guerrero-Daley also noted women were cited far lower proportionately than men in lawsuits and claims. She said various studies at other departments indicate that a higher percentage of women on a force appeared to reduce complaints. "1 think there is a strong correlation," she said. "Can we say that it is conclusive? No. We need to study that much further. But I think there is enough there to justify a higher percentage of women in the San Jose Police Department." 4/19/02 Page 2 of 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX For detailed report on recruiting women into police work, see Recruiting and Retaining Women: A Self-Assessment Guide for Law Enforcement This comprehensive step-by-step manual enables law enforcement executives to systematically audit their policies and practices on recruiting, hiring, testing, selection, training, promotion and assignments, and to assess their policies on sexual harassment and pregnancy, identify obstacles and implement solutions. Order Online or Call 1-800-851-3420 to Order by Phone (Use code: I NCJ '185235) or Download Full Text (over 200 pages) 4/19/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 11:47 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] 38 Arrests by VA Trooper Tossed...Allegs He Solicited Sex from Female DUIs washingtonpost.com 38 Arrests By Trooper Tossed Out Defendants Were Charged By Now-Indicted Va. Officer By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 11, 2002; Page B01 Prince William County prosecutors dropped dozens of drunken driving and traffic cases yesterday as they formally announced that they would not pursue any charges brought by a former Virginia state trooper who allegedly solicited sex from a woman he arrested. In all, 38 cleared defendants walked out of Prince William County General District Court yesterday morning as Judge C. Joseph Gwaltney read from a lengthy docket of cases brought by Trooper William A. "Buck" Carter. Prosecutors decided to drop the cases after Carter, 42, of Manassas, was indicted this month on charges that he solicited sex from a 20-year-old woman whom he stopped for drunken driving Jan 9. Carter allegedly arranged to take the woman to his realty offices to have sex in exchange for dropping the charges, and the woman's case essentially disappeared. "It became apparent to us during the course of the investigation that if the allegations were true, we would not be able to depend upon the testimony of the charging officer in subsequent cases," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Richard A. Conway. Carter, reached through friends, declined to comment. Carter was suspended Feb. 14 -- the day after the woman would have appeared in court -- and resigned April 1, the day he was indicted. Prosecutors have charged Carter under Virginia's anti- bribery laws. They are continuing to interview several women who say Carter mistreated them during traffiC stops. Most involve allegations that Carter harassed, intimidated and embarrassed the women, according to prosecutors, defense lawyers and interviews with the women. A woman whose drunken driving charge was dropped yesterday said she was stopped by Carter on Jan. 5, four days before his alleged sexual misconduct. She said Carter persuaded her to sit in his car because it was cold outside, ogled her as he forced her to urinate on the side of the road and led her on a lengthy and scary drive through dark neighborhoods in the Manassas area. "1 seriously thought he wasn't going to tak~kme to the police station, that he was going to take me somewhere and attack me," said Jennifer, 21, of Manassas, who spoke on condition that her last name not be used. "It was terrible, was so scared. I thought something was going to happen. I felt like I was being kidnapped." A Virginia State Police internal affairs investigation last year showed that Carter arrested women in 53 percent of his drunken driving cases -- and that he arrested white women in 43 percent of his cases -- far more than the average law enforcement officer. According to statistics for the past five years, 19 percent of Prince William drunken driving arrestees are women, and 14 percent of Manassas DUI 4/19/02 Page 2 of 2 arrestees are women. State police also are beginning an internal investigation into whether Carter's supervisors and co- workers knew that he was profiling young white women during his patrols in Prince William County -- a task the agency's superintendent has given to his top internal affairs investigator. Troopers have said they knew Carter was arresting an inordinate number of women, and the internal affairs report in May shows that his supervisors were aware that he was arresting a high percentage of women. "It's always of concern when the credibility of a police officer is questioned, because so much relies on that," said Casey R. Stevens, a Woodbridge lawyer who represents a woman stopped by Carter. "All that a police officer really has is his credibility. It's just a tragedy for him as well as for the person involved and any others that may have been. It's just a tragedy for everyone." © 2002 The Washington Post Company 4/19/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 11:47 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] 3 Police Shootings; 1 Death in Houston April 15, 2002, 10:12PM Man killed in struggle with deputy constable By DALE LEZON Houston Chronicle A Harris County deputy constable shot and killed an unidentified man late Sunday night after he allegedly hit the officer and tried to drown his police dog. T. Ashabranner, a deputy constable in Precinct 4, struggled with the man and then shot him about 11:30 p.m. when he saw the man apparently holding "something shiny" in the 13000 block of Kuykendahl, said Woody Mitchell, an assistant chief in the constable's office. Ashabranner, a seven-year veteran with the constable's office, said he didn't know what the man had but feared for his life, Mitchell said. The man had a pair of pliers, Mitchell said, but no weapon was found. Mitchell said he was uncertain how many times the man was shot but believed he had been hit three times. The man was taken by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died, Mitchell said. The Harris County Sheriff's Department homicide division is investigating the shooting, sheriff's Sgt. James Parker said. Ashabranner was patrolling with his police dog, Nero, when he spotted the man riding a bicycle in the middle of Kuykendahl, Mitchell said. Ashabranner asked the man not to ride in the road, but the man ignored his warning. Ashabranner stopped his squad car and asked the man for identification, but the man punched Ashabranner and went down a dirt road into a heavily wooded, secluded area along Kuykendahl, Mitchell said. Ashabranner's dog went after the man and knocked him down. The man held Nero's head underwater in a ditch filled with standing water near the dirt road. The man yelled that he would kill the dog, Mitchell said. Ashabranner pulled the man off Nero and fell down. The man then "pulled something shiny out," and Ashabranner, who was "in fear of his life," fired his gun, Mitchell said. Nero, who has about three years' service with the constable's office, appeared to have an injured eye and was taken to a veterinarian. Ashabranner was not hurt and remains assigned to patrol duty, Mitchell said. Officer Inj u red The second officer-involved shooting happened shortly before 2:15 a.m. outside the Village Game Night Club, 9275 Richmond, in southwest Houston. Investigators said that two HPD officers were working extra jobs at the club as security guards, when a gunman opened fire at the club -- hitting one of the officers in the arm. Officers returned fire, but weren't sure if the suspect was shot as he was seen fleeing in a four-door, green car, authorities said. Police said that they believe the suspect may have been someone the 4/19/02 Page 2 of 2 officers had thrown out of the club earlier. Paramedics rushed the off-duty officer to Hermann Memorial Hospital, where he is listed in stable condition. The shooting is under investigation. Suspect Injured The third incident happened shortly before 5 a.m. at a home, 6534 Hawkeye, in northwest Houston. Investigators told News2Houston that neighbors called the Houston Police Department when a man who was renting a room in the home started acting out of control and threatening them. When officers arrived, police said that they found the man intoxicated and threatening them with a knife. The officers asked him to put it down, but instead that man lunged at one of the officers with the knife, authorities said. Investigators said the officer shot the suspect in the stomach. Paramedics rushed the man to Ben Taub General Hospital, but his condition is unknown. Internal Affairs has joined Houston police in the shooting investigations. 4/19/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 11:51 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA: 1. The Next CHief; 2. Chief Parks Berates Mayor, Police Union; http://!atimes, com/news/opinion/!a-000027508apr18,sto~?co/l=la%2Dhead !ines%2 Doped % 2Dmanual EDITORIAL The Next LAPD Chief LATimes Editorial April 18 2002 Bernard C. Parks' reign at Parker Center effectively ended with the Los Angeles City Council's refusal to overturn the Police Commission decision not to appoint him to a second five-year term. Now the insular, paramilitary, reform-averse Los Angeles Police Department needs a leader who can transform it into a contemporary department open to strong civilian oversight and broad community policing. It's hard to imagine a more important hire for the city. Los Angeles residents should make clear to the mayor and Police Commission that they expect a thorough, nationwide, gender- and colorblind search-including within the department. When the well-screened candidates arrive for interviews, the Police Commission and then Mayor James K. Hahn must select the candidate who most effectively answers yes to the following questions: * Are you a reformer? Will you fully support the inspector general and fight to quickly implement the federal consent decree? Can you embrace, without reserve, the changes suggested a full decade ago by the Christopher Commission that work to erase the excessive use of force, the racism, the sexism and other inequities that linger in the LAPD? · Are you a strong disciplinarian? Will you make it a priority to root out corruption, publicly denounce those who tarnish the badge and punish rookies and brass with equal resolve? Are you willing to call a botched police shooting just that and make forceful changes in policy if needed? · Are you a solid administrator? Will you fight, even in times of budget cuts, for the resources your officers need to "protect and serve"? · Are you politically savvy? Do you grasp the importance of listening to the mayor, City Council, Police Commission and other civilian leaders who can make your job painful or easy depending on the level of mutual respect you cultivate? · Do you have a visionary streak? Will you see the city's myriad problems not as insurmountable obstacles but as challenges and come up with unexpected solutions? · Can you be unequivocally fair to every part of the city and every constituency, making sure that cops are assigned according to need rather than a political pal's finagling or pressure from vocal activists? · Are you a diplomat? Can you stand your ground firmly against the police union without thoroughly alienating the rank and file? · Are you an effective cheerleader? Can you get "LA.'s finest" to believe in that motto again? Even as you aggressively support reforms, can you persuade young cops that you have faith in their talents and appreciate the ever more complex and difficult nature of their job? Do you have the enthusiasm to spur a successful recruitment drive that will fill the LAPD's perilously dwindling ranks? · Can you, in other words, turn a crew of well-trained but often disillusioned and disunited men and women of diverse backgrounds into the crack, tough, well-mannered, honest and dedicated team that the sprawling, vibrant, dangerous and wonderful city of Los Angeles deserves in the 21 st century? http :fllatimes.comlnewsllocallla-O41702parks.story 4/19/02 Page 2 of 4 Chief, Charging Conspiracy, Berates Mayor, Police Union LAPD: In urging council to give him a second term, Parks blames politics for an increase in crime. By TINA DAUNT and MATEA GOLD Times Staff Writers April 17 2002 A determined Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks used his appeal to the City Council on Tuesday to denounce Mayor James K. Hahn and the city's police union, whom Parks accused of conspiring to make life better for police officers at the expense of pubric safety. The chiefs extraordinary address was covered live by local television stations and made before a packed council chamber, with hundreds of his supporters listening quietly as he excoriated the very political leadership whose support he was courting. At one point, Parks suggested that political motives had cost lives. "You as council members and the commission in the future will have to determine how many lives should be lost to accommodate a police union as payback for its endorsement of the mayor and to accommodate a smarl number of community activists who want the Police Department at their beck and call," he said. "The true question is how much emphasis is placed on the value of life over political agendas." Parks has been a Los Angeles police officer for 37 years, and he appeared for Tuesday's hearing in the dark blue uniform of the LAPD--his adorned with the four stars on the collar that only the chief is allowed to wear. Somber and deliberate, he read for more than an hour. He addressed the council members individually by name as they sat a few feet away. The mayor did not attend the session, and afterward his staff refused to make him available for comment. Hahn had no public events Tuesday afternoon. "Mayor Hahn was disappointed that Chief Parks chose to use his time before the council to engage in personal attacks instead of laying out a vision for the next five years at the LAPD," said Julie Wong, a spokeswoman for the mayor. Others who came in for criticism from Parks were quicker to respond. Rick Caruso, president of the Police Commission that denied Parks his reappointment, defended the panel's decision and its process. Mitzi Grasso, who heads the police union, called the chief's remarks "absurd" and said the union was not as powerful as Parks suggested. In the council chambers, the chief suggested sinister motives by his opponents, principally Hahn and the union. He concluded his statement by acknowledging that the odds were against his reappointment, but he urged the council to give him a chance. The council is expected to vote today on whether to overturn the commission's 4-1 decision. To date, only three of the council's 15 members--Nate Holden, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Jan Perry--have expressed strong support for the chief. Although members of the council said they were impressed by some of the things Parks said, several questioned whether he would be able to secure the 10 votes needed to override the commission. "His speech was really, really impressive," said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who heads the council's Public Safety Committee. "There may have been some minds changed, but I just don't know. I just don't think there are enough votes to overturn it." Councilman Jack Weiss agreed. "1 think it is still an extraordinarily uphill battle for the chief in council," he said, adding that he would reserve voicing his opinion until the council discussed the matter in today's session. "It is unfortunate how negative and personal this debate has become, for all sides and for the sake of the city," Weiss said. "1 think that it's important to remember that no one in public office--an elected official or an appointed official--has a 4/19/02 Page 3 of 4 right to a public job .... We need to keep this in mind as we evaluate what has occurred here." Hearing Not Fair, Chief Asserts Parks' address blended his defense of his record with his curt rejection of the decision to deny him a second term. Throughout, he alluded to political machinations that he said prevented him from receiving a fair hearing. Among other things, he argued that it was unfair to judge him on the city's increase in crime over the last two years. He noted that crime had declined in his first two years as chief, and he blamed the recent increases on politics and politicians. Specifically, Parks said the drive to alter the Police Department's work schedule, to adopt a federal consent decree governing LAPD reform and to take officers out of patrol duties and put them into community policing assignments caused crime to increase. Mayor Richard Riordan, who appointed Parks, agreed to the consent decree and pushed Parks to beef up popular community policing programs. Hahn, who succeeded Riordan, also supported those moves and pressed for the revised work schedule as well. All three efforts enjoyed strong council support. "We were directed to move forward swiftly and implement all three of these changes," Parks said. "Then, as arrests went down, crime went up and [those] who were responsible for these decisions refused to take responsibility. They have disingenuously turned to me, as chief of police, and asked, 'Why is crime going up?'" Parks added: "You cannot take police resources off the street in this volume and expect it will not have a negative impact on crime." He noted that when the senior lead officer program was reinstated in 2000, 168 officers were removed from patrol duties. Meanwhile, up to 300 officers were removed from patrol to work on reforms outlined in a federal consent decree. As a result, Parks said, officer deployment is down by about 20%. "In each instance, the department voice was ignored," he said. "We were directed to move forward swiftly and implement all three of these changes." Mayor Told Him to Retire, Parks Says Parks was even more pointedly critical of the process by which Hahn had opposed him. He told council members that he first informed the mayor in January that he would be seeking a second term. At that time, Parks says, the mayor urged him to retire and told him that he had already secured three votes on the five-member commission to oust him. A spokesman for the mayor, however, denied that allegation Tuesday. The chief said he refused to give up his bid for a second term, adding that he would not be part of "a conspiracy" to remove him from office. Although some of those themes have long been part of the evaluation of Parks, the chief introduced a new charge Tuesday. He said he is suspicious of millions of dollars sent from the city government to the Police Protective League for the purpose of defending officers in misconduct hearings. Parks said he doubts whether the money was used for that purpose. "Why would the city give this money to the league at this time, as they did?" the chief asked. "Was it to give them a war chest to go after me?" He did not substantiate that claim, which union leaders and others denied. Chief's Critics Have Own View of LAPD While Parks blamed political decisions for the LAPD's reduced street presence in recent years, others have suggested that his leadership has contributed to woeful morale and attrition. Parks disagreed, arguing that recruitment and retention of officers is a nationwide problem. In closing, he warned the council to consider the ramifications that its actions could have on the secession efforts in the San Fernando Valley and other areas of the city. 4/19/02 Page 4 of 4 "This is another voter revolt that is directed toward the governance of the city," Parks said. "They are not asking to be separated from this Police Department. They are asking to be separated from their governance in this body and in the mayor's office .... That should be a real wake-up call for everyone in this room." After the chiefs presentation, Caruso defended the panel's evaluation of Parks. "1 think he had a very fair process and the commission really did have as its No. 1 priority to make sure the process was fair and everything was looked at from both sides," Caruso said. He said Parks had every opportunity to answer questions the commissioners had about his conduct. "1 have a high regard for the chief and would never want to attack his name, and that is certainly not my intent," he added. "But he's put himself in a process in which those kinds of questions need to be asked. I think the commission would be remiss if we didn't. I was very fair to the chief. Eyeball to eyeball, we talked about things." Union Official Denies Parks' Claim Grasso, who was in the council chamber for the chiefs remarks, rejected his assertion that the police union has been controlling Parks~ reappointment process. "Those remarks are absurd," she said. "And while I'm flattered that he attributes so much power to the Police Protective League, all we ever really did was embark on a community education campaign. "We made our point and then we stepped back," she said. "We have not continued in this grand conspiracy that he illustrates." Times staff writer Laura Loh contributed to this report. 4/19/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 9:40 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Inspector General Report: LAPD Withheld Key Details in Shooting Review httP:!/latimes,com!newsllocallla-OOOO27907aprl 9,~t~ry?co!!~!~%~Oh~d!i~%~ O~!i~o~oia Inquiry Says LAPD Withheld Key Details Crime: Inspector general finds officials didn't give Police Commission an 'accurate and complete' report of incident when officer shot at boy, 14. By SCOTT GLOVER and MATT LAIT LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS April 19 2002 Los Angeles police officials failed to disclose key information about a 1999 officer-involved shooting to members of the city's civilian Police Commission who were responsible for reviewing and ruling on the case, an investigation by the commission's inspector general found. The confidential 32-page report by Inspector General Jeffrey C. Eglash criticizes Chief Bernard C. Parks and his chief of staff, Deputy Chief David J. Gascon, for failing to "meet their responsibility of providing accurate and complete information to the commission at all times." "This case highlights a failure of communication between the chief of police and members of his command staff that resulted in the commission not knowing facts relevant to ... the shooting at issue," Eglash wrote in a summary of his investigation. The shooting in question occurred Feb. 8, 1999, and involved a pair of officers known on the streets of the LAPD's Southeast Division as "Batman and Robin." During the incident, Officer William Ferguson, known as Batman, fired two shots at a 14-year-old who allegedly pointed a gun at him through the window of crack house. Both shots missed. The Police Commission, based on a recommendation by Parks, concluded in February 2000 that the shooting was within department guidelines. Eighteen months later, commissioners learned from a report in The Times that department officials had not disclosed important details about the shooting prior to the commission's vote, including the fact that the officers were under investigation for allegedly having planted a weapon at the scene. Commissioners were also unaware that investigators had served a search warrant on Ferguson's locker shortly after the shooting and discovered a replica weapon that one detective believed was "to be used as planted evidence," according to a search warrant affidavit. While Eglash's report, which was obtained by The Times, said his investigation uncovered information suggesting that Parks may have known that relevant facts were not shared with the commission, he concluded there was "no direct evidence" to prove it. Additionally, Eglash concluded that the department's investigation of the shooting was so badly botched, leaving so many unanswered questions, that it would be pointless for the commission to re-evaluate its original finding that the shooting broke no LAPD rules. Lead Investigator's Work Criticized The inspector general's report also condemned the department's shooting investigation as "incomplete, conclusory and 4/19/02 Page 2 of 3 inaccurate, in part." The lead detective's work in the investigation was characterized as "uninformative and unreliable." Parks, who was recently denied a second five-year term in office, and Gascon, who is seen as a 3otential candidate to replace Parks, both declined to comment for this report. The five-member commission is expected to discuss the inspector general's report in closed session within the next few weeks. The report is one in a long series of LAPD analyses by Eglash that have put him at odds with senior Police Department officials. Parks has often dismissed the inspector general's work as incomplete or biased, a sentiment shared by other top-ranking LAPD officers but not by some of the department's most prominent critics. Residents of the house where the shooting took place immediately disputed the officers' version of events, describing a dramatically different encounter in which the police banged on their doors and windows and shouted out rival gang slogans. A young woman claimed that as she attempted to flush a tray full of rock cocaine down the toilet, an officer appeared in the bathroom window and ordered her to stop. VVhen she kept flushing down the drugs, she claimed, the officer shot her, the bullet grazing her head. An apparent gunshot immediately followed by a woman screaming is captured on an audiotape of a 911 call made by someone inside the house that night. None of the officers present claimed to have fired the shot or to have heard it, according to police documents. The woman's allegation, made on the night of the shooting, was not addressed in the officer-involved shooting team's investigation. By the time internal affairs investigators interviewed the woman months later, the house had burned down. After the shooting, several witnesses accused the police of planting a gun in the house to justify their actions. According to Eglash, the lead investigator in the case, Det. Wallace Montgomery, "did not conduct a thorough investigation, and at times, overstated the evidence" in favor of the police. Montgomery, Eglash added, "ignored any evidence that raised questions about his theory and similarly ignored the statements of the civilian witnesses." Montgomery, in a brief interview with The Times, disputed the inspector general's findings. "1 disagree. Period," Montgomery said. The detective declined to comment further, saying he was under orders from the chief not to discuss any officer-involved shooting with reporters. Eglash's specific orders from the Police Commission were to determine whether important information was withheld from the commission; whether there was sufficient new information for commissioners to change their initial assessment that the shooting was within departmental rules; and whether any department policies should be changed as a result of the incident. After a five-month investigation, Eglash concluded that there was "no doubt" that "relevant and material" information known by top department officials was not shared with the Police Commission. Even so, he concluded there were still too many questions left unanswered to determine what occurred that night. As a result, he said, there is not enough evidence to support a revision of the commission's initial "in-policy" finding As for policy changes, Eglash noted that the department already was developing a new protocol aimed at prioritizing investigations dealing with potential criminal conduct by officers during police shootings. .The bulk of the inspector general's report dealt with what police officials knew about the shooting and when they knew it. One important issue was whether Parks or Deputy Chief Gascon were aware that there was a pending criminal case against Ferguson and Officer Jeffrey Robb at the time the Police Commission was asked to review the shooting. After the inquiry was disclosed in The Times last August, both men told commissioners they were unaware of any such investigation, according to Eglash's report. The inspector general, however, concluded that "it appears that Deputy Chief Gascon was aware that Officers Ferguson and Robb had been referred to the district attorney's office for prosecution prior to the adjudication of the shooting." 4/19/02 Page 3 of 3 That finding was based largely on a handwritten memo by Cmdr. James S. McMurray, who was then in charge of the LAPD's internal affairs division. In the memo, dated Nov. 30, 1999, McMurray indicates that he briefed Gascon on the fact that the district attorney's office had requested a copy of the LAPD's shooting investigation report as part of a criminal investigation of Ferguson and Robb. McMurray also wrote in the memo that he provided a copy of the district attorney's request for the shooting report to Gascon to forward to Parks. That was two months before the Police Commission was presented with Parks' recommendation that the shooting be found "in policy." Claim of Planted Gun Addressed Eglash's report also addressed the statements of an LAPD sergeant who claimed he witnessed Ferguson plant a gun inside the house after the shooting. According to Eglash, Sgt. Warren "Ken" Brooks has made at least five statements-to LAPD officials and the inspector general's staff-about what he saw the night on the shooting, and all of those statements were "different in material respects." As a result, Eglash concluded, Brooks' statements were not credible. In November, the city agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit against Ferguson, Robb, the LAPD and the city. The suit alleged, among other things, that the shooting was unjustified and covered up, and that Ferguson and Robb later flamed two young men on drug charges a week after the shooting in the house where it took place. Both Ferguson and Robb declined to testify in the civil case, citing their constitutional rights against self-incrimination. Lawyers for both officers have said they deny any wrongdoing in the case. Facing disciplinary action, Robb resigned from the LAPD in 2000. Ferguson, who was arrested five times on felony charges before he was hired by the LAPD, is suspended without pay. He is also a suspect in a string of robberies of drug dealers along with his friend and former LAPD Officer Ruben Palomares, who recently pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in San Diego. 4/19/02 Marian Karr From: Don Williams [DWilliam@ci.riverside.ca.us] Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 12:28 PM To: Update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Speaking guidelines and Officer Involved Shooting procedures Recently we had a commissioner give a media interview. While he did not talk about, nor was he asked about anything what we have discussed in closed session he was unsure of what he could say. Do any of you have any written guidelines for commissioners or board members regarding what they can or cannot say regarding commission or board business? Also, for those of you who get involved in the investigation of Officer Involved Shootings, at what point do you get involved (IE. do you review the final investigative product, do you conduct a parallel investigation, etc.)? Also what form of involvement does your participation take (IE. conduct an independent investigation or review the final product)? Thanks for your help. Don Williams Executive Director City of Riverside Ca. Cemmunity Police Review Commission Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 1:53 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] States in No Rush on New Terrorism Laws States in No Rush on New Terrorism Laws Greg McDonald, Stateline.org - Stateline.org - Apr 08, 2002 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - in contrast with the federal rush to expand police powers to go after suspected terrorists, most state legislatures are moving slowly on post-9/11 homeland-protection measures as they seek to balance national security concerns with the preservation of civil liberties. Only five states -- Florida, Michigan, New York, Virginia and Washington - have narrowed their open records laws or adopted statutes similar to the federal Patriot Act, which gives law enforcement authorities expanded search and wiretap powers. This reality is at odds with a report issued by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press last month, which said states "have been eager to follow in the footsteps of the federal government in the war on terrorism through legislation." "What we were covering [in the report] was what had actually come up in proposals, but what we are finding is that they didn't go that far at all in terms of legislation," said Rebecca Daugherty, director of the committee's Freedom of Information Service Center. Maryland is a case in point of the trend in state legislatures to go slow. After long, spirited wrangling, the state's general assembly and senate approved competing measures that would expand police wiretap and search powers, make it harder for immigrants to get driver's licenses and limit access to some government information. But the two chambers have yet to work out differences between their bills, and it's unclear whether they will take any major action before their scheduled adjournment on April 8. Similar situations prevail in eight other states that are close to adjournment. Maryland's debate of anti-terrorism measures is illustrative of what's been happening in many legislatures. The battle lines cross political and ideological divides, and the opposing camps are in no hurry to compromise. Maryland Delegate Carmen Amedori, a conservative Republican from Westminster ,is against efforts to expand wiretap powers and close off more public records and meetings.. "This is a knee-jerk reaction [to 9/1 1]; this is nothin9 but an infringement on peoples' rights," said Amedori, who once worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. "1 appreciate the need to ease concerns. But it's like Defense Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld said when all this started: if we end up treading on civil rights, then the terrorists have won." The measure at the heart of the debate is sponsored by Delegate Ann Marie Doory, a moderate Democrat from Baltimore. She says it simply updates the 4/22/02 Page 2 of 2 state's wiretap laws to address new technologies that suspected terrorists might take advantage of. "If you believe what our federal government ? is telling us about the [terrorist] threats, then you need to support this bill," Doory said. "Rights are important, but if you believe we're living in a new environment, which I do, then we need to be proactive." Greg McDonald, Stateline.org 4/22/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 1:59 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Las Vegas Sheriff Overturns Review Board Ruling on Officer Keller overturns citizen board's ruling on officer By Keith Paul LAS VEGAS SUN Sheriff Jerry Keller on Thursday rejected a Citizen Review Board ruling that said an officer was racially biased when he arrested a motorist last summer, saying there was no evidence to support the allegation. '/appreciate their work in this case, but we guarantee our officers fact-based decisions, and there are no facts shown or any indications of biased policing or conduct unbecoming an officer," Keller told the Sun. The rejections of the findings and recommendation Officer John Andrew S. Cook receive additional cultural diversity training did not surprise Joe Lamarca, chairman of the board's four-member panel that heard the complaint. "1 wouldn't have expected anything less," he said. "My experience with that crew over there is they are going to say their guys were right. We are going to see him back before us again." The board's decision did not articulate specific evidence suggesting racial bias in Cook's decision to arrest, but stated "bias was the basis for the officer's suspicions and under the same circumstances a white American male offering the same excuses for driving conduct would have been released without the roadside (sobriety testing) or other questions." The review board's panel voted 4-0 on March 29 that Cook, 27, an officer since January 1999, acted inappropriately during a traffic stop on June 4. The board also ruled allegations against Officer William Giblin were unfounded. The decision was finalized and forwarded to Metro on April 9. It was only the second time the board has recommended an officer be disciplined. The sheriff also rejected a split decision by the board last March sustaining a complaint of excessive force against two traffic officers and recommending a written reprimand. The 25-member review board began operating in October 2000 after years of political wrangling and public outcry. In February 2001, the board released its first decisions, clearing one officer and sustaining a complaint against another, but in both cases it pointed out shoddy internal investigations by police. Metro officials at the time agreed with the board's assessment of the investigations. A University of Nebraska at Omaha criminology professor who has studied civilian oversight says there has not been enough time or decisions to draw any trends from either the sheriffs two decisions or the board's rulings. "It takes time for them to understand and respect each other," said Samuel Walker, who has also written a book about the civilian review process. In rejecting the board's recommendation for Cook, Keller said he reviewed the internal affairs investigation -- which cleared the officer -- and the review board's decision. Lamarca agreed that no racial slurs were used by the officer during the stop, but claimed race was still used as the basis for the arrest. Keith Harrison filed a complaint after his arrest on driving under the influence charges late on June 4 in front of his mother's house on North 20th Street. The charges were later dropped when a blood test detected no drugs or alcohol in his system. The panel stated there was no way for Cook to know Harrison's ethnicity at the time of the stop as it was dark and the car's window were tinted. 4/22/02 Page 2 of 2 The panel agreed Cook was justified in pulling Harrison over but acted unprofessionally when Harrison gave him an expired car insurance card. Cook said, "What's the deal," implying the card was fake, the ruling states. Keller disagreed that the officer was disrespectful to Harrison. "The manner and vernacular used by Officer Cook in questioning the validity of the proof of insurance care, i.e., 'What's the deal ...' has no relation to the racial or ethnic background of Mr. Harrison, and cannot be construed as improper," Keller wrote in a memo rejecting the decision. Harrison then gave the officer a valid card and said he pulled over so the officer could pass him and he could back into his mother's driveway. Cook detected no odor of alcohol, but indicated Harrison had bloodshot, watery, glassy eyes and his pupils were dilated. Harrison was arrested after Cook and Giblin, who came as backup, gave a series of roadside sobriety tests including a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus used to detect drivers under the influence of drugs. While the internal investigation cleared the officers, the board noted an internal affairs statement that "the officers clearly did not have the training or experience to identify a drug impaired suspect. The officers may have been policing beyond their ability. Keller also rejected that conclusion may be his own internal affairs detectives saying the memo, "This is clearly incorrect as Officer Cook was LVMPD certified in the technique of Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus on April 12, 2001, than than 60 days before the event occurred." Lamarca said he was amazed the sheriff also took issue with the statement from internal affairs. "1 think to reject your own internal affairs (statement) and to reject the citizens (board's decisions), that's probably someone who is not up for re-election," Lamarca said. Keller announced last year he was not running for re-election. 4/22/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aoLcom Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 9:34 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA: Officials Warned Not To Libel Chief Parks Officials Warned Not to Libel Parks ~ Politics: In the face of the police chiefs possible litigation, city attorneys urge the use of caution in comments about him. 4-21-02 LATimes By TINA DAUNT, TIMES STAFF WRITER As Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks considers whether to sue the city for denying him a second five-year term, the city's attorneys are weighing Parks' chances and warning officials to watch what they say about the chief. Anticipating that Parks might opt for legal action--a course that his predecessor, Willie L. Williams, pursued-the city attorney's office has sent a confidential memo to the mayor, members of the City Council and the Police Commission. In it, the city lawyers urge officials to refrain from making comments that could lead to potential liability against the city. "Recognizing the need for a vigorous public debate about an issue of this importance, our office believes that you should be aware that even when discussing a public official, statements made about the public official, if shown to be false and made with malice, may result in liability," Chief Assistant City Atty. Patricia V, Tuber wrote. "Therefore, if you do comment on the chief, please refrain from making comments that could lead to potential liability against the city of Los Angeles or against you as an individual." So far, council members and others have largely held their tongues, though Police Commission President Rick Caruso has questioned the chief's honesty. Parks' lawyer, Gloria AIIred, has raised other legal objections to the process that resulted in the chiefs bid for a second term being turned down. Parks is expected to announce today what options he intends to pursue. "1 strongly believe he has rights that he can assert," AIIred said. "But it's up to him. There are many options, not just one." AIIred has laid out the areas in which she believes Parks was wronged in a six-page memo to the city attorney's office. In her letter, sent as the council was voting Wednesday to uphold the Police Commission action against Parks, AIIred alleged that Parks' constitutional rights were violated in a number of instances. For example, AIIred said, Parks was denied a chance to have his attorney present during a nine-hour interview with members of the Police Commission. The proceedings were also held behind dosed doors, even though Parks asked that the discussions be held in the open. "Chief Parks made it clear that he wanted to waive any right of confidentiality that he might have and that he wanted to have a public hearing," according to the letter. "This right was denied to him and the commission chose to conduct its proceedings in secret closed session, even though [the city attorney's office] advised the commission in writing that it could conduct the hearing openly, if it chose to do so." Allred also accused members of the commission of meeting secretly, without public announcement, during the course of their deliberations. If true, the actions would constitute a violation of California's open meetings law, she said. AIIred's contention that Parks has been defamed is built largely around the comments of Caruso, who said in an interview that Parks tried to mislead the commission by submitting an earlier performance evaluation that he knew had not been finalized by the previous Police Commission. Parks has denied the allegation. "Pursuant to the federal Constitution, Chief Parks cannot be deprived of a significant liberty interest without due process of law," according to AIIred's letter. "A liberty interest is implicated when the city or commission acts in a manner which adversely affects Chief Parks' good name." Councilman Nate Holden, one of Parks' strongest supporters, said he is urging the chief to file a suit along those lines. "At the very least, he's got to protect his good name," Holden said. One question about that approach, however, involves whether Parks was in fact entitled to due process. The chief does not have a contract with the city, and the commission's decision to deny him a second term did not constitute discipline or firing. Rather, the City Charter provides for a chief to serve for five years, and for Parks, that term ends in August. Several council members and legal scholar Ep, vin Chemerinsky noted that under the City Charter, the police chief has no 4/22/02 Page 2 of 2 right to a second term. Chemerinsky, a constitutional law professor at USC who helped write the City Charier, said bluntly that he believes Parks' claims are "nonsense." "The way the charter is written gives him no reasonable expectation for a second term," Chemerinsky said. Attorney George Kieffer, who also helped draft the new charter, agreed. "The Police Commission, as head of the department, must have the power to change a chief who does not have their confidence," Kieffer said. "There is no presumption of a second term.... Under this kind of standard, it would be very difficult to have some claim against the city." Chemerinsky said Parks also would face an uphill battle to prove that he was defamed. The chief would have to show that Caruso knew that he was acting with "reckless disregard for the truth," Chemerinsky said. In addition, the law protects officials from defamation suits if their comments are made during an official proceeding, which city lawyers could argue was the case with Caruso. "1 don't think it would be possible for Parks to prove actual malice," Chemerinsky said. Beyond the legal merits of Parks' case are political considerations. Five years ago, council members eager to smooth the departure of then-Chief Williams seized upon his pending claim against the city to give him a buyout. In that case, Williams had taken action against the city after parts of his confidential personnel file were published by The Times. Williams argued that the city had improperly "released" those materials, even though he never established how the documents were obtained by the paper. Although legal experts said his case had little merit, council members and then-Mayor Richard Riordan approved a $375,000 settlement to end the controversy over Williams' rejected reappointment. Councilman Jack Weiss said he doubts the council will vote to give Parks money. "The presentation that has been made so far has not been convincing that he is owed either money or a second term," Weiss said. 4/22/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 10:01 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Rescuer's Tale: Fight, Then Flight http:llwww,!atimes,comlnews/!oca!lla-O000~8717apr22,story?col!=!a%2 Dhead!i~es%2 Dca!ifornia COLUMN ONE A Rescuer's Tale: Fight, Then Flight Bobby Green is proud he helped save Reginald Denny. But his brave act also led him to leave L.A. LATimes By STEPHANIE CHAVEZ TIMES STAFF WRITER April 22 2002 Bobby Green is sitting on his couch in suburban Rialto, talking about the night 10 years ago that he saved a man's life, a moment that made him a hero to most and a traitor to others. Back then, in the first hours of the Los Angeles riots, Green was sitting on another couch, this one in South-Central Los Angeles. He was watching a black man on live TV smash a brick, then another brick, into the head of a white truck driver, who lay writhing on the pavement. It was happening about half a mile away. The second brick did it. "That is e-nough," Green decided. He jumped off the couch and rushed out the door. It didn't matter that he was black, or that he, like virtually everyone else in the neighborhood, was mad as hell after that day's not- guilty verdicts for LAPD officers in the Rodney King beating trial. He raced to the scene and helped rescue Reginald O. Denny from a mob of rioters. That decision still defines Bobby Green. It gives him a credo, crystallizes what he teaches his children about right and wrong. It's what he, his wife and his family are most proud of, decorating their living room with seven of his 14 plaques and commendations. It's the one thing he thinks about every day he starts work. And ultimately, that choice was the main reason the man who became a symbol of post-riot redemption gave up on Los Angeles and moved away. Denny has done the same thing, settling in Lake Havasu, Ariz., where he can indulge his love of boating. He declined to be interviewed about April 29, 1992. Long ago, he'd remarked it was "pretty weird" the way America heaped celebrity on a truck driver for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "He doesn't want to look back," said Shelley Montez, his former wife and mother of his daughter, Ashley, now in high school. At the time of the riots, Bobby Green was a trucker himself, 29, scraping out a living working part-time. Now he's the father of five, a man of commanding stature, muscular arms and few words--a man who says he must remember, must embrace those three hours in his past. They mean so much to his future. "1 can tell my kids that color is on the outside, not the inside," he says. "To me, I turned justice around and showed them that all black people ain't the same as you think. "1 know I am different from the rest of the people" who rioted. "1 saved another man's life because to me, he was another human being who needed my help." Why prove it by pushing your way into the fury of Florence and Normandie? Memories of Injustice Green leans back in his comfortable, forest-green leather couch, takes a deep breath, shakes his head. Like Denny, he has a daughter named Ashley. She's 10, and she has propped herself on the edge of the couch to eavesdrop. Green's 17-year-old son, Eric, old enough to remember the commotion at home that night, leans against the wall. 4/22/02 Page 2 of 4 The old names begin to flow. Most of Los Angeles today would need a glossary to know their importance, but many people still remember the names as if it were yesterday. "You know," Green says, "It started with Latasha, and then the King beating, and then the verdicts .... "Anger seeps into his deep voice. "1 don't understand why she got off. Why did Latasha get shot in the back for stealing orange juice?" "She" is Soon Ja Du. "Latasha" was Latasha Harlins. Du, a Korean-born grocer, fatally shot 15-year-old Harlins in the back of the head after a physical altercation. The fight was prompted by Du's belief the girl was stealing a bottle of orange juice. A security camera videotaped the scene and was played during Du's trial. Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. But Superior Court Judge Joyce Karlin, reasoning that Du was acting out of fear from earlier robberies, sentenced her in November 1991 to five years' probation. The case exacerbated long-standing tensions between Korean shopkeepers and their black customers in economically depressed South-Central neighborhoods, and set the stage for something even worse. "If she had been a black person," Green said of Du, "she would have been in jail for murder. That's the kind of justice that's not right .... After Latasha, people started to go crazy. They thought black people didn't have no justice." On March 3, 1991, Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and three other white LAPD officers beat black motorist Rodney G. King as an amateur photographer captured the repeated baton blows on video. By the time the officers' trial ended, Bobby and his wife-to-be, Vera, were sharing a tiny apartment not far from the house where he grew up on East 62nd Street. "V," as Bobby calls her, had given birth to Ashley a few months earlier and was working as an office manager on the Westside. Bobby drove a cement truck for $13 an hour-seasonal work, no benefits. He had just finished a haul that afternoon when he found his older brothers transfixed by the TV at their mother's house, the family headquarters. He sat down on the couch and watched as verdicts acquitting all four officers of using excessive force were read in a Simi Valley courtroom. "1 was pissed off just like everyone else was pissed off. I was sitting there, me, my brothers and my son, and I couldn't believe it," Green said. "It seemed like there was no justice." Television soon turned to the street: dusk at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. A young black man "had the brick in his hand and hit Reggie. Then he hit him with the brick again," Green said, becoming indignant. "The man is already down and I'm thinking, 'Why are you going after him with another brick and kicking him?'" Then, Green said, "Something told me to get up." He told Eric he would be right back. It took him about five minutes to drive to the intersection, where he ran up to Denny's truck and helped another rescuer, a woman named Lei Yuille, who was struggling to push Denny into the cab of his truck. "1 just pushed him over and started driving," Green said. No one in the crowd stopped the rescue. "They musta thought I was one of the bad guys too, taking the truck for a joy ride." Even Yuille had that suspicion. During the 10-minute drive to the hospital, Yuille cradled Denny's battered head, telling him, "You're going to make it." Two other strangers who had come to the rescue, Titus Murphy and Terri Barnett, turned their Honda's hazard lights on and shouted steering instructions to Green, who was unable to see clearly through the shattered windshield. The makeshift entourage dropped Denny off at the emergency room at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital. Green, who knew the area's trucking yards, drove Denny's rig back to its Florence and Manchester home base. The three other rescuers never even got Green's name, describing him later as the "young man dressed in black." The intersection scene, captured in graphic detail by a TV news helicopter, had been aired on live TV and radio. Vera was driving home from work "when I hear on the radio that the guy who beat Reginald Denny was driving away in his truck." When she got home, Bobby was not there. Eric told her where he had gone. "1 can't tell you what I said," Vera jokes now, "but it went something like: 'What the hell does he think he's doing?'" By the time Bobby came back, there was no use in arguing. They settled on the couch and watched the riots on TV. Overnight Heroes 4/22/02 Page 3 of 4 It stunned them when Bobby and the three other rescuers became overnight heroes, their story rising to modern-day parable told by TV host Phil Donahue, counfiess other media outlets and the reality show "How'd They Do That?" A movie producer paid them a few hundred dollars each for the rights to their story. At first Bobby wanted to protect his privacy, fearful of too much hostility in the neighborhood, Vera said. He insisted TV interviewers use only his silhouette. He had more to fear when four suspects in the Denny beating were arrested. The young man he'd seen hitting Denny with the brick, Damian Monroe Williams, faced 17 felony counts carrying possible life sentences. The Denny case moved through the courts in 1992 and '1993, as tension clenched an exhausted, riot-raw city. Like the Soon Ja Du and Rodney King cases, this trial carried heavy symbolism. Some viewed it as the reverse-race twin of the King beating trial, an example of how the system treats blacks with excessive criminal charges and unreasonable bail. A tight-knit protest group dubbed "Free the LA 4+", a reference to the defendants, jammed the court hearings, distributed buttons and T-shirts and held rallies, one of which turned violent. All the while Bobby had been out collecting awards and accolades: "For his integrity and bravery," said the California Legislature. "For humanitarianism," read the gold plate from the Los Angeles Urban League. For heroism, for providing hope in despair, for unselfishness, said Hollywood, a slew of city councils, a bank, and labor unions. The city of epa Locka, Fla., even flew him and Vela out for a parade. Bobby shook hands with the mayor, who presented him with the key to the city. Then, as the trial approached, the FBI asked Green if he wanted protection or another place to live. Vela grew fearful. Bobby had already heard the rumbling. "1 had threats, word of mouth; it would get to me from the streets," he said. "Like, 'Why did I save another person like that and disgrace our people? Why was I going to court to testify against my people?'" Police escorted him to the courthouse to testify in August 1993, about what he saw and why he helped Denny. Green told the jury that as a fellow trucker, he felt as though he was being beaten as he watched the attack on Denny. "l felt like I was getting hurt," he testified. "1 thought he might die. I went to help." Green found that the landscape of burned and looted buildings and the anxiety of the trial had soured him on Los Angeles. "There was nothing left. I wanted better for my family," he said. For months he and Vera struggled. "Should I stay? Should I move? Should I give L.A. another chance, to heal up or something?" They found their answer in the acquittals and scaled-down convictions of the two main defendants who had beaten Denny, Williams and Henry Keith Watson. The justice that Green had on his mind when he ran out his front door seemed nowhere in sight. "To me, what [Williams] did was wrong. Just as what is right is right, what is wrong is wrong." Green and Vera headed east on the San Bernardino Freeway, vowing to drive as long as it took to find a suburb with monthly mortgages not that much higher than the $500 rent they were paying in South-Central. They were joining the tens of thousands of blacks who reft places like L.A. and Compton during the '90s for the Inland Empire and the northern suburbs of Palmdale and Lancaster. Feeling of Running Away He knew he doing the right thing, but one thought nagged at him. "It seemed like I was running." From? 4/22/02 Page 4 of 4 "My people." He felt he had no choice. "1 wanted to give my family a better life. VVhat happened at Florence and Normandie, those feelings weren't going to change soon. I didn't feel it was safe for my kids." They sought the same thing the other rescuers and Denny sought-anonymity. They were successful. Soon after the trial, the rescuers lost contact with each other. They haven't talked in close to eight years. "We never became buddies or anything like that," said Lei Yuille, who still works in the Los Angeles area as a registered dietitian. "We were four strangers, brought together once .... I have really tried not to relive it." The rights to the movie that was never made expired. "It would have been too violent," Yuille thinks. Bobby and Vera last saw Denny at a picnic the summer after the riots, thrown by Denny's old employer, Transit Mixed. A few weeks ago Vera shuffled through some drawers to show off a photo of her and Reggie. He's holding a check for $100,000 in donations that had flowed into a company fund for his recovery. The Greens' Rialto neighborhood is a cluster of neat suburban tract homes in the racially mixed flatlands of the Inland Empire: cul-de-sacs, midsized trees, lots of chain restaurants and big-box stores. The schools are better and teachers take more time with the Greens' kids, who every so often take one of their dad's trophies to show off during a class history lesson. It's secure, it's safe, said Vera, walking out with Bobby to their backyard, plush with a newly laid carpet of sod. He still comments on how odd it is to hear chirping birds. "It's nice, peaceful, quiet-ain't no color lines out here," he says. He mentions that a police officer who lives on the street is especially friendly. The reason Bobby Green thinks about the past every day he goes to work lies in the company he works for. It's called Cemex Co. It used to be known as Transit Mixed, the company that employed Denny. Every time Green pulls his rig into the firm's Los Angeles yard he finds a sense of closure in completing the route Reggie never got to finish. "1 think about the bond every day," he says. "1 want to keep our names alive .... It's nice to work for the same company of the man I saved." 4/22/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 2:03 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Boston Sgt Demoted, Suspended 1 Yr for X Force Sergeant sued in beating demoted Allegedly chased down teenager in E. Boston By John Ellement, Boston Globe Staff, 4/20/2002 Boston Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans has demoted a sergeant to patrol officer after an internal investigation concluded that the officer used excessive force against a teenager he believed had made an obscene gesture toward him. Evans, in a personnel order dated March 29, also suspended Joseph A. Lemoure for one year without pay. Lemoure is appealing to the state Civil Service Commission. Aides said neither Evans nor any of his predecessors in recent memory had ever downgraded an officer's civil service rank. "We believe it's unprecedented," said department spokeswoman Mariellen Burns. "The commissioner has been tough on discipline and this case is no different. The actions that were taken in this case were done because of the egregious nature of what took place." Evans declined to be interviewed. "He thinks the personnel order speaks for itself," Burns said. Evans's move was welcomed by Howard Friedman, a Boston attorney who has twice sued on behalf of clients who said they were brutalized by Lemoure. "It's a significant punishment, there is no doubt about that," Friedman said of the demotion. In 1992, Friedman was the first lawyer to use the St. Clair Commission report, issued that year, in a lawsuit against the Boston Police Department, alleging that Lemoure violated the civil rights of his client, Andre Alves, by punching and kicking him. The case was eventually settled, according to federal court records. Lemoure was promoted to sergeant after he was sued by Aires. The commission, the formation of which was triggered by a series in the Globe, was led by noted attorney James St. Clair, who found massive failures in the way the department handled civilian complaints against officers. Friedman now represents the teenager whose allegation led to Lemoure's demotion. Friedman's client, Peter Fratus, contends that Lemoure was mistaken when he accused Fratus of giving him the finger around 2 a.m. on June 24, 2000. At the time, Lemoure, who was the duty supervisor in charge of the entire shift of uniformed officers, was standing outside ~he East Boston police station when a car whizzed past him, according to Friedman. Lemoure, according to the lawsuit and Boston Police, got into a cruiser and pursued the car, pulling it over at White and Meridian streets. Fratus says Lemoure then pulled him out of the car and threw him to the ground, asking him, "Who's the tough guy now?" According to Evans's personnel order, Lemoure "kicked and punched the male in the head area, causing injury to his jaw." Friedman said Fratus denies gesturing at Lemoure, and even if he had, that Lemoure massively 4/22/02 Page 2 of 2 overreacted. He also said that when Fratus's friend called the station to lodge a complaint against Lemoure, he was warned that he could be arrested for transporting a drunken minor if he returned to the station. In his order, Evans faulted Lemoure for failing to notify operations he was pursuing a car; failing to notify the department he had pulled over a vehicle; mishandling his responsibilities as a duty supervisor; and violating the department's policy on use of force. Friedman said Evans's decision to sustain a complaint of excessive force, by itself, would be rare. "That is unusual, even in the reform era, the post-St. Clair world," Friedman said. He also said the Menino administration has so far decided to let Lemoure fend for himself in the civil lawsuit. Lemoure is represented by a lawyer provided by his union but would be personally liable for any judgment against him, Friedman said. The union attorney, Harold Lichten, could not be reached for comment yesterday. "The city at this point is unwilling to indemnify him, to pay for his misconduct," said Friedman, who has obtained a $100,000 attachment on Lemoure's Saugus home. Mary Jo Harris, Evans's legal adviser, said the department did not refer the Lemoure case to federal or state prosecutors for possible criminal charges. She said another sergeant indicted by federal prosecutors earlier this year was charged after his alleged victim went to federal authorities. "We would not routinely take excessive force cases ... to a criminal agency," she said. "It's basically a case-by-case analysis." Earlier this year, Boston Police Sergeant Harry A. Byrne was charged by federal prosecutors with civil rights and witness-tampering charges stemming from the alleged beating of a Harvard University student last September during a crackdown on college drinking in Brighton. Harris said Byrne has not yet had a disciplinary hearing. 4/22/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 2:10 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] FBI Inquiry into [Seattle Police] Shooting Isn't Unusual FBI's inquiry into shooting isn't unusual By Mike Ljn~blom Seattle Times Eastside bureau Although black community leaders are praising a decision by the FBI to begin a preliminary civil-rights inquiry into the fatal shooting of Robert Lee Thomas Sr. by an off-duty sheriff's deputy, such inquiries are fairly commonplace and rarely result in federal prosecution. Nationwide, the FBI conducts between 5,000 and 6,000 such "preliminary inquiries" each year, of which fewer than 1,000 lead to a full investigation. About 100 of those cases result in a grand jury or other prosecutorial action, and 25 to 30 law-enforcement personnel are charged with violations of federal law, according to Charles Mandigo, agent-in-charge for Washington state, who announced Thursday that his agency would look into the Thomas case. "Tn these cases, the threshold for opening a preliminary inquiry is minimal, irt takes very little for that to be done," he said. Locally, the FBi has inquired into a number of controversial deaths -- the Seattle police shooting of Aaron Roberts in May 200! during a struggle in a moving car; the shooting last summer of unarmed Nelson Martinez by Bellevue Officer Mike Hetle during a domestic-violence call; the Seattle police shooting of knife-wielding, mentally ill David John Walker in April 2000 near Seattle Center; and alleged misconduct by Deputy John Vanderwalker during the 1999 World Trade Organization riots. in all but the Mart[nez case, the men shot by police were black, prompting questions by many African Americans over police use of deadly force. Mart[nez was a Guatemalan national. The FBi found no basis to prosecute the officer who shot Walker. Mandigo said its reports on Roberts, Martinez and the WTO case have been forwarded to the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C., for review. For a federal civil-rights investigation to lead to prosecution, the Justice Department must determine that a law-enforcement officer, "under color of law," violated someone's constitutional rights. At a news conference yesterday, African-American clergy and community leaders lauded the agency's interest in the Thomas shooting." T'm encouraged they're involved. It's another set of outside eyes looking in," said Tony Orange, executive director of the state Commission on African-American Affairs. 4/22/02 Page 2 of 3 The Rev. Leslie Braxton, pastor of Seattle's Mount Zion Baptist Church, credited Tuesday's protest march onto Interstate 5 in Seattle after Thomas' funeral with prompting the federal interest. "We are already seeing the fruits of our determination," Braxton said. But Mandigo said the FBI would have begun an inquiry anyway, based on information from the Thomases' attorney, news reports and citizen complaints. Thomas, a 59-year-old African-American truck driver from Seattle, was shot by off-duty King County Sheriff's Deputy Melvin Miller after Thomas parked his pickup in Miller's east Renton neighborhood the morning of April 7. In the pickup were Thomas' son, Robert Thomas Jr., and the younger Thomas' girlfriend. According to the son, Miller walked over to the truck and harshly ordered them to move. Miller, who is white, fired three shots, killing the elder Thomas. The son and his girlfriend say the shooting was unprovoked, but the Sheriff's Office said Thomas pointed a handgun at Miller. Sheriff Dave Reichert said yesterday he welcomes the FBI's involvement. Preliminary FBI inquiries are usually limited to reviews of police and autopsy reports, medical records, and other documents and interviews with alleged victims. Metropolitan King County Councilman Larry Gossett of Seattle -- who on Thursday suggested establishing a civilian review board to evaluate cases of lethal force by sheriff's deputies -- has not been among those calling for FBI review of the Thomas shooting. "Given my experience, I don't necessarily place more credence in the federal Justice Department than I do taking it to the State Patrol or allowing the King County Sheriff's Office to look at it," Gossett said. Braxton demanded that, at a minimum, Miller should lose his job for allegedly violating department policies that discourage off-duty deputies from policing their neighborhoods unless there is an immediate threat to life or property. Reichert responded that his department will conduct a fair investigation and said, "we have an excellent record o[ addressing any disciplinary issues that arise in the sheriff's department." King County Executive Ron Sims announced yesterday that he would attempt to speed up the inquest process, and that it would be elevated from District Court to Superior Court, which has more experienced judges who are accustomed to high-profile cases. Police shootings are generally subject to an internal investigation and a fact-gathering hearing before a civilian inquest jury. After hearing testimony from witnesses, the jury turns its findings over to the prosecutor, who determines whether to pursue criminal charges. 4/22/02 Page 3 of 3 Steve Eggert, president of the King County Police Officers Guild, said he was troubled that Gossett, who chairs the County Council's Law, Justice and Human Services Committee, participated in Tuesday's protest. He said Gossett and others should wait until an inquest jury determines the facts of the case. "! just think it's unfortunate, what Mr. Gossett is doing. It just seems premature before any airing of the facts. History always shows that there are two sides to these kinds of things." Nike Lindblom can be reached at 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes, com. Seattle Times staff reporter Alex Fryer contributed to this report. 4/22/02 Page 1 of 6 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 4:09 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org; sean d hurley@gardacomplaints.idgov.ie; nuala.o'loan@policeombudsman.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Canadian Problems 1: Misconduct Allegations Rock BC Police & Oversight Wednesday, April 17, 2002 Misconduct allegations rock B.C. police By DIRK MEISSNER -- The Canadian Press VICTORIA -- The second in command for dealing with complaints against police in British Columbia has accused her boss of orchestrating back-room deals with police, misleading the provincial solicitor general and the media and abusing taxpayers' money. Barbara Murphy made the explosive allegations Wednesday in front of a legislature committee reviewing the office of the B.C. police complaints commissioner. Murphy also told the committee that her boss, Don Morrison, tried to intimidate and threaten her when she insisted on testifying. Murphy said Morrison told her: "If you're going to speak to that committee, you better get yourself a good lawyer." She described Morrison as an office tyrant who demeans and berates staff and often resorts to manipulation, intimidation and bully tactics. "There was a whole atmosphere of intimidation" in the office, Murphy told the committee. "He did everything in his power to influence what was going to happen," Murphy also said. A legislative committee reviewing B.C.'s police complaint process has heard testimony that Morrison would rather socialize with police than investigate complaints of misconduct. "The commissioner routinely makes the assertion that he is credited with having more power than a Supreme Court justice," Murphy said. "1 hope that statement sets off alarm bells." Committee chairman John Nuraney said Murphy's testimony about back-room deals with police was "disturbing." "What we may want to do now is seek some kind of guidance from the legal counsel as to what are the parameters of our mandate and what is it we can do at this stage," he said. During the hearing, Murphy agreed with Nuraney when he suggested she was accusing Morrison of gross misconduct. "1 urge this committee to also make recommendations relating to the need for integrity on the part of the commissioner and all his staff," she said. Testimony is scheduled to continue until May, followed by a report in August, but Murphy's testimony could alter the process, Nuraney said. 4/22/02 Page 2 of 6 Morrison, a former Crown prosecutor, has been invited to testify before the committee, but a date has not been set. He has described the current controversy as a personal attack made by former colleagues. He issued an earlier statement saying he was confident he would be cleared by his own staff. He was appointed as the province's first police complaints commissioner in 1998. Morrison could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Two police cases have fuelled the allegations against Morrison. One involves an aboriginal man who froze to death after being arrested and released by Vancouver police and the other concerns a Vancouver police detective permitted to take sick leave and retire before facing a disciplinary hearing. Morrison ignored repeated recommendations from his staff to hold a public hearing into the December 1998 death of Frank Paul, Murphy said. Paul was intoxicated and barely mobile when taken to Vancouver jail cells by two officers. Later, the officers tried to take him to a detox centre, but when he was refused Paul was left in an alley in Vancouver's downtown east side, where he died, the committee heard. After closed-door meetings between Morrison and police brass, a junior officer received a one-day suspension and the senior officer was suspended for two days, Murphy said. She also accused Morrison of misleading and manipulating the media in a case involving retired Vancouver detective Murray Phillips. When it was reported last October in the media that Morrison and police lawyers worked out a deal that allowed Phillips to avoid a disciplinary hearing by retiring, Morrison told Murphy to deny the allegations even though Morrison was part of the deal, Murphy said. "He authorized me to use the phrase, 'we are morally outraged,'" Murphy said. She said Morrison told her give solicitor general Rich Coleman the brush-off if he calls for advice or information on cases. '"You just tell the solicitor general this case is closed,'" Murphy said. Morrison hired lawyers he wanted and ignored financial inquiries from the government, she said. Murphy said his stock response to government inquiries was, '"Are they telling me I can't hire the lawyer I want?'" Outside the hearing, Murphy said she will report for work Friday. She said she was relieved to be able to testify before a government committee monitoring her work place. "This type of process, and I know it's been referred to as a whistle-blower type of process, but what I find interesting is that what's happening right now is not blowing the whistle on government, it's 4/22/02 Page 3 of 6 blowing the whistle to government," Murphy said. Police complaints commissioner accused by his deputy of bullying, intimidation Craig Mclnnes Vancouver Sun Thursday, April 18, 2002 Barbara Murphy, the deputy police commissioner made a series of allegations about her boss, Don Morrison. VICTORIA -- B.C.'s deputy police complaints commissioner has accused her boss of being a bully, squandering taxpayers' money and asking her to mislead the government. Barbara Murphy made the extraordinary allegations to a legislative committee reviewing the operations of the Police Complaints Commission, which has been headed by former prosecutor Don Morrison since it was set up in 1998. The independent commission is responsible for monitoring complaints against municipal police departments. Murphy, a lawyer by training who has been deputy complaints commissioner since last May, said Morrison runs the office with "bullying, intimidation and manipulation." "1 had no idea what I was walking into," Murphy told the committee. "I'm now applying for other jobs. ... I'm willing to take a voluntary demotion just to get out of there. Yes, it's that bad." On one occasion, Murphy said Morrison asked her to respond to a direct query from the solicitor- general by saying that a file was closed when it was clear to her that it was still open. "My response to that was: 'If you want to mislead the solicitor-general, you're going to have to do it yourself, because I won't do it for you.'" Murphy also agreed with a suggestion from the committee chair that Morrison was guilty of "gross misconduct" in a case where she unwittingly misled The Vancouver Sun on Morrison's behalf. Murphy told The Sun last October that the Commission was not part of a secret deal between the Vancouver police department and an officer accused of drug use and cavorting with prostitutes, Murphy was reacting to testimony in a court case that Detective Constable Murray Phillips had reached a deal to go on sick leave until he retired rather than face a disciplinary hearing. Murphy's assurance to The Sun followed a conversation with Morrison, who told her he was "morally outraged" by the news of the deal. After the story appeared, other staff at the commission showed her a file that showed Morrison had 4/22/02 Page 4 of 6 been talking to Phillips' lawyer about the deal months before. "1 was horrified. I'd been had. I'd been used," she said. Since then, she said she has avoided the media. "I'm not going to talk to them if I'm expected to give a half truth." The special legislative committee is meeting to review the complaints commission after its first three years of operation. Morrison was appointed by an all-party committee to a six-year term. He can only be removed by a two-thirds vote of the legislature, or if he resigns. John Nuraney, the committee chairman, said after the testimony that his committee would be seeking legal advice on how to proceed and may make an interim report rather than carry on as planned with a report by August. Solicitor-General Rich Coleman, who sat on the committee that appointed Morrison, said he is content to wait for that report. A spokesman for Morrison said Wednesday the commissioner would only comment when he gets another chance to testify before the committee. Murphy said she is supposed to return to work at the commission office tomorrow, if she still has a job. Ironically, Morrison had counted on Murphy to support him Wednesday after he was attacked during committee testimony last week by the former deputy commissioner, Matthew Adie. Adie told the committee that Morrison had steadfastly refused to call a public hearing into the death of a native man, Frank Joseph Paul, who died of alcohol poisoning and exposure after being left in an alley by a Vancouver police officer. Meanwhile, Surrey Newton MLA Tony Bhullar swore out a complaint to the commission Tuesday to get an investigation into the Paul case. Bhullar said in an interview that while there is intense focus on Morrison, what happened to Paul has to be reviewed. "A life was lost due to hypo-thermia. What about that case -- what went wrong there?" Bhullar said. "Certainly in this case, we need some answers." Adie said the problems at the commission were a result of judgements made by Morrison, who was too close to the police. In reply, Morrison issued a release saying Adie did not know the full story since he had retired by the time some of the decisions were made. Morrison said he was confident that current staff members who had been called to testify before the committee would "correct the misinformation." But far from being his defender, Morrison's current deputy spent almost three hours outlining an extraordinary list of complaints about her boss. Among them: 4/22/02 Page 5 of 6 - He hired his friends as lawyers for the commission, insisting they be paid at the top rate right from the beginning. "He's got his friends. Some people are doing very well by this." - The commission spent $10,000 a year to supply Morrison with a car he did not use to drive to work. "His wife drives the car. If he has to go to a meeting, I have to bring my car so I can give him a ride." - The commission spent excessive amounts on travel, including a $20,000 trip to Quebec for four current and one former staff member. - There was no control on spending. "I've been in situations where I have said: '1 won't sign for this. If you want this, you sign for it.' Of course, while that might make me sit up and take notice, it only makes him pick up the pen." Murphy did support Morrison on the Paul case, however, and questioned the zeal of her colleagues in seeking a public hearing. While others criticized the commissioner for being too close to police, she said she found the office was too quick to seek prosecutions rather than mediated settlements. Murphy said morale in the office was even worse than reported recently by the provincial auditor- general, largely because of the way Morrison treats staff, especially when he is responding to information that does not support his point of view. He often spoke with a "demeaning manner and tone of voice ... that suggests the listener is stupid. I can assure you that among the commissioner's staff, including me, it is demoralizing, demeaning and at times humiliating to be spoken to that way. "It is my view that this is often exactly what the commissioner intends," she said. Murphy said she was subjected to more intimidation in the past week, after Adie's testimony appeared on the Internet. "He made it a point to let me know that he'd talked to certain people and that they were going to be on his side ... The message was very, very clear: 'The people who think they're going to discredit me are going to pay the consequences for this.'" The diminutive Murphy said Morrison uses his size as part of his intimidation. "When I described that range of bullying, intimidation and manipulation, I've certainly had my fair share of that in the last week. You know, everything from, 'You'd better hire yourself a lawyer before you talk to those people,' to what a wonderful deputy I am." cmcinnes@direct.ca © Copyright 2002 Vancouver Sun 4/22/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 4:10 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] New Rules for Tucson Cops: You Lie, You're Out The Arizona Daily Star Monday April 22 01:13 AM EDT New rule for cops: You lie, you're out By Enric Volante , ©ARIZONA DALLY STAR Tucson police get serious about dealing with officers' untruths Dozens of Tucson police officers - working jobs where integrity determines whether justice is done - have lied to their bosses, to citizens or to a judge or jury, according to a review of five years of Police Department records. At least 33 officers since 1997 have been disciplined or forced out for lying, writing false reports or other types of untruthfulness, the Arizona Dally Star found. Fifteen of the 33 officers - a small fraction of a force that today numbers 975 - either were fired or retired before termination. But the damage from lying extends far beyond the numbers to an agency's ability to fight crime. Under court rulings in recent years, if an officer's personnel file includes even one substantiated complaint of untruthfulness, defense attorneys can get it and use it to discredit the officer's testimony in any case he or she investigates. Such tainted officers have become what Carl Milazzo, a police attorney in Illinois, called a "ticking time bomb." The threat of impeachment means that officers who would have been reprimanded or suspended for less-serious lying in the past now face ejection from a law enforcement career. The seriousness of the punishment underscores an old slogan among police: "You lie, you die." That's the way it should be, said Neal Trautman of Florida, a former police officer who teaches ethics seminars. "Any time you have an officer intentionally lying, it's never minor," said Trautman. "And it's a mistake to treat it that way because you encourage more of the same. Virtually without exception, all major scandals begin with an officer doing relatively small infractions." Decertification the state rule since 1999 The Arizona certification agency, known as the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, or POST, reported 26 allegations of untruthfulness in cases where it revoked the certification of peace officers last year, up from 17 allegations the year before. Arizona has 13,481 officers. The Arizona agency has made decertification the rule since 1999 for duty-related lying. "1 don't know of any other state that has so forcefully supported the integrity of policing," said Gary Sykes, director of the Texas-based Institute for Law Enfomement Administration. Texas, in contrast, recently took a step backward by temporarily waiving a rule against letting people with Class A misdemeanor convictions become cops. The change, which might be made permanent, is fueled by a shortage of candidates for raw enfomement work. Tucson comes full circle In Tucson, Chief Richard Miranda raised the stakes last Sept. 25 in a memo to all officers. 4/22/02 Page 2 of 4 "la the recent past, violations of untruthfulness have resulted in discipline less than termination," he wrote. "This will no longer be the case." Two months ago, Miranda fired Officer Christopher Suda for writing a false report. The 27-year-old patrol officer saw a crack cocaine deal go down, personnel reports show. Suda confiscated a small amount of dope from a man but did not arrest him because he planned to use him as a confidential informant. After Suda realized he had violated procedure on how to sign up informers, he tried to hide his mistake by reporting he found the crack near a stairwell, his supervisors reported. Suda, who admitted mistakes but not untruthfulness, opted to join the military instead of appealing his dismissal, said his attorney, Michael Storie. Capt. Kevin Mayhew, the department's chief of staff, said the higher stakes today seem to have brought the department full circle to the tough stand he remembers 25 years ago when he became a cop. "When I came on the Police Department it was very clear.., that I could make mistakes, I could do things wrong.., but If I lied, I was gone," Mayhew said. "1 don't know how it happened or why it happened (but) that sort of went away .... It was more like: 'If you lie, you might get fired.'" Weighing the damage of lies Whether the tougher new stand translates into more firings is impossible to say yet, said Sgt. Rich Anemone, president of the Tucson Police Officers Association. Officers who lie should face tough consequences, Anemone said, as long as the standard for proof of guilt is high. An officer who lied about a serious crime shouldn't be able to testify, he said. But he questioned whether a cop should lose credibility as a witness for covering up that he slightly dented a patrol car. 2 cases of false testimony About a dozen allegations of false testimony have been investigated by Tucson Police Department supervisors or Internal Affairs investigators since 1997, the Star found. Investigators concluded the allegations were true in two cases: * Officer Deborah K. Colee was fired in 1998 after she testified falsely in an order-of-protection hearing that involved a friend. She was convicted of false swearing and placed on probation for two years. POST revoked her certification to work as a cop. * Detective Joe Godoy received a "major" reprimand in 2000 from Chief Miranda for falsely testifying about when he learned of suspects in a triple-murder case. The chief later softened the reprimand one step to "serious." Police said they did not fire Godoy because he thought he was doing the right thing to avoid a mistrial. He resigned last May, shortly before a grand jury indicted him on nine counts of perjury in connection with that trial and one other. Charges were later dismissed, but his attorneys said they anticipate new charges. The 33 internal investigations included a few officer recruits but mostly involved experienced officers. Some were disciplined for false statements. Others came under investigation for misconduct ranging from minor to serious, then were accused of being untruthful when questioned. "An honest mistake" In some internal investigations, Tucson police administrators found officers gave inaccurate information due to mistakes, not lies. One such case involved Officer Beau Tribolet. In a pretrial interview, he told a defense attorney that he would not be able to identify the man he had cited for masturbating in a video booth at an adult bookstore. Tribolet said it had been too long ago, and - as with a traffic cop citing speeders - he'd seen too many faces to remember them all. But later, when Tribolet arrived in court and a prosecutor asked him to identify the defendant, the officer quickly indicated a man in a white shirt and tie seated at a table next to the defense attorney. 4/22/02 Page 3 of 4 That's where a defendant usually sits. But not this day: Tribolet misidentified an olive-skinned Hispanic private investigator as the Anglo defendant. After the defense filed a formal complaint, police launched an Internal Affairs investigation. Last May, police administrators concluded that Tribolet did not commit perjury but should have been better prepared for court. Undergoing investigation by Internal Affairs is always stressful, Tribolet said last week. But when "it's just an error - an honest mistake - and people are accusing you of doing something wrong, it's more stressful." "Now I just make sure that I know 110 percent that the person is the defendant. If I don't know for 110 percent, I let the prosecutor know and I let them deal with the identification." Some cops police themselves In another case that police attributed to a mistake, Scott Gregory Lewis, a former Tucson resident, beat a drunken-driving charge after a Tucson officer's own videotape contradicted the officer's testimony that Lewis requested an attorney. Lewis said he doubts police would have fired the officer even if he had been found dishonest instead of forgetful. "Cops are hard to find nowadays," Lewis said. "1 think that they're undermanned and getting rid of one is tough to do." But some cops pull no punches when they find one of their own has been untruthful, taking to heart the slogan, "You you die." In a blistering personnel report following a sexual harassment investigation, a police captain called one of her officers a liar, rumor-monger, extortionist, cheat, manipulator, predator and an enormous liability who used his position and authority to pressure a police recruit for sex. "What next, money from businesses for protection?" Capt. Linda Burkett asked in the 1998 report. Police accept higher standard Veteran Patrol Officer Frank Domanico, who was singled out by a defense attorney as an officer known for straightforward, effective testimony, said police in general accept that they're held to a higher standard of truthfulness and they do their best to be honest and accurate. On the witness stand, Domanico has admitted mistakes in investigations rather than hedging, has apologized to the defense when he initially failed to recall something, and has told a judge he'd rather not testify when his notes were not available - even though it meant losing the case. "If you don't know the answer to a question, don't compound things by lying or exaggerating," Domanico said. Lack of respect a factor in lying A study of data reported by all 50 states over five years ending in 1995 found that making false statements was the top reason officers were decertified. The most frequent type of falsification was cheating on overtime. "When you talk to hundreds of officers about why they did it, they most often cite the way they were treated by the organization," said Trautman, executive director of the Florida-based National Institute of Ethics, which performed the study. Like many employees of companies outside law enforcement, police officers may perceive a lack of respect or dignity. "In a law enforcement agency, the animosity and resentment builds up over the years, so officers start compromising their own integrity and they justify it and rationalize it due to resentfulness of the way they're treated," Trautman said. Sykes, the Texas institute director, recommends that police departments deal with the threat to their crime-fighting abilities by writing a seemingly obvious requirement into the job description: Candidates for police officer must have the capacity to testify in court. "That's part of fitness for duty," Sykes said. "The same as being able to shoot or qualify with a weapon, you should be able to give credible testimony in legal 4/22/02 Page 4 of 4 proceedings." * Contact Enric Volante at 573-4129 or at volante('C_.ozstamet, com. Tucson police updated their rules on lying last year: A. No member shall knowingly make an untrue statement about a fact, either orally or in writing, in connection with an investigation, assignmen! or inquiry. B. No member shall knowingly sign any false official statement or report, commit perjury, or give false testimony before any court, grand jury, board, commission, judicial or administrative hearing, or department hearing, whether or not under oath. C. Members are required to report completely, honestly and accurately all facts and information pertaining to any investigation, whether criminal or administrative, or other matter of concern to the department. D. This rule does not apply to an officer's questioning or interrogation of a person involved in a criminal investigation or where the officer is engaged in an approved undercover role where such misrepresentation is not inconsistent with law or accepted professional practice. NewsTALK * Lying or untruthfulness more than any other reason is why police are disciplined in the United States. We'd like to hear what you think regarding today's story about local efforts to deal with the problem. Please consider these questions in responding. 1. Should police be held to a higher standard of truthfulness than other public employees ? 2. Do police face greater pressure to lie than other people do because of the nature of their job? 3. What's the appropriate response if an officer is caught lying... . under oath at a trial? . in writing a report about an incident? . during questioning by a supervisor? 4. What is your overall view about the truthfulness of local law enforcement officers? Responses will be published on Tuesday's Opinion page. A sample will be selected to offer a range of opinions. Please include your name, a phone number for verification and information about yourself, such as your occupation. Comments should reach us by noon Monday. E-mail: newsq@azstarnet.cem. Limited to four sentences. Phone messages: 434-4094. Please spell your name. Responses become Star property. 4/22/02 Marian Karr From: Kelvyn.Anderson@phila.gov Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 9:18 AM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Philadelphia Police Complaints drop by 29% in first quarter 2002 The number of civilian complaints filed with the Police Advisory Commission dropped by 29%, from 55 in the first quarter of 2001, to 39 in the first quarter of 2002. Civilian complaints received by the Internal Affairs Division of the Police Department also dropped by 29%, from 169 filed during the first quarter of 2001, to 120 filed with Internal Affairs during the first quarter of 2002. "It is always difficult to explain any sudden rise or dip in the number of complaints," noted Hector Soto, Executive Director of the Police Advisory Commission. "As an example and to keep things in perspective, the total number of complaints filed with the Commission has increased in each of the last four fiscal years. The Commission will continue to monitor complaint filings and report to the public on significant trends and patterns." Last year, 184 complaints were filed with the Commission and 596 with Internal Affairs. If the present trend continues, an unprecedented 30% drop in the number of filed civilian complaints uould result. Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Page 1 of 2 Marian Kart From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, ^pri124, 2002 8:23 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Akron Ohio Considering Oversight Citizen board to hear complaints about police is considered in Akron 04/22/02 Donna J. Robb ..Plain Dealer Reporter Akron- Police officers accused of misbehavior in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and many other U.S. cities must answer to citizen review boards. .But not in Akron. Akron officers investigate complaints against fellow officers. And the process stops there. So far this year, 43 citizens have filed complaints. Just one allegation - that an officer failed to appear at a court hearing - resulted in discipline. Interviews with many citizens revealed the complaint procedure left them feeling angry and distrustful of the system. That could change soon. Despite opposition from Police Chief Michael Matulavich and Mayor Don Plusquellic, Akron City Council members are studying civilian review procedures in other cities and are considering a review board and mediation procedures for the city. "It makes no sense at all that a person has to go to the fifth floor of the police station and complain about a police officer to a police officer," said Jim Shealey, the councilman who heads the Public Safety Committee. "That is very intimidating." The committee began studying civilian review in January and already has heard stories like these: Longtime Akron resident Joe Nemer filed a complaint in February that was ruled unsubstantiated this month. He complained that an officer ordered him to shut up and wouldn't listen to the problem he was having with a renter. Though two months have passed since the incident with the officer, Nemer said he is still angry and wants an apology. "1 was humiliated by that officer," he said. Melissa Ritchie of North Canton tends bar in Akron and was stopped recently for not having her headlights on. "The officer asked me questions that had nothing to do with my forgetting to turn my lights on," she said. "He asked if l had graduated from high school. He asked me what day of the week I was born on. I felt that he was trying to demean me." Recently, several council members spent a day in Milwaukee, where 85 percent of civilian complaints are resolved with mediation, Shealey said. Officers and the citizens meet face-to-face and with a mediator. 4/24/02 Page 2 of 2 "They get to meet each other in a neutral setting, and both sides come away satisfied," he said. "That's a great way to improve the public's understanding of police work and police officers' relationships with the community." Shealey and council members Renee Greene, Garry Moneypenny and Marco Sommerville will travel this week to San Jose, Calif. The city has a long history of involving citizens in reviewing allegations of police misconduct. "San Jose is the grandfather of civilian police review," said Ross Steinberg, the civilian director of Cleveland's citizens review board. In Cleveland, police sergeants are involved in the investigations, but there are civilian investigators, too. Steinberg said that most of the 700-plus complaints filed last year were determined to be unfounded, or the officer's actions were found to be appropriate. But the complaints against each officer were tracked. "That way you can see a pattern of complaints," Steinberg said. "Say 10 complaints come in that an officer used vulgar language. You might not be able to substantiate any of the complaints because it is one person's word against another's, but the pattern would trigger intervention." Akron already has instituted some changes. Plusquellic recently ordered police to document every citizen complaint, after a woman complained to council that officers refused to take her complaint about receiving traffic tickets. Starting today, simplified complaint forms will be available at the station. Police will mail the forms to citizens who don't want to go to the station. Forms also will be available at City Hall and from sergeants on patrol, Matulavich said. Though Plusquellic ordered that every complaint be taken, he does not support a civilian review board. "The Police Department has a system of internal checks and balances, and there is oversight from council and the media," he said. Matulavich said a citizen review board is like having a group of car mechanics review a surgeon's work. Shealey called the chief's attitude arrogant. "The people are the police, and the police are the people," he said. "The two groups are equals." Contact Donna J. Robb at: drobb@plaind.com, 800-628-6689 4/24/02 Page 1 0£2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 8:23 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Canadian Problems 2: Quebec Cop Tampered w Evidence in Fatal Shooting Disgraced ex-SQ cop granted discharge GEORGE KALOGERAKIS Montreal Gazette Thursday, April 18, 2002 A former provincial policeman pleaded guilty yesterday to monkeying with evidence in a fatal police shooting 13 years ago, and was granted an absolute discharge. Ga~tan Rivest left the S0ret~ du Quebec in disgrace while being investigated for cigarette smuggling. He then set himself up as a whistle-blower against misconduct and brutality in the force. But he was soon seen in the company of loan sharks with ties to Hells Angels kingpin Maurice Boucher, and Rivest ended up in jail for loan-sharking. Yesterday, he got an absolute discharge right away since he was the one who confessed to obstructing justice in the 1989 shooting. The charge against Rivest was spearheaded by a police watchdog group called Mouvement Action Justice, headed by Yves Manseau. In 1996, Rivest told Manseau that he helped cover up details in the Montreal police shooting of Yvon Lafrance to help a fellow officer escape blame. Manseau and Rivest held a joint press conference about the shooting, but authorities did not reopen the case. Charged as Ploy In an attempt to spark some movement, Manseau filed a private criminal charge against Rivest in Quebec Court. Yesterday, Manseau acted as prosecutor as Rivest pleaded guilty and asked for an absolute discharge. Manseau said Rivest was part of an SQ team called to conduct an independent probe of a Montreal police shooting. The officer who shot Lafrance admitted he fired because of frayed nerves, not because someone's life was in danger, Rivest claimed. But SQ officers conspired with Montreal officers and their union to change the facts so no fault could be found, Rivest said. "1 was the first police officer to denounce these things at the S0ret~ du Qu6bec," Rivest told the judge. Quebec Court Judge Jean $irois asked him how an ex-cop could end up with loan-sharking convictions. "It was under certain circumstances," Rivest said sheepishly. 4/24/02 Page 2 of 2 Rivest had often been in the company of a Hells-linked loan shark named Robert (Bob) Savard, who died two years ago. And another loan shark with ties to the Hells was killed around the same time while driving a vehicle rented in Rivest's name. Both loan sharks were close to Boucher, and Rivest's own name came up at Boucher's continuing trial on charges of ordering the murder of two prison guards. Push to Reopen Inquest Manseau admits Rivest hasn't done his credibility much good with his convictions for loan-sharking and links to the biker gang. But Manseau wants to use yesterday's conviction to push the provincial government to reopen the coroner's inquest into Lafrance's death. The inquest absolved police of any blame. Fran(;ois Houle, a spokesman for the coroner's office, said Manseau would have to make a written request for a new inquest. S0ret~ Constable Gilles Mitchell said he couldn't comment on how Rivest's conviction reflects on the force. The force has called Rivest a pawn in organized crime's attempts to discredit police. But a previous confession by Rivest led the Quebec Court of Appeal to take the unprecedented step of exonerating a dead man. Rivest had admitted to beating Michel Jettb into confessing to manslaughter in the 1989 death of a drug dealer. Jett~ did all his time in jail but appealed after Rivest came forward. He died before the appeal court absolved him. - George Kalogerakis can be reached at georgek@thegazette.southam.ca. 4/24/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Kart From: Suelqq@aoLcom Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 8:23 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Miami Commissioner [& Ex-Cop] Offers Alternative to Oversight Miami Herald Posted on Wed, Apr. 17, 2002 L [ __ lEx-cop offers alternative in oversight of shootings BY KARL ROSS kross@herald.com Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez, a cop turned politician, will add a proposal of his own for civilian oversight of police shootings into the mix at a committee meeting on the issue today. Martinez's plan does not provide for an independently run civilian investigative panel with subpoena powers, as favored by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and many black community leaders. However, it would permit two members of the county's Independent Review Panel, or IRP, to monitor ongoing investigations by law enforcement agencies, sitting in on official briefings, depositions of witnesses and other proceedings. The IRP is a county agency that reviews citizens' misconduct complaints against all Miami-Dade employees, including police officers. The IRP does not ordinarily investigate police'shootings and lacks subpoena powers. Martinez said the IRP members would act as citizen watchdogs. He said they would become involved in inquiries into shootings by a Miami-Dade police officers starting at the time of a review that takes place throe days after the incident, a process led by the state attorney's office. 'They already have a pretty good idea by that time if it's a good shoot or a bad shoot,' he said. Martinez said IRP members would participate in "every other meeting thereafter until the conclusion of the investigation." These include meetings called by the state attorney's office, police homicide detectives, internar affairs investigators and lawyers for officers involved in shootings. Martlnez said IRP members would be "active participants," albeit with limitations. They could submit written questions for witnesses, request subpoenas and add people to witness lists - but only through the state attorney's office. "Here's the catch," Martinez said. "State statute says anybody involved in an ongoing investigation cannot comment on it until its conclusion. Then it's public record." Mart[nez said such leaks are punishable by fines of up to $1,000 and up to one year in prison. Initial reception from black community activists was tepid. Max Rameau, spokesman for the Coalition against Police Brutality and Harassment, said: "1 like the idea, but the idea has to work in conjunction with a civilian investigative panel... It can't take its place." Rameau stressed that any civilian panel must be controlled by community activists, not county officials. A 17-year veteran of the Miami-Dade Police Department, Martinez has first-hand knowledge of the review process. Twice he fired his gun in the line of duty, both times during undercover drug stings. One resulted in a fatality. Asked if police occasionally pull the trigger in error, Martinez said, "Yeah. There are bad shoots. Luckily none of them were mine." Martinez received a Gold Medal of Valor, the department's highest honor, for his actions during a 1992 gun battle that left a drug dealer dead and spared the lives of another undercover officer and an informant. Martinez, a former director of the Police Benevolent Association, said he was prepared to defend himself against criticism 4/24/02 Page 2 of 2 his proposal is crafted to protect bad cops. "No," he said. 'Tm actually protecting the process." Martinez said he feared a civilian panel could trip up official inquiries into police shootings. An ill-advised subpoena, he said, could grant immunity to somebody rival investigators feel should be charged with a crime. Martinez said he briefed PBA President John Rivera and black civil rights attorney H.T. Smith about his plan. Rivera said he had not seen Martinez's plan in writing. "Maybe we'll be able to live with it, maybe we won't," Rivera said. "So I'm very skeptical." Smith could not be reached following a meeting Tuesday with Martinez. Martinez said he would float his proposal when he chairs today's meeting of the County Commission's health, public safety and human services committee. He said he would not present his plan as a formal resolution out of deference to Commissioner Dorrin Rolle. Rolle is presenting a resorution backed by Penelas that would allow county voters to decide in a Nov. 5 special election whether to create an independent civilian investigative panel similar to the one approved last year by Miami voters. As described in a resolution, such a panel would be "authorized with subpoena powers to be used only upon the county attorney's approval and in consultation" with state and federal prosecutors. Penelas, who will speak at today's hearing, welcomed Mart[nez's proposal, but said he wasn't familiar enough with the details to comment. He said he would support any elements that could be incorporated into Rolle's plan. "1 actually see it as a very positive step that the commissioner -- as chairman of the public safety committee -- is coming out with a proposal." Penelas' remarks contrast with the lively rebuke he issued County Manager Steve Shiver on April 2 in response to an unsolicited proposal from Shiver's office to involve the Inspector General's office in police misconduct investigations. Asked to account for the difference, Penelas said: "Commissioner Martinez is a policy maker. It's his job to propose policy -- that's the basic difference." 4/24/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 8:23 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA: PD Union Wins Role in Reforml Chief Parks Resigns http~//latimes~com/news/!ocaFla-000028878apr23 story?coll=!a%2Dhea~!ines%2 Dca!iforn!a Union Wins a Role in Reform of LAPD By HENRY WEINSTEIN LA TIMES STAFF WRITER April 23 2002 The Los Angeles Police Protective League has the right to formally participate in implementation of the federal consent decree aimed at reforming the Los Angeles Police Department, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In addition, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals strongly suggested that several community activist groups, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, should also be able to participate in the process. The 3-0 decision granting the Protective League formal status in the consent decree process overturns a ruling last year by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess, who is supervising the decree. Monday's decision was a major victory for the league, which also had been spurned in its efforts to be part of the negotiations that led to the consent decree. The decision, however, was viewed with apprehension by some, including Mayor James K. Hahn, who say they fear the league will attempt to obstruct reforms. "l am thrilled," said Costa Mesa lawyer Gregory G. Petersen, who represents the league~ He said the 9th Cimuit order would give the league the right to appear as a party in court, raise objections on how the decree is being implemented and to file appeals if it does not prevail on various issues. Hahn said he would ask the city attorney's office to ask for a rehearing before a larger panel of 9th Circuit judges. He expressed concern that if the league became a formal party in the case it could hamper the reform process. "1 don't think we can allow the Police Protective League to be an obstacle to police reform," Hahn said. "If we are going to be subject to some kind of pressure by the police union to undo the path we are on to reform, I think that's the wrong thing to do." Both the city and the U.S. Justice Department had opposed intervention by the league and the community groups. In his decision last year, Feess acknowledged that the league, which represents nearly 9,000 rank and file officers, "has an important perspective on this action." But he said permitting the league formal status in the case would slow the process of reform. The 9th Circuit disagreed, saying Feess' praiseworthy management of the case so far shows that he can handle it in a fair and expedient fashion even with the addition of other parties. "More importantly," wrote Judge Sidney R. Thomas, "the idea of 'streamlining' the litigation," as urged by city officials and the Justice Department, "should not be accomplished at the risk of marginalizing those--such as the Police League and the Community Intervenore--who have some of the strongest interests in the outcome." On the other hand, the appellate panel, which arso included Judges James R. Browning and Johnnie B. Rawlinson, awarded one major victory to the city and the Justice Department. The judges said even though Monday's decision involves rulings made at the onset of the case, "our holding does not require the district court to turn back the clock or rescind the consent decree," which the Protective League had sought. Rather, the appeals court said the league will have formal status in the case as soon as Feess issues a formal intervention order when the case is returned to him. The decree, a response to the Rampart scandal, is designed to end what the Justice Department has termed "a pattern or practice" of civil rights violations by the LAPD. Justice Department spokesman Dan Nelson said, "We are pleased that the consent decree remains in place and that reforms will continue. We are looking forward to the union's input into the process." 4/24/02 Page 2 of 4 However, other sources said some in the department are quite disturbed about the ruling, which could alter the dynamics of the reform process. The league already has made it clear that it strongly objects to one major requirement of the decree-having to collect data on the race and ethnicity of each motorist an officer stops. The data collection is required under the decree, as a means of helping to determine whether LAPD officers are engaging in "racial profiling." On Monday, though, Petersen said the league considered it an act of racial profiling for the officers to gather the data. ACLU legal director Mark D. Rosenbaum called Monday's ruling-which suggests that Feess should grant the community groups and 12 Los Angeles residents what is known as "permissive intervenor" status in the case--"a great victory." Los Angeles residents, he said, "are the ultimate stakeholders in terms of the integrity of the consent decree" and need to have an opportunity to work with the city and independent monitor Michael Cherkasky in implementing the decree. The groups are the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles, Homeboy's, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and Radio Sin Fronteras. "The individuals," the court said, "are people of color, many of whom live in areas ... that have high crime rates, who have submitted uncontroverted declarations stating that they have suffered from, and are likely to continue to suffer from, the unconstitutional police misconduct that forms the basis of the United States' suit against" the defendants. The defendants include the city of Los Angeles, the LAPD and the Police Commission. Nonetheless, the appeals court said Feess was correct in denying the individuals and community groups what is called mandatory intervenor status in the case. The court said the individuals and groups had not shown that the government was not adequately protecting their interests. On the other hand, the 9th Circuit said the Protective League clearly was entitled to mandatory intervenor status because its labor contract with the city could be affected by the implementation of the consent decree. The appeals court said no other party in the case could adequately protect the league's interests. It rejected Feess' position that granting the league friend-of-the court status was sufficient to protect its interests, because such a position does not give the league any right to appeal decisions involving the decree. Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story. Parks Hangs Up His Badge Police: The chief appears relaxed as he announces retirement, says he will not sue city. He confirms political aspirations. By JILL LEOVY and TINA DAUNT Times Staff Writers April 23 2002 Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said Monday that he plans to step aside within days to allow an interim chief to take the helm of the Police Department and confirmed rumors that he is contemplating a run for City Council. Parks, whose request for a second term was rejected by the Police Commission earlier this month, also said he will not sue the city because of his ouster. Although the outgoing chief said he believes he has legal grounds for a lawsuit, he said he doesn't want Los Angeles taxpayers to foot the bill. Looking strikingly relaxed and good-humored in a suit and tie--a sharp contrast to his tense demeanor at many points in recent weeks-Parks officially ended his 37 years with the LAPD with a brief afternoon speech in front of LAPD headquarters at Parker Center. 4/24/02 Page 3 of 4 His statement was largely devoid of the contentiousness that characterized the political debate around his failed request for reappointment. The issue of whether he had earned a second five-year term had unfolded amid a raciarry tinged political storm that came to a close late last week when the City Council, by an 11-3 vote, decided not to move to overturn the commission. Parks, the city's second African American chief, was widely credited with breaking racial barriers at the LAPD by rising steadily through the ranks after entering the force in the late 1960s. He faired to win support for his reappointment from Mayor James K. Hahn, who rode into office with considerable backing from black voters. Black activists later said they felt betrayed by the mayor's position, and Parks subsequently suggested that maneuverings by the LAPD officers union, the Police Protective League, were instrumental in ousting him. Parks only made passing references to these allegations Monday, saying that the proceedings had exposed obvious deficiencies in the reappointment process. Instead, he focused on possible political plans, thanking the city for "a rewarding and fulfilling career." He said he plans to take a few days off to rest before returning briefly while the commission goes about deciding on an interim chief. The commission will then make recommendations on a permanent chief to Hahn. Parks, 58, whose term as chief was due to end in August, said he expects his official retirement date to be sometime next week. But he said, "it is my expectation to continue to be involved in public life," and is considering running for the 8th District City Council seat in South Los Angeles now held by Mark Ridley-Thomas. Ridley-Thomas, who is leaving the City Council due to term limits, is running for a state Assembly seat. If he wins that seat, he would leave the council in January 2003 and if he loses, he would officialry vacate the seat in June 2003. His successor will be chosen in the election of March 2003. Plans to Study Secession of San Fernando Valley If Parks chose to run, he would have to officially declare his intent by early November. Six people so far have fired with the city's Ethics Commission to raise funds in that race: Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles), Robert Cole, Sherri L. Franklin, Kevin Melton, Mervin L. Evans and Karen Bass. Parks said he was still weighing whether to run, and is assessing his prospects. In the meantime, he said, he will devote his time to volunteering on voter registration efforts and studying San Fernando Valley secession, which he said represents a fundamental voter revolt against political leadership in the city. Parks stopped short of voicing opposition to secession Monday, saying he needed to study the issue further. If Parks chooses to reenter public life as a politician, he would be treading in the footsteps of another LAPD chief-turned- lawmaker: his friend and mentor Ed Davis. Chief until 1978, Davis ran unsuccessfully for governor. Eventually, he served three terms as a Republican state senator. Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, the city's only African American mayor, also rose from the ranks of the LAPD to a career in city politics. Longtime political consultant Rick Taylor said Parks would be a shoo-in for the City Council seat if he chooses to run. "If Chief Parks decides to run for any council district, I believe it's his," Taylor said. "1 can't image anyone beating him. Bernie is a figure in the African American community. He's very, very popular." Police Commission President Rick Caruso said commissioners will consider a list of internal candidates to appoint as interim chief today. However, commissioners will want to interview several candidates before making a final decision on a temporary replacement, he said. In explaining why he voted against Parks' reappointment earlier this month, Caruso had made critical public comments that clearly rankled the chief, who countered that Caruso had unjustly attacked his character and reputation. When Parks appeared at a news conference shortly after accompanied by two attorneys, it appeared that Parks might sue the city for a monetary settlement, as did his predecessor, Willie L. Williams. Although Parks' attorney, Gloria AIIred, gave a statement at Monday's news conference detailing why she thought the chief was entitled to sue, Parks said he has no intention of doing so. 4/24/02 Page 4 of 4 Despite their rift over the reappointment decision, Parks and Caruso spoke briefly by phone before the news conference. Caruso described it as a short but cordial conversation. "1 appreciate the fact that he called me," Caruso said. "And I frankly appreciate the fact that he did take the high road." Old Opponents Join Ranks to Praise Chief Caruso and Parks were not the only ones to put aside acrimony Monday. Parks' announcement seemed to put his most vehement critics in a magnanimous mood. "1 want to thank Chief Parks on behalf of all the people of Los Angeles for his service of 37 years with the LAPD. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude," said Hahn in a news conference after Parks' announcement. Hahn had strongly and repeatedly attacked the chief as he sought to keep his job in recent months. Even leaders of the Police Protective League, who had campaigned vehemently against Parks, chimed in, releasing a written statement thanking the chief for his years of service. Parks was uncharacteristically brief in his comments Monday, cutting short reporters' questions. Afterward, he was mobbed by friends and family members. He hugged and shook hands with many of them as he made his way out the back of Parker Center, joking and smiling. If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at !atimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights. 4/24/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 11:20 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Cincinnati Shapes New Panel to Probe Police Misconduct Cincinnati Shapes Its New Panel to probe police conduct 4 25 02 By Kevin Osborne, Cincinnati Post staff reporter In the first tangible outcome of Cincinnati's settlement of a racial profiling lawsuit against police, city officials today outlined the creation of a panel to investigate allegations of police misconduct. Mayor Charlie Luken said the new Citizens Complaint Authority should be in operation by Aug. 9. Luken - joined in the announcement by City Council members, police supervisors, attorneys involved in the lawsuit and others - said residents seeking to serve on the panel should submit their names to him by May 31. At that time, the mayor will review the applications and give a list of nominees to City Council by July 10. Once council picks seven people to serve on the panel, the members will undergo training July 16-Aug. 9. In the interim, allegations of police misconduct will continue to be reviewed by the city's Office of Municipal Investigation and the Citizens Police Review Panel. The latter group will be disbanded once the new authority is established. "What this envisions, in my mind, is citizen participation of who sits on the Complaint Authority," Luken said. Applicants must live within Cincinnati city limits, submit two letters of recommendation and be willing to undergo a background check. People chosen for the panel will serve two-year staggered terms and receive $100 per meeting. Luken is looking for a diverse group of residents to serve as members."l will look for balance, I will look for fairness, people who can make good judgments," the mayor said. '1 will not look for unanimity of thought. "Unlike the current Citizens Police Review Panel, which only reviews completed investigations done by police internal affairs and OMI to ensure they were thorough, the new authority will conduct its own investigations. It will make recommendations to the city manager, who will have the final say on police discipline. Members of the current panel often have said its power was too limited to be effective, complaining about a lack of resources and having their efforts stymied by city personnel. Luken invited panel members to today's announcement and asked them to apply: "We certainly recognize we have asked you to serve under some very difficult circumstances." Police Lt. Col. Richard Biehl, an assistant police chief, said the department will fully cooperate with the new authority."We welcome this evolution of civilian review in Cincinnati," Biehl said. "We are familiar with this recommendation and comfortable with the outcome because we were part of the process." Biehl spoke for Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., who was meeting with Justice Department officials in Washington about possible federal grants to help pay for local police reforms. City Manager Valerie Lemmie said no budget has yet been set for the new authority, but the amount - once determined - would come from the city's operating budget. The Citizen Complaint Authority is designed as an independent agency to review allegations of police misconduct, particularly police shootings, deaths in custody and other major uses of force by officers. Once the new complaint authority is established, the city's Office of Municipal Investigation will relinquish jurisdiction over police matters. The new authority will hire an executive director, who will lead a staff of professional investigators. Strict deadlines would be followed by the group, including giving complaints to investigators within 48 hours of filing and completing most cases in 90 days. Also, the new agency would be allowed to look beyond individual cases for patterns of police misconduct. Timothy Thomas' fatal shooting by a Cincinnati police officer last year during a foot chase sparked three days of riots and prompted City Council to agree to attempt mediating the lawsuit. The settlement combines changes agreed to as part of the racial profiling lawsuit's mediation with various 4/26/02 Page 2 of 2 recommendations made after a separate investigation of the police division by the U.S. Justice Department into overhauling police use-of-force rules. Both efforts deal with police treatment of blacks. 4/26/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 11:32 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Pittsburgh Rev Bd Asks Chief To Fire Officer Fire city officer, Pittsburgh's police review panel asks chief Thursday, April 25, 2002By Johnna A. Pro, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board will ask Mayor Tom Murphy to overturn a ruling by the city's police chief clearing an officer of wrongdoing for twice arresting a mentally ill woman. The board today will send the letter asking the mayor to look at its findings against Officer John O'Rourke who in 1999 and 2000 arrested Patricia Bruce, the sister of Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Walter R. Little. Bruce has severe cognitive and communicative disabilities. "1 just cannot believe that with all the information garnered at the hearing, Chief [Robert W.] McNeilly is going to say the officer acted appropriately," said board Chairwoman Marsha Hinton. "This is one of the most egregious cases we've seen. I think it's terrible." This is the first time the board has asked the mayor to intervene in a case it has reviewed.The board previously ruled that O'Rourke's actions merited termination and asked McNeilly to fire the officer. McNeilly disagreed and limited disciplinary action to an oral reprimand and counseling. Board members, though, disagreed with that decision and asked McNeilly to look at the case a second time. McNeilly agreed to do so, but his findings remain the same. His letter to that effect was released by the board Tuesday night. McNeilly said yesterday that his command staff, the office of municipal investigations and the solicitor's office all looked at the case again and were satisfied that appropriate action was taken. "The findings are still the same," McNeilly said. "He had legal authority to make the two arrests." Little initially filed the complaint against O'Rourke, who arrested Bruce on Sept. 4, 1999, at Pathways in Oakland, a long-term facility for the mentally ill. Staff there called police and wanted her taken to Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic after she became combative. O'Rourke went to the scene, but after being struck in the face by Bruce, charged her with aggravated assault and took her to the Allegheny County Jail. The charge was later dismissed. The board said O'Rourke filed a supplemental report 11 months later, falsely claiming that Little had interceded to get Bruce out of jail and into a mental health facility after the September 1999 arrest. O'Rourke then improperly refiled the charge of felony aggravated assault, the board found. He went to Pathways Aug. 23, 2000, and rearrested Bruce, but that charge also was dropped. McNeilly said that during the first arrest, the evidence showed that Pathways staff was unable to control Bruce and that O'Rourke arrested her only after being assaulted. He said the jail has the ability to evaluate and arrange mental health treatment. For the second arrest, O'Rourke had a valid arrest warrant approved by an assistant district attorney 4/26/02 Page 2 of 2 and signed by a magistrate. In an unrelated case, also heard by the board, McNeilly said that the bureau's disciplinary action is expected to be overturned by an arbitrator. That case involved officer Gordon McDaniel whom the board accused of misconduct when he arrested Brian A. Fisher for shoplifting at a Rite Aide on Jan. 6, 2000. The review board said McDaniel used excessive force and violated other police procedures. The board recommended a 50-day suspension, a number that isn't realistic but is meant to express their dissatisfaction with an officer's performance. McNeilly ruled that McDaniel used appropriate force, which included a take-down using his baton. However, the chief suspended McDaniel for three days because he did not indicate the take down on an internal use of force report. McNeilly said that not accurately reporting that information was a violation of police policy. The Fraternal Order of Police appealed the decision and an arbitration hearing was held on Tuesday. The neutral arbitrator already indicated he would toss out the suspension, McNeilly said. 4/26/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aoLcom Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 12:33 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] [bade] County Stalling on Police Oversight, Rights Groups Say 2 I Posted on Tue, Apr. 23, 002 ~ County stalling on police oversight, rights groups say BY ANDREA ROBINSON arobinson@herald.com Civil rights leaders complained Monday that Mayor Alex Penelas and other county leaders are promoting differing plans to stall civilian oversight of Miami-bade County police and demanded that commissioners approve an investigative panel immediately. Their plan, announced at a news conference in Liberty City, calls for a citizens' board that would independently probe misconduct allegations against Miami-Dade police officers. It would be able to issue subpoenas, after consulting state prosecutors, to compel testimony from witnesses. Its investigation would run concurrently with the one by internal affairs detectives. The proposal also would create a process in which the panel could investigate cases in smaller municipalities without civilian oversight. Currently, only Miami has such a police review body. The activists, representing groups that led the successful campaign for Miami's civilian police panel, said Penelas' plan would take too long because it requires voter approval in November. NO CHARTER CHANGE "Miami-bade does not require a charter change to give subpoena power," said Max Rameau, a member of the Coalition Against Police Brutality. Commissioners "should give the community an oversight panel and not politics." Rameau and others charged that county leaders were dangling competing proposals in hopes of bogging down the issue so none would succeed. Penelas, reached late Monday, said he had not seen the new proposal and declined to address charges that he was playing games. He said that as long as the plan was for an independent civilian board with subpoena power, he could support it. But he questioned the idea of not bringing the matter before voters. "If there's seven votes on the commission to approve this outright, fine with me," he said. "1 don't have to run another campaign in the fall. I think the proposal has greater weight if the community embraces it." Under the county's home-rule charter, the commission has the authority to create a board with subpoena powers. Activists say their plan pushes the process along. FOURTH PROPOSAL Monday's proposal is the fourth one floated since the Jan. 21 shooting death of Eddie Macklin by a 4/26/02 Page 2 of 2 Miami-Dado police officer, which triggered calls for oversight. The announcement was made in Liberty City near the shooting site. The proposal was crafted by the American Civil Liberties Union, Miami-Dado NAACP, People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, Brothers of the Same Mind and other community groups. Last year, those organizations fought for a change in Miami's charter to create a citizens' panel, which voters overwhelmingly supported. "The only reason there's a push to drag this out to a referendum is so the politicians can wash their hands of process," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, president of the ACLU of Miami. "But we elect them to take hard stands." Rodriguez-Taseff said that even if a referendum were successful in November, the commission still would have to iron out the "nitty-gritty" details on structure, staffing and membership of the review board -- as was the case in Miami. That would delay implementation further. 'DONE THE WORK' "We've reworked our proposal with the city of Miami and put forth a proposed ordinance that the county can vote on without running around dangling the carrot of a referendum," she said. "We've done the work for them." Talk about civilian review of county police increased last month after Penelas announced he wanted residents to vote in November on whether to create a panel similar to the one in Miami. Days later, County Manager Steve Shiver released a report recommending that the county's inspector general handle police complaints. A third proposal by Commissioner Joe Martinez would allow two members of the county's Independent Review Panel to monitor ongoing investigations by law enforcement agencies, sitting in on official briefings, depositions of witnesses and other proceedings. John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dado Police Benevolent Association, said he hadn't seen the latest proposal and couldn't comment on it. However, he said, the discussion should not bo based on emotional rhetoric. "Is there a problem with Miami-Dado Police Department?" he said. 'If the answer is 'no,' we need to cease and desist with the rhetoric. If there is a problem, let's list the problem and find a solution." 4/26/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 4:12 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LAPD Looks Back on 1992 Riots LA.P.D. Looks Back on 1992 Riots By PAUL WILBORN c The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - Seeing the flashing lights and the black and white in his roar view mirror, Pernell Clark felt the old fears again. First at age 11, and later in his early 20s, Los Angeles police officers held shotguns and pistols on him, pushed him against walls and patted him down. His crime, he says, was being black. So when he was pulled over earlier this year, Clark, now 35, expected the worst. Instead, the officer was polite, told him he was driving with his lights off and shook his hand before Clark drove away. A lot has changed since rioting erupted after the acquittal of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, 10 years ago Monday. A decade of voter-appreved reforms, two black police chiefs and rigorous federal oversight have improved the LAPD's image. "People in the community have really noticed a change in attitude," said Clark, a health care consultant and organizer of a black mentoring project. But change has come reluctantly and brought new problems. Morale is Iow, more officers are choosing to retire or leave, the department has been tarnished by the worst corruption scandal in 60 years and a reformed process for choosing the chief has become a political minefield. As the city prepares to search for its fourth police chief in a decade, violent crime is rising, arrest rates are dropping and the department is struggling to fill more than 1,100 vacant jobs. Police Chief Daryl Gates, the Iongtime chief ousted after the riots, said the problems are just what he predicted a decade ago. "What all the do-gooders did ... they politicized the chief's job and in doing so they set the stage for corruptions. They set the stage for what is happening today," said Gates. "It's a dysfunctional police department." The department turned infamous after the brutality against King was caught on tape and again came under fire for failing to control rioting that erupted on April 29, 1992. Four days of violence left 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. The damage from fires and looting was put at $1 billion. The official Webster Commission report concluded that Gates had no plan for handling fallout from the King verdict and the Police Department "was caught flat-footed." The department was seen as the equivalent of an occupying army that could not be controlled by the city's elected officials. A commission headed by Warren Christopher, who later became secretary of state, recommended an end to the "lifetime chief." Gates was the last of LA's all-powerful chiefs. The face of the LAPD has changed dramatically since 1992, when the department was almost 60 percent white. Now, 45 percent of the department is white, while nearly half is black or Hispanic. Outgoing Police Chief Bernard Parks, a black, 37-year veteran, was caught between the old culture and the new, observers say. Parks ran afoul of the police union by instituting a wide-ranging new discipline system. At the same time, he lost support of the mayor and the Police Commission by stubbornly resisting civilian oversight. The Police Commission decided not to reappoint him earlier this month. 4/29/02 Page 2 of 2 Erwin Chemerinsky, who helped write some of LAPD's reform rules, said the shift from LAPD's "bunker mentality" to civilian control, tougher discipline and internal reforms hasn't been easy. "We're in a transition, and transitions are always messy," said Chemerinsky, a University of Southern California law professor. Officers remain reluctant to turn in corrupt officers, Chemerinsky said. That "code of silence" let rogue officers in the Rampart division get away with planting evidence, shooting innocent people and lying in court, before being caught in 1998. New officers continue to be drawn into the "us versus them" culture of the LAPD, said David Dotson, a former assistant chief. "They are still told today 'Don't pay any attention to the crap they taught you in the Academy. This is the way it is on the street,'" he said. In some ways, the department's reforms have made it harder to do the job, some argue. Under Gates, officers knew if they made a mistake while trying to do the right thing, the chief would support them, said Lt. Gary Hallden, a 31-year LAPD veteran. "Nowadays, right or wrong, most officers don't feel that support from management and the city. They feel like they will be hung out to dry," Hallden said. Despite the problems, former police commissioner Dean Hansell said reforms since the riots have accomplished a lot. "It is a different department today than 10 years ago," Hansell said. "It will never go back to the way it was." On the Net: Los Angeles Police Department: http://www, lapdonline.orgl 4/29/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 4:12 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Seattle Picks 3 to Review Complaints Against Police 3 picked to review handling of complaints against police.yJ. Martin McOmber Seattle Times staff reporter After months of delay, city officials have picked the three-member citizen's-review board that will oversee complaints against the Seattle Police Department, according to documents released yesterday. The City Council's Police, Fire, Courts and Technology Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the appointments of: Peter Holmes, a former partner with the law firm of Miller Nash LLP; Lynne Iglitzin, an author, activist and former University of Washington political-science professor; and John C. Ross, a security manager for a fiber-optic company. If confirmed by the full council, the three would provide an independent review of how the Police Department's new Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) investigates complaints against officers and other charges of misconduct. The OPA and the review board were approved by the City Council in 1999 after a police detective was accused of stealing money from a crime scene. The Seattle Police Officers Guild accepted the office in its contract ratified in 2000, but appointments to the review board were stopped by a dispute between the council and guild. According to those familiar with the discussions, the guild wanted specific qualifications for review- board membership to avoid stacking the three-person board with outspoken critics of the department. The two sides resolved their differences a few months ago. Holmes, Ross and Iglitzin were selected from a list of 46 candidates. Iglitzin, 70, has worked with the city before. She recently stepped down from the city's Human Rights Commission. The review board is required to have at least one member who belongs to the Washington State Bar Association and another member with at least five years of law-enforcement experience. J. Martin McOmber can be reached at 206-464-2022 or mmcomber~seattletimes, com 4/29/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 4:12 PM To: Update@NACOLE,org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Cincinnati: New Cop Complaint Board Is On Way New cop complaint board is on way By Kevin Osborne, Cincinnati Post staff reporter Thursday's announcement that a new panel to investigate allegations of police misconduct will be operating by August was meant to send a clear signal that they are serious about implementing police reforms, Cincinnati officials said. Creation of the Citizen Complaint Authority was one of the provisions agreed to earlier this month when the city settled a racial profiling lawsuit against police after a year-long mediation process. The authority grew out of the mediation and a separate investigation of police practices by the U.S. Justice Department, that led to more than 90 recommendations for changing procedures?This is the first big, tangible result of the collaborative process," said Mayor Chadie Luken.' 'We're not wasting any time," added Vice Mayor Alicia Reece. "We're stepping forward and are ready to implement the recom mendations."Many African-American residents and others have criticized how the city investigates allegations of police misconduct, and federal investigators also found the process deficient. Major allegations against police - involving shootings and deaths in custody - were examined by the Citizens Police Review Panel. But review panel members said the group's power was too narrow to be effective, complaining about a lack of resources and having their efforts blocked by city personnel. Also, the panel was limited to reviewing completed investigations done by police internal affairs and the city's Office of Municipal Investigation to ensure they were thorough. "One of the infirmities of the old system, I thought, was it was impossible to do an investigation of an investigation without doing it all over," Luken said. After the complaint authority is established, the review panel will be disbanded. Previously, minor allegations were handled through a complaint resolution process conducted by police, which required people to file a claim at a police station and be interviewed by officers. Many residents said the process was intimidating and that police didn't fully investigate claims. The new complaint authority will be allowed to conduct its own investigations of police shootings, deaths in custody and other major uses of force by officers. Once City Council approves seven members to oversee the authority, a selection process that will be completed by July 10, they will hire an executive director, who will lead a staff of professional investigators. Strict deadlines will be followed by the group, including giving complaints to investigators within 48 hours of filing and completing most cases within 90 days. Also, the new agency will be allowed to look beyond individual cases for patterns of police misconduct. Although police still will review minor complaints, the process will be modified to make it more accessible and less threatening to citizens. Among the likely changes is allowing people to file complaints using the police Web site. Findings will be reviewed by the complaint authority. One provision that had been sought by black activists and others in the mediation, however, won't be included in the Citizen Complaint Authority's powers. The agency will not be given the power to subpoena witnesses. Instead, any requests for subpoenas must be forwarded by the complaint authority's board to City Council, which will make the decision. Further, any recommendation by the complaint authority to discipline an officer will go to the city manager, who has the final say. If the city manager disagrees with the finding, she or he must submit a report within 30 days explaining the decision.The Citizen Complaint Authority's members will be nominated by the mayor and approved by City Council. Members must undergo training, will serve two-year terms and be paid $100 per meeting. 4/29/02 Page 2 of 2 City Council Member Pat DeWine, a frequent critic of the police review panel, said he will introduce a motion seeking to impose term limits on complaint authority board members?It has the potential to be effective, but we need to take care to put together a panel that is balanced, which includes someone who has a law enforcement background," DeWine said. Luken said the complaint authority will help restore public trust in Cincinnati police?This is not a 'get the cops commission,'" the mayor said. "This is accountability that rewards good performance by police and imposes specific measurements to gauge how police do their jobs?City Manager Valerie Lemmie agreed: "The citizens must be engaged and involved." Publication date: 04-26-02 4/29/02 Marian Karr From: Bytof, Linda [LRBytof@oaklandnet.com] Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 10:53 AM To: 'Update@nacole.org' Subject: [NACOLE Update] Public Hearing of Cases While Litigation is Pending The City of Oakland Citizens' Police Review Board has beens struggling with the issue of what to do with cases where the complainant has filed a civil lawsuit. I am very interested in learning how other Boards and Commissions who hold public hearings handle this issue. This is what happens here. The CPRB staff investigates a case and schedules it for a hearing before the Board. The hearing arrives and it is learned that the complainant has filed a civil lawsuit. The officers' LDF counsel objects to going forward with the hearing because he/she does not want the officers examined under oath and does not want to give the complainant free discovery, the City Attorney does not want the Board to go forward because it has to represent the officers in that litigation, and our prior Board (the majority of the Board members just turned over) did not want to go forward because sometimes the complainant decided not to go forward, leaving the Board with out a case to hear. The new Board majority wants to more fully examine the issue. On the one hand, some Board members feel that if someone has another recourse, e.g., a civil action, the Board should not hear the case so as to free up time to hear a case for someone who does not have this option (the CPRB only hears one case per night and only meets 2 times per month, limiting the number of cases that may go to public hearing). A local advocacy group takes the position that the decision re whether to go forward should be the complainant's decision only. On the other hand, there are some troubling issues with the CPRB declining to review these cases: 1) civil litigation does not address the officer misconduct issues and if the CPRB does not review the cases, the only review is done by Internal Affairs; 2) the cases where a complainant is able to retain legal counsel and file a lawsuit tend to be the more serious cases and those where there is more evidence so the Board both misses the "big" cases (this Board routinely does NOT review shooting cases for this reason) AND the Board gets a skewed view of the type of misconduct, if any, is occurring; 3) the CPRB's statistics are incomplete; and finally, the Board most likely will never hear the case because after the litigation concludes, if the case settles, the settlement agreement requires the dismissal of all pending related matters. I am looking at alternatives to address this situation and would love to hear how other Boards and Commissions handle it. Please email me at the address below. Thanks for your help. Linda R. Bytof, Manager Citizens' Police Review Board Office of the City Manager ~1 Frank Ogawa Plaza Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 238-6909/fx (510) 238-7585 LRBytof@oaklandnet.com Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.org Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 7:56 PM To: Update@NACOLE,org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LAPD Resists Police Commission's Clear Direction Re http:lllatimes.comlnewsl!oca!l!a-O00030651 apr30~story?coll=!a%2 Dh e~dlines%2Dca!ifomia Police Resistance to Gutting DARE Program Angers Panel Dispute: Commission urges shifting officers in the school anti- drug effort to patrol. By JILL LEOVY TIMES STAFF WRITER April 30 2002 Los Angeles Police Commission members didn't shrink at ousting a powerful and popular police chief. But they seem to have found a more formidable adversary in DARE, the LAPD's Iongtime drug-abuse education program. Commissioners first talked about gutting DARE's staff two months ago to free up more officers for the LAPD's depleted narcotics and gang units. The deliberations have unfolded quietly in recent months in the shadow of the higher-profile controversy over the commission's rejection of a second five-year-term for Chief Bernard C. Parks. Parks is now out, but DARE remains standing. Despite commissioners' repeated requests, LAPD officials have yet to provide them with the "creative solutions" they had requested so that most DARE officers might be temporarily shifted to other duties and the program replaced by something else. In fact, as the debate stretches into its third month, LAPD brass appears to be more interested in arguing DARE's merits and protecting it from further cuts than in responding to the commission's requests. At the commission's most recent meeting on DARE, little progress was made, and the discussion was continued into next week. Rather than working toward resolution, police officials and commissioners seemed to argue past each other. Pressed to come up with a replacement for DARE, Deputy Chief J.I. Davis dug in his heels. "DARE has a very positive role," he told commissioners calmly. On the commissioners' side, though, patience was wearing thin. "Didn't we ask for some creative solutions?" Commissioner Silvia Saucedo asked. "Wasn't that due to us today?" She didn't get an answer from the assembled LAPD officials. But commission President Rick Caruso offered one instead. "Yeah," he grumbled, "it was. And we got a new memo that just says, 'No.'" At issue for the Police Commission is a more far-reaching question than the future of school-based anti-drug officers: how to persuade LAPD officials to do what civilian overseers want. 5/2/02 Page 2 of 3 For years, critics have griped that the LAPD's paramilitary culture has resisted civilian oversight to the detriment of civil rights, and that the Police Commission-civilians appointed by the mayor to oversee the department-has never quite managed to assert sufficient control. Now, the police commissioners, most of them appointed last year by Mayor James K. Hahn, want to establish their authority as managers in ways they believe eluded their predecessors. And they are learning just how difficult that can be. "1 think it's a cultural thing," Caruso said. "There is a history of giving an answer that is not really an answer and hoping it just goes away." Commissioners began considering ways to reduce or eliminate DARE in February in response to concerns that narcotics crime-fighting units, in particular, had been cut excessively and that officers needed to be transferred from elsewhere to help rebuild them. They were responding in part to the protests of a group of Boyle Heights residents, who in arguing passionately for more narcotics officers, cited rising gang violence. The department's overall personnel crisis results from a shortage of police recruits that has most profoundly affected specialized units. Strapped for officers, the department has been shifting people from these units back to patrol to ensure sufficient numbers to answer emergency calls. The DARE program has been among those cut, but it has not lost as many positions as narcotics. DARE is now allotted 119 officers on paper but, in reality, it is functioning with 71. Hahn's proposed city budget for next year would in essence make the vacancies permanent, capping it at 74 officers. But the commission wants the number of sworn officers cut to about six, with civilians or retired officers taking up the slack. DARE deploys uniformed police officers to schools to educate children on the perils of drug use. The program was created by the LAPD in 1983 and has since spread worldwide. Although DARE's effectiveness has been questioned by some experts, its rapid expansion in Los Angeles and elsewhere testifies to its popularity. Supporters say that, besides discouraging drug use, DARE improves school safety by bringing officers to campuses and is also a valuable officer recruitment tool. Moreover, LAPD officials argue that the program represents one of the department's few efforts that focuses on crime prevention, and that it would be short-sighted to gut it to meet short-term needs. The program also is a point of pride for the LAPD. "If you look at the achievements of LAPD in the last 50 years, the two things that have been most innovative are SWAT and DARE," said Charlie Parsons, executive director of DARE America, the nonprofit corporation that sponsors the program. "To consider dropping DARE is incredible." Commission President Caruso counters that, in the face of rising gang violence, the department cannot afford to keep 71 officers in the drug education program. "1 knew when I raised this it was not going to be the most popular issue, but I think you have to balance priorities," Caruso lectured Davis and another acting chief, Michael Bostic, at the panel's most recent meeting. "There are people dying in the streets." Previously, commissioners had asked police officials to suggest ways to keep the program in an altered form, perhaps by using retired officers or civilians, while allowing most sworn officers to be transferred, leaving just half a dozen now assigned to magnet schools. But to Caruso's consternation, police officials responded by explaining that such options would not work, presenting commissioners with what he called an "all or nothing" dilemma. LAPD officials have defended the response. "We cannot lie to him," said DARE Capt. Mark Perez. The resulting lengthy public debate at the panel's recent meeting often seemed to go in circles. 5/2/02 Page 3 of 3 LAPD officials touted the benefits of DARE and argued that if its officers were transferred, the program might never be restored. Commissioners replied that they weren't questioning the merits of the program but favored other priorities. "1 don't think eliminating units is the answer," Bostic told commissioners. "We have been asking for this for months!" Caruso shot back. As the debate wore on, he slumped deeper into his chair, his chin propped on one fist. Finally, LAPD Cmdr. Valentino Paniccia pushed him too far. Paniccia suggested that the commission would "sacrifice thousands of kids" in a misguided effort to bolster patrol units. Caruso bolted upright. "1 think that's unfair? he snapped. "Don't lay that on my lap. Why don't you go to Boyle Heights and ask the parents how they feel about kids being shot?" In the end, the commission tabled the issue for two weeks at the request of Commissioner Rose Ochi, DARE's main backer on the panel. But Caruso said a majority of commissioners are close to deciding to transfer DARE officers by fiat--whether the department likes it or not. The LAPD needs to get used to it, Caruso said. "This commission is strong enough, and I am determined enough, that we are going to stand our ground." 5/2/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 7:56 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Deputy Killed in Traffic Stop http://~atimes.c~m/news/~~Ca~/~a-~~~~3~669apr3~~st~ry?c~~l~~a%2Dhead~ines%2Dca~if~mia Deputy Killed in Irwindale Traffic Stop Violence: David March is shot to death by driver who flees. Authorities tracking the car's license plate arrest a man, but say he's not the assailant. By JESSICA GARRISON and ERIC MALNIC TIMES STAFF WRITERS April 30 2002 A sheriffs deputy was shot to death Monday by a man he stopped for a traffic violation in Irwindale, investigators said. Deputy David March, 33, a seven-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department who lived with his wife and stepdaughter in Santa Clarita, was pronounced dead at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Investigators said the man who shot him fled in a dirty black 1989 Nissan sedan. The killer, who remained at large Monday night, was described as Latino, in his 20s, about 5-foot-7, with short hair and a mustache. The California license number of the car is 4BCZ512. The license plate led police to another man, who was arrested at an apartment complex in Duarte a few hours after the shooting, Deputies said that the man's connection with the shooting, if any, was not clear, but that they did not think he was the gunman. March, who was assigned to the Temple City station, was on routine patrol in the Monrovia area about 10:30 a.m. when he began following the car, which may have contained as many as three people, for an undisclosed traffic violation, investigators said. After March pulled the car over on Live Oak Avenue just east of Peck Road, the driver got out, Deputy Rich Pena said. The driver "met the deputy halfway between the patrol car and [his] vehicle," Pena said. "A confrontation ensued." The driver drew a gun, fired and fled. Detectives said March was shot several times. Dan Watkins, 49, an engineer at the Sprague Ready Mix concrete plant across the street, said he heard five shots. He dashed to Live Oak to find March sprawled on the pavement, his head resting against the curb. "There was a lot of blood," Watkins said. Watkins said a truck driver at the plant ran to the patrol car, grabbed the radio microphone and broadcast: "A deputy's been shot!" Patrol cars responded quickly, Watkins said. One of the arriving officers gave March mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he said, but it was no use. The officer was so frustrated "that he got up and kicked his car," Watkins said. On the tidy cul-de-sac of recently built homes where March lived with his wife and her 13-year-old daughter, neighbors 5/2/02 Page 2 of 2 said they had felt more secure because he lived there. "He loved his work, said Judy Miller, who lives across the street with her husband. "He wouldn't have done anything else." "He got along with everybody," said Johnny Borrelli, 17. "But he must have been a hard-working guy, because we never saw much of him." The mood was somber Monday afternoon at the Temple City station. Deputies talked quietly among themselves, and some wiped away tears. Deputy Sonia Parra said that March, who had married recently, "was an outstanding deputy." Deputies always go to work knowing the risks. 'Tm sure he had plans for tonight," she said. Times staff writer Richard Fausset contributed to this report. 5/2/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, May 0~1, 2002 7:56 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Next LA PD Chiefs Duty: Exorcise PD's Demons April 28, 2002 LATimes COMMENTARY Next Chief's Duty Is to Exorcise Police Department's Demons By FRANK del OLMO It is 9cod that Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks has chosen to move on. Although Parks' downfall was not entirely of his own making, I hope it is the last gasp of an old LAPD culture that sparked the 1992 riots. I am not criticizing the city's current police force, whose officers look more like the rest of L.A. than the LAPD has in maybe 100 years. I refer to the postwar LAPD built by the late Chief William Parker and presided over by men he groomed as his successors-such as Daryl Gates, who was the chief at the time of the riots. Like Parker, that old LAPD was imperious, rigid and often bigoted. And for all his claims to being a reformer, Parks clearly spent too long--37 years-in the bosom of the old LAPD. How else can one explain his stubborn resistance to civilian control, his hypersensitivity to criticism and his slowness in making the changes the LAPD still needs? Parks' critics often called him a "black Daryl Gates," but a more accurate description would be a black Bill Parker. By laying the blame for the '92 riots on the LAPD, I don't mean to dismiss other factors that clearly played a role. Economic inequality, racial prejudice and plain criminality cannot be ignored. But too many recollections of the riots focus on those big social factors, which merely fed the conflagration. What sparked the violence was a series of abysmally bad decisions by LAPD leadership--star~ing with the sergeant who should have done more to control the officers who beat black motorist Rodney King on March 3, 1991. Slightly more than a year later, when four of those officers were acquitted by a suburban jury, the LAPD decision-making was no better. Within an hour of the verdicts angry mobs were taking control of South-Central Los Angeles as LAPD units retreated to safety. Gates, meanwhile, was breezily headed to a political fund-raiser. The scope of the anger on the streets was evident to anyone watching TV, but by the time Gates and his staff grasped the enormity of the situation, it was too late. Like Parker, Gates said and did many arrogant things during his tenure as chief. But what perhaps cost Gates a lifetime job, and eventually led voters to impose term limits on future police chiefs, was the LAPD's failure to maintain order after the verdicts. The city-indeed, the whole world-realized that the LAPD was a paper tiger, its tough reputation sustained by old TV shows. The old LAPD no longer had the public support, much less the moral authority, to control the streets cfa new Los Angeles. Anyone watching closely saw that sea change coming as far back as '1965. The Watts riots that summer, also sparked by what started as the routine arrest of a black motorist, were the first warnin9 signs that the LAPD's militaristic style of policing was becoming outdated. For the next 25 years, unresolved tensions left by the Watts riots continued to simmer. They led to smaller riots in Century City in 1967, in East LA. in 'i970, at UCLA in 1971 and on and on. Yet Bill Parker's successors stubbornly insisted that the LAPD's way was the only way to keep peace. A final confrontation was inevitable. It was delayed for a few years by the election of Tom Bradley, an African American, as mayor in 197'1. An LAPD veteran who left the force before its culture could infect him, Bradley changed things on the margins. But even Bradley could achieve only a standoff with the likes of Gates. All the while, L.A. continued to change. The mostly white, middle-class and suburban city that had once supported the old LAPD gave way to a new ethnic and economic mix. And the new L.A. would not tolerate a police force that acted like an occupying army. 5/2/02 Page 2 of 2 Now, with 10 years of hindsight, it is clear that as awful as they were, the riots were not really significant in and of themselves. They were merely the final, bloody act of a very long and difficult drama that began a generation earlier. May Bernie Parks be the last casualty of that long struggle. And may he even find himself a more constructive role to play in the new Los Angeles. It will be up to his successor to finally exorcise the ghost of Bill Parker. Frank del Olmo is associate editor of The Times. 5/2/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Sueiqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 11:22 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Probation [& Sex Therapy!] for Cop Demanding Sex after Traffice Stop http;//www ~newsday com/news/printedition/Iongisland/ny-lijay012688813may01 .story 5 Years Probation for Ex-Officer Admitted he received sexual favors in 2000 By Chau Lam Newsday STAFF WRITER May 1, 2002 A former Nassau police officer was sentenced yesterday to 5 years' probation and ordered to see a sex therapist after admitting that he demanded sexual favors from a motorist two years ago in return for not issuing a traffic ticket. Jay Seifert, 32, was working as a patrol officer in the early morning of Oct. 7, 2000, when he stopped a car for making an illegal U-turn on Rockaway Turnpike in North Woodmere. He admitted ordering the two women in the carto follow him to Doxey Creek Park, a half-mile away, where he engaged in sex with the passenger while the driver sat in the car. Seifert did not issue a ticket or report the stop. The victim, whom Newsday is not identifying, reported the incident to police and said she felt compelled to do what Seifert told her because she felt threatened, Assistant District Attorney Monica Hickey said. Yesterday, while waiting for Nassau County Court Judge Donald DeRiggi in Mineola to take the bench, the victim's father and Seifert traded glances but did not speak to each other. After the brief court proceeding, the woman's father declined to speak to reporters and referred questions to the family's attorney. "We are unhappy that Seifert had not admitted to his full involvement," said Deborah L. Cornwall, an associate of the Manhattan-based law firm Cochran Neufeld & Scheck. "We're disappointed that he's arguing consent." Seifert, who declined to comment yesterday as he has throughout, maintains that the woman agreed to have sex with him and that he never forced her to, said his attorney, Joseph Falbo of Rockville Centre. Seifert, who was fired by the police department shortly after his arrest, is the second police officer in Nassau to plead guilty to a crime stemming from accusations of sexual misconduct while on the job. Officer Matthew Murphy also received 5 years' probation and has since resigned from the force. Murphy admitted that he stopped a female motorist on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway on Aug. 8, 2000, on suspicion of drunken driving and demanded that she perform oral sex on him or face arrest. Seifert pleaded guilty in January to third-degree attempted bribe-receiving, for which he could have received up to 4 years in prison. Hickey recommended that Seifert serve no jail time after learning that the victim had been convicted of drug possession and is serving a sentence for that conviction. Court observers said the prosecution's case against Seifert was weakened because the woman's credibility would have been questioned by the defense if she testified. Police charged Seifert with first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy, but a grand jury dismissed those charges and indicted Seifert on lesser charges of coercion and attempted bribe-receiving. DeRiggi threw out the coercion charge. Though the criminal case against Seifert, who has a 6-year-old son, is over, a civil suit is pending. In January, the victim filed a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn alleging that Seifert, the Nassau County Police Department and the county violated her civil rights. The woman is seeking an unspecified sum of money, Cornwall said. 5/2/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 11:22 AM To: Update@NACOkEorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] Miami: Civilian Inquiry Plan for Dade Police Falters Posted on Thu, May. 02, 2002 Civilian inquiry plan for Dade police falters BY KARL ROSS AND ANDREA ROBINSON kross~.hera!d.com A committee of the Miami-Dade County Commission refused Wednesday to endorse a plan backed by Mayor Alex Penelas that calls for civilian inquiry into police shootings. But that plan will still go before the full commission for debate next week. The committee did approve an amendment sponsored by its chairman, Commissioner Joe Martinez, that would revamp the county's Independent Review Panel, which hears citizen misconduct complaints against all county employees. Martinez called the amendment a precursor to his plan for limited civilian oversight. But advocacy groups like the NAACP jumped on it immediately, saying it would dilute minority representation on the review panel. The head of the county's largest police union, Police Benevolent Association President John Rivera, expressed qualified support for Martinez's oversight plan -- which, unlike the one favored by Penelas, does not grant civilians subpoena power to investigate the shootings. "We think we can work off of your plan," Rivera told committee members. Penelas was expected to speak at the hearing by Martinez's public safety committee, but did not attend, citing scheduling conflicts. Commissioner Dorrin Rolle -- who sponsored the civilian inquiry resolution on Penelas' behalf - did not appear either. Under committee rules, Rolle can still put his and Penelas' plan before the full County Commission, even with an unfavorable recommendation. Commissioners Martinez, Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto voted against the plan. The absence of debate at the committee hearing should contrast to Tuesday's showdown before all commissioners -- at least seven of whom need to vote for the Penelas plan in order to place it on a Nov. 5 referendum ballot. Penelas' plan is similar to one approved last fall by city of Miami voters to create a civilian investigative panel. The county panel would conduct parallel investigations into shootings by Miami-Dade police officers and, with the approval of the county attorney, could issue subpoenas. Penelas said the committee vote came as no surprise. "We've been saying all along we want this to go before the full commission," Penelas said. "And we're hopeful that, with the help of Congresswoman Carrie Meek, a majority of commissioners will let the people decide." Penelas said his office is attempting to confirm Meek's presence at Tuesday's commission meeting. Martinez's plan to overhaul the current nine-member Independent Review Panel could go before the full commission for public debate as soon as May 21. If the proposal were in effect today, all four black members and one Hispanic member would no longer be on the panel, including current chairman Riley Davis. "1 think this is rushed," Davis said. "1 think they're trying to eliminate the same people who are crying out about civilian oversight." Martinez defended his plan, noting that each of the 13 county commissioners would designate a "floating member" of the review panel who would be pressed into service only in the case of a police shooting "There is nothing to preclude each commissioner from picking somebody from the community," Martinez said. 5/2/02 Page 2 of 2 According to Martinez's plan, the panel's permanent membership would be reduced from nine to seven members. The two floating members would come from the commission district where the shooting occurs and from an adjacent district. "In the case of Eddie Lee Macklin, Commissioner Rolle's district would have been the affected district and Barbara Carey- Shuler's the next closest one," Martinez said. Macklin was shot and killed by a Miami-Dade police officer on Jan. 21 at the conclusion of a Liberty City festival celebrating Martin Luther King Day. An outcry over his death led to a renewed call for a county civilian investigative panel. Mart[nez said the two floating members would also take part in official investigations into police shootings, under a plan he unveiled last month. His amendment Wednesday to alter the review panel, however, does not make this explicit. Mart[nez acknowledged that he would have to file another amendment to implement his plan. He said the plan would allow only the two floating panel members to take part in official inquiries by the state attorney's office and police internal affairs. Martinez said the overhaul of the review panel was long overdue. "It's outdated," he said. "It's 22 years old, and it does not represent the demographics of the community." The panel's executive director, Eduardo I. Diaz, said he was troubled by this premise. "This suggests there are some people who are viewing the current representation of the panel as inappropriate," Diaz said. The panel was created in 1980 in response to black community outrage over the fatal police beating of Arthur McDuffie, which eventually led to a major riot in Miami. The panel, as initially conceived, was to be free of political and administrative influence. Daily operations are overseen by an executive director who is appointed by the chief judge of Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Five of the nine board members come from a pool of 15 candidates nominated by five organizations. They, in turn, fill the four remaining slots at large, drawing primarily from grass-roots organizations to ensure ethnic, gender and racial balance. All panel members are voted on by commissioners. Martinez's proposal eliminates the at-large slots and slots recommended by two organizations -- Community Action Agency and the League of Women Voters -- and replaces them with commission appointees. Brad Brown, president of the Miami-Dade NAACP, said the Martinez plan strips away protections against political influence and would taint the credibility of the panel's investigations. 5/2/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 11:22 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Seattle Police Oversight Board Members Named Thursday, May 02, 2002, Police oversight board members named .y lan Ith Seattle Times staff reporter One is a real-estate lawyer who once applied to be a Seattle policeman. Another is a former federal agent who once led a racial-diversity program. The third is a dispute mediator and civil libertarian with a long history of community activism. Now all three will spend the next two years as the city of Seattle's eyes on the way the Seattle Police Department polices its own. The City Council yesterday introduced the three members of the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) Review Board, more than two years after the board was passed into law. The team will be responsible for reviewing police complaints and reporting to the council on the OPA's effectiveness in handling allegations of officer misconduct. "We are appointing three tough-minded, tough citizens that have deep roots in this community," City Councilman Jim Compton said at a news conference. "1 believe an excellent police force can discipline its members when necessary, show itself to be fair and willing to accept criticism and act on it, and to above all be accountable. I believe that's what this board is going to make happen." The new members are: · Peter Holmes, a commercial attorney who has been an active volunteer in his Seward Park neighborhood and once worked on City Councilwoman Margaret Pageler's campaign. In 1994, he applied to become a Seattle police officer before deciding instead to join the prominent Seattle law firm Miller Nash. · John Ross, since 2000 a regional security manager for Metromedia Fiber Network, a worldwide computer-network infrastructure company. Before that, Ross, who lives near Seward Park, spent 13 years as an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco, ending his tenure as special agent-in-charge of the Seattle office. He helped write the ATF's first diversity policy.. · Lynne Iglitzin, a mediator with the city's Dispute Resolution Center and a former chair of the Seattle Human Rights Commission. She has a doctorate in political science and is a former research consultant for the University of Washington's Institute of Public Policy and Management. She lives in Madrona Park and has also served on the boards of several local organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union. During brief speeches yesterday, the board members pledged to work to rebuild trust between the Police Department and citizens. Each promised to be fair to citizens who complain as well as to officers under scrutiny. The board's primary responsibility will be to review every complaint the Police Department receives, report trends to the City Council and make suggestions for policy changes. The board does not have investigative authority and cannot override disciplinary decisions made by the police chief. The board members serve for two years and may be reappointed only once. The appointment is the final step in a police-accountability overhaul begun in 1999 after a police detective was accused of stealing money from a crime scene. The board's appointment was delayed 5/2/02 Page 2 of 2 by a dispute between the city and the Seattle Police Officers' Guild over the way board would be chosen. Guild president Ken Saucier was out of town yesterday, but in a memo to Compton he called the board members "impressive" and said he was relieved that all said they would treat officers fairly. "Officers also must trust the process," he wrote. lan Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes,com. 5/2/02 Page 1 of~'i Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 2:05 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Houston: No Indictment in Death of Immigrant http;~wwwJat[mes`c~m~new~nati~nw~r~d~nat[~n~a~1~`4~7may~3~st~ry?c~!!=!a%2Dhead!!nes%~n~t!~n THE NATION No Indictment in Death of Immigrant Law: A Houston grand jury's failure to bring charges against police officers angers the Latino community. From Reuters May 3 2002 HOUSTON -- A grand jury Thursday chose not to indict four police officers in the suffocation death of a Mexican immigrant in a case that angered Latino leaders. They said the Harris County grand jury's decision sent a racist message and called for the Latino community to take "drastic action." The Baytown police officers were accused of using excessive force when they detained Luis Alfonso Torres, 45, on Jan. 19 after he fled from an ambulance called in by relatives concerned that he had high blood pressure. A police video showed the officers throwing him to the ground, then piling on top of him as he struggled to get up. Torres, a legal immigrant from Mexico, stopped breathing and died the next day in the hospital. The death was ruled a homicide by Harris County Medical Examiner Joye Carter, who said Torres suffered "mechanical asphyxiation," or compression of his airways. Baytown police officials defended the officers, saying they followed proper procedures. League of United Latin American Citizens local director Johnny Mata reacted angrily to the grand jury's decision. "The message is 'it's open season to kill Mexicans and get away with it,'" he said at a news conference. He said Latinos should consider a citywide work stoppage to make their anger known. "Think about how many people would not report to work in a lot of the construction sites and the loss of money the city will have," Mata said. Mexican Consul Enrique Buj Flores, at the same conference, said he "deeply deplored the grand jury's decision" but charged that police officers in Houston are not punished for crimes against Mexicans. In another controversial case, a 1998 grand jury refused to indict Houston police officers who shot Mexican immigrant Pedro Obregon Navarro to death after breaking into his apartment without a warrant in search of drugs. No drugs were found, and the Houston police chief called the case an "egregious" case of official misconduct, but the Harris County grand jury thought otherwise. Harris County prosecutor Don Smyth, who helped direct the grand jury's investigation in the Torres case, said the jury had done well. "They made a full inquiry, and I have no reason to believe any other grand jury would not reach the same conclusion," the prosecutor said. Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 2:30 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Pittsbgh: Cops Want Consent Decree Lifted; Board Says Fire Cop; Response PITTSBURGH (AP) -- John Neidig claims he was harassed, arrested and beaten after he criticized a police officer's driving. Police maintain they arrested Neidig because he was enraged on a busy Pittsburgh street during afternoon rush hour. His case is one of 43 being heard this week as part of a class-action lawsuit in which the city of Pittsburgh, its highest officials and 75 police officers are accused of condoning a pervasive pattern of civil rights abuses. A federal jury began hearing the first cases Monday. When the lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 1996, the allegations were forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice, and the city consented to federal oversight and reforms a year later. The trials, some of which involve more than one plaintiff, are to determine whether 53 people were victims of what the Justice Department called a "pattern and practice" of civil rights abuses and, if so, whether they deserve any compensation. Neidig's complaint alleged he was pulled over and ticketed for minor traffic violations after he yelled "Nice turn signal!" when a police van pulled in front of him. Neidig said the two officers then followed him until he stopped a few miles down the road and confronted them, after which he was arrested and jailed for a day. Lawyers expect all the cases to be completed by year's end. Of the 66 original plaintiffs, one lost at trial, another was dismissed and 11 withdrew their complaints. "You've got 60-plus courageous people who filed this suit to reform an out-of-control Pittsburgh police department and, with the assistance of the Department of Justice, have largely succeeded in bringing some accountability to the force," said Witold Walczak, executive director of the Pittsburgh ACLU.. "Now, seven and eight years after the incidents, they will get their day in court." City officials and police view the lawsuits as one of the steps toward restoring the department's reputation and resolving the old misconduct allegations. The city is also trying to emerge from the shadow of five years of federal oversight. "We believe that we are going to win the cases and we are taking these on a case-by-case basis," said Eugene Grattan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuits, the ACLU, city officials and police say the department has improved during the five-year consent decree "There were cops with more than 30 complaints against them. it was an environment where officers knew they could violate people's rights with impunity," Walczak said. City officials and police say the agreement should be lifted because they have complied with its terms for the past two years as required by a judge in order for the agreement to be lifted. Civil rights and community activists have criticized the city's attempts to lift the decree primarily because an office which handles citizen complaints against police had a backlog of 409 cases as of November. Police review board urges officer's firing By Marc Lukasiak Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW Thursday, May 2, 2002 A police oversight board on Wednesday called on Mayor Tom Murphy to force the firing of a city officer accused of mistreating a mentally ill woman. The Citizen Police Review Board asked Murphy to intervene because Pittsburgh police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. refused to accept its recommendation to fire Officer John O'Rourke, who Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Waiter Little accused of wrongly arresting Little's mentally ill sister 5/3/02 Page 2 of 3 "It's a terrible case. It's one we're not going to let die," said Marsha Hinton, chairwoman of the review board. "If it happens to her and it's allowed to happen, who's next?" Little filed a complaint alleging O'Rourke wrongly arrested Little's sister, Patricia Bush, and then falsely accused the judge of interceding to get charges against her dropped. Little alleged his sister was taken to Allegheny County Jail instead of to a psychiatric hospital. O'Rourke arrested Bush again 11 months later, in September 1999, after he was called to transport her to a psychiatric hospital. When Bush struck the officer, O'Rourke took her to the Allegheny County Jail and refused to bring along her medication, the board alleged "His conduct could easily be categorized as that of a brute, preying on one of the most vulnerable members of our society, the mentally disabled," Hinton wrote in her letter to Murphy. The review board appealed to Murphy April 25, asking him to review its findings against O'Rourke and McNeilly's response. The chief said he would reprimand O'Rourke and order he have anger management counseling. Murphy had no comment yesterday because he hasn't seen the letter, said spokesman Craig Kwiecinski. Calls seeking comment from the police department were not returned. Officer's lawyer asks review board to withdraw request By Michael Hasch TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, May 3. 2002 The attorney for the city police officer accused of mistreating a mentally ill woman asked the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board on Thursday to withdraw its request to have Mayor Tom Murphy force the chief to fire the officer. The board asked for Murphy's intervention because police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. refused to accept its recommendation to fire Officer John J. O'Rourke, who was accused of wrongdoing for twice arresting the sister of Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Walter Little. The board ruled that O'Rourke should be fired because of his actions when he twice filed the same charge against Little's sister and arrested her in a mental health facility on two separate occasions. However, police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. and his staff reviewed the case twice and decided that O'Rourke should be reprimanded and undergo anger-management counseling. Little filed a complaint alleging O'Rourke falsely arrested his sister in 1999 and then falsely accused the judge of interceding to get the charges dropped. Little also complained that his sister was taken to the Allegheny County Jail instead of a psychiatric hospital. The complaint also states that O'Rourke arrested Little's sister again 11 months later after he was called to transport her to a psychiatric hospital. When she struck the officer, he again took her to jail and refused to bring along her medication, the complaint states. The review board wrote a letter to Murphy, stating that O'Rourke's "conduct could easily be categorized as that of a brute, preying on one of the most vulnerable members of our society, the mentally disabled." According to a letter written by O'Rourke's attorney, Charles E. Evans: Little's sister was reported to be intoxicated when she assaulted a case worker and then O'Rourke. 5/3/02 Page 3 of 3 The officer arrested Little's sister and took her to jail, which he said has a psychiatric ward. The charges were not dismissed. A preliminary hearing was not held because the paperwork on the charges was either misplaced or lost. Therefore, O'Rourke obtained approval from the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office for a new arrest warrant that was issued by a city magistrate. This time, a preliminary hearing was held. O'Rourke agreed to withdraw the charges after he talked with the defense attorney and after Little's sister apologized to him. Evans also wrote that the review board has not settled a number of other issues that affect O'Rourke and other officers who are the subject of citizen complaints. One such issue, Evans wrote, is the question of whether the city's Office of Municipal Investigations -- which also investigates reports of police misconduct -- should give all its investigative material to the review board. Another unresolved issue is whether the chief or mayor could or should force an officer to testify before the review board, Evans wrote. Mayoral spokesman Craig Kwiecinski said last night that Murphy can't comment on the board's letter or Evans' letter because he has not seen them. 5/3/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 2:31 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Former Chicago Chief of Detectives Sentenced to 15+ Years http;~www~chicag~tribune~c~m~news~!~ca!~showcase~chi~2~5~3~245may~3~st~ry?c~!!=ch!%2Dnews%2Dhed Hanhardt [lets nearly 16 years By Matt O'Connor Chicago Tribune staff reporter May 3, 2002 William Hanhardt, the highest-ranking Chicago police official ever convicted of corruption, was sentenced to almost 16 years in prison Thursday for heading a mob-connected crew that used pinpoint timing and sophisticated means to steal jewels from traveling salesmen. Even though a day earlier, U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle Sr. found Hanhardt responsible for an armed robbery that wasn't part of the indictment, the judge declined to stiffen the sentence for the former chief of detectives who could have faced another 9 years in prison. The government had sought the maximum 25-year prison term for the legendary former cop whom a prosecutor said on Wednesday had been in "the mob's pocket" for virtually his entire 33-year career. "A remarkable chapter in the history of law enforcement in this city came to an end today with the message that no one is above the law," U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald told reporters following the sentencing Thursday The 73-year-old Hanhardt, who his lawyers said was in declining health, was sentenced to 15 years, 8 months in prison. Hanhardt's son, Edward, expressed hope that "with a little help from God" his father would survive prison. "We are not at all ashamed of our father," the younger Hanhardt told reporters as family members left the Dirksen Federal Building. "We stand behind him as a family and we are very proud of him." William Hanhardt's lawyers vowed to appeal the sentence. Hanhardt pleaded guilty in October to stealing more than $5 million in diamonds and other jewels from eight traveling salesmen. For 20 years, authorities said, Hanhardt's ring tracked the movements of the salesmen, pouncing moments after the gems were left unattended, usually in a car or hotel room. Little to say For a second consecutive day, Hanhardt had little to say other than reaffirming "my faith in our criminal justice system." Judge Norgle ordered Hanhardt to pay full restitution-the more than $5.1 million in profits reaped by the ring, which prosecutors characterized as the nation's most successful in the 1980s and 1990s. Earlier this week, Hanhardt handed over a check for almost $200,000, his half-interest in the Deerfleld home he shared with his wife. During a sentencing hearing that lasted four days, the prosecution team-Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Scully, John Podliska and Eric Sussman and FBI Special Agent Edward W. McNamara-tried to link Hanhardt to the strong-armed robbery of a jewelry salesman in a Brookfield, Wis., hotel room in 1995. Hanhardt hadn't been charged with the holdup, but federal sentencing laws allow prosecutors to try to increase sentences by bringing out crimes similar to the ones of which a defendant has been convicted. Hanhardt's lawyers contended the robbery was staged by the salesman and that even if it occurred, Hanhardt wasn't involved because his crew never used force or violence. 5/3/02 Page 2 of 2 Norgle ruled that the evidence was insufficient to prove Hanhardt personally took part in the holdup, but the judge found Hanhardt's crew responsible and held Hanhardt accountable as the leader of the conspiracy. On Thursday, however, the judge declined to use the strong-arm robbery to boost Hanhardt's sentence to the 25-year prison term sought by prosecutors. Jeffrey Steinback, one of Hanhardt's lawyers, had cited Hanhardt's age, health problems and long police career as reasons not to stiffen the sentence. "Based on the totality of the circumstances," Norgle concluded, the appropriate sentence was the 15 years, 8 months. Attorney Jeffrey Cole, who expects to handle Hanhardt's appeal, said that among the issues that will be raised is Norgle's finding that Hanhardt's suicide attempt last fall amounted to obstruction of justice, which increased Hanhardt's sentence by several years. Hanhardt was scheduled to plead guilty that day. During the sentencing hearing, Steinback called the ruling "unprecedented and inhumane." But U.S. Atty. Fitzgerald said that Norgle didn't rest his obstruction finding on the suicide attempt alone. Appeal plans Cole also said he likely would challenge Norgle's decision holding Hanhardt accountable for the Wisconsin robbery as well as the judge's refusal to give Hanhardt credit for accepting responsibility despite his guilty plea. Prosecutors said Hanhardt didn't deserve a reduction in his sentence for accepting responsibility, noting he never showed remorse for his crimes. At a news conference, Fitzgerald declined to say if an investigation continues into the role of three Chicago police officers, all now retired, who may have improperly assisted Hanhardt. After retiring in 1986, Hanhardt tapped a Chicago police sergeant and a detective to access law enforcement computers to help him gather intelligence about jewelry salesmen targeted for theft. In addition, at this week's sentencing hearing, authorities disclosed that in 1996 Hanhardt asked another detective to keep him posted on a joint investigation with federal authorities on the importation of cocaine from South America. Federal authorities felt the investigation had been compromised, prosecutors said. Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune 5/3/02 Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 10:42 AM To: Kelvyn.Anderson@phila.gov; CEIBAYES@aoI.com; mharris@policylink.org; DRH; william Johnson; update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYTimes.com Article: After Ex-Officer's Conviction, Investigators Will Challenge the Blue Wall $RFC822 emi This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. After Ex-Officer's Conviction, Investigators Will Challenge the Blue Wall May 5, 2002 By WILLIA/M K. RASHBAUM The conviction of the former police officer Joseph Gray on manslaughter charges Friday was the end of a nine-month effort by investigators assigned to look into the deaths of several members of a family slain as they crossed a Brooklyn street. Now, the focus will shift to the actions of some police officers responsible for investigating Mr. Gray's role in the deaths, and whether he received special treatment. The police Internal Affairs Bureau is looking into whether a series of investigative and procedural missteps was evidence of simple incompetence by the police - or of a concerted effort to help a colleague in trouble. The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, whose office prosecuted Mr. Gray, has opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of several officers and at least one official with the police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. "Our office has already launched an investigation into police misconduct in this case, specifically for obstruction of governmental administration and hindering prosecution," said Joseph Petrosino, the chief of the felony trial division and a prosecutor in the trial. He said the investigation would be conducted by Charles Guria, an executive assistant district attorney who oversees police corruption cases. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has asked the department's general counsel to "conduct a thorough review of all aspects of the Gray case," according to a statement. "We will then determine whether any disciplinary action or procedural changes need to be made," the statement said. On Aug. 4, Mr. Gray struck and killed Maria Herrera, 24, her son Andy, 4, and her sister Dilcia Pe~a, 16, in Sunset Park after a 12-hour drinking binge that began with several fellow officers outside the 72nd Precinct station house and continued at a strip club that was off limits to officers in the precinct. Mrs. Herrera's unborn son died hours after being delivered by Caesarean section. The issues of errors by the police surfaced in the middle of the trial, when an exasperated prosecutor, speaking in open court, voiced his unhappiness with the handling of the case by officers. Prosecutors detailed how a highway officer failed to fill out certain parts of an accident report, how photographs of the crime scene were blank when they were developed, how a chemist failed to turn over 60 pages of reports on Mr. Gray's blood-alcohol level to the defense as required under law, and how several pieces of evidence were temporarily displaced. According to testimony by one of the accident investigators, police union officials asked him which sobriety test Mr. Gray would be most likely to "beat." The investigator, Martin Finkelstein, who has since retired, also acknowledged that he had sought to give Mr. Gray "a benefit." Mr. Finkelstein is among those whose actions will be the focus of Mr. Hynes's investigation, officials said, as will at least one union official, Officer Michael J. Immitt. The officer's actions and possible missteps have revived the debate over the continued existence of the so-called blue wall of silence, the practice of officers closing ranks to protect one another. The wall was said to have cracked after the sexual torture of ~ner Louima in a Brooklyn police precinct station house in 1997, perhaps because that crime was so heinous that few officers could see themselves in a similar situation, and some refused to take part in a cover-up. In the Gray case, the killing of a pregnant woman and two family members was also an unspeakable horror. But the investigation is focusing on whether any officers closed ranks to help Mr. Gray afterward, in part because drinking was its root cause. "The blue wall is still an issue, and it's not surprising that sort of behavior would take place around drinking, which is seen as a kind of a venial sin," said Prof. Jerome H. Skolnick, who teaches at New York University Law School and is an expert on police practices. "It is so widespread that cops are most likely to cover up for one another on that issue." The P.B.A. declined to comment and Officer Immitt did not return a call seeking comment. Mr. Finkelstein, the retired officer, could not be reached for cou~ment. Officer Immitt has run afoul of prosecutors before. During the trial of three officers on obstruction of justice charges in the Louima case, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused him of orchestrating a cover-up of the sexual 2 attack on Mr. Louima. He denied the accusation and was not charged with a crime. The three officers in the Louima case - Thomas Weise, Thomas Bruder and Charles Schwarz - were convicted in that case in March 2000, but their convictions were overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Feb. 28. Prosecutors said that several days after the attack, Officer Immitt summoned the three officers and Officer Justin Volpe, who later pleaded guilty to the assault on Mr. Louima, to a private meeting in the basement of the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn to urge them to keep silent about the case. Although what was discussed at the meeting was not entirely clear, proseoutors introduced evidence at the trial showing that shortly afterward, rumors began to circulate that Mr. Louima had been injured in a gay sex club rather than in a police assault. During the obstruction trial, Officer Immitt admitted he told the officers to "sit tight" and "don't talk about it." But he denied there was any discussion at the meeting about trying to cover up the assault or impede the investigation. And despite a front-page newspaper story published earlier that day, he said none of the officers had told him about the nature of the assault allegation that Mr. Louima had made. Officer Immitt then spoke to officers in the precinct from every shift, urging them not to talk about the incident. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/O5/O5/nyregion/O5DRUN.html?ex=lO21693066&ei=l &en=baff0e30412c3491 HOW TO ADVERTISE ................................. For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales~nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company *** eSafe scanned this email for malicious content *** *** IMPORTANT: Do not open attachments from unrecognized senders *** 3 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 12:17 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] City Officials Ignore [or say they do] Police Oversight Board 5-6-02 Pittsburgh Tribune Review City officials ignore police oversight board By Marc Lukasiak TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday. May 6, 2002 The oversight panel Pittsburgh voters created five years ago to investigate police misconduct has been powerless to force the department to discipline its officers. Mayor Tom Murphy and police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. have never heeded the recommendations for disciplinary action made by the seven-member Citizen Police Review Board. Critics say the board is a waste of taxpayer money -- $1.97 million in budget allocations since 1998 -- because it's a duplication of other agencies that already investigate police misconduct. "It most definitely is," said Officer Eugene Grattan, the head of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1. "You have the district attorney's office and you have internal affairs."The mayor and police chief don't compel officers to testify in review board investigations. That leaves the question of how effective the review board can be when its recommendations are overlooked and officers don't cooperate in its investigations. "The issue with the review board, I don't think it has the teeth," said city Councilman Bob O'Connor, chairman of the council's public safety committee. Just last week, the review board recommended that the Murphy administration fire Officer John O'Rourke, who was accused by Common Pleas Judge Walter Little of falsely arresting Little's mentally challenged sister. O'Rourke's punishment was an oral reprimand and anger management counseling. "The question of ineffectiveness is at the hands of this administration. They're the ones who are failing to hear what the people said they wanted done," said Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the review board. "The mayor is elected by the people to represent the people, and he's turned his back on them. Murphy spokesman Craig Kwiecinski referred questions about the review board to McNeilly. The police chief argues that his hands are tied because the disciplinary actions that the review board suggests do not conform to city guidelines. Also, McNeilly said, a contract with the police union prevents him from compelling officers to testify at review board hearings. "They know full well before they send it over, I can't act on what they're saying," McNeilly said.'Tm stuck in a Catch 22 where they're demanding I force the officers to talk, and I'm prevented from doing that by the collective bargaining agreement," McNeilly said. "The review board consistently sends over cases knowing they are demanding more than city policy dictates and much more than we could get through arbitration. 5/6/02 Page 2 of 2 The Office of Municipal Investigations in the city's Law Department already investigates police misconduct, making the review board a waste of money, Grattan said. O'Connor said the review board is a "feel good" agency whose funding would have been better spent on hiring and training police officers."Let's look at it as a neutral observer," O'Connor said. After getting nearly $2 million in funding, "VVhat are the results?" The review board received 537 informal complaints in 2001 and investigated or is investigating 77 of them, according to the board's annual report. The review board could get a big boost in its investigative power this summer. The board sued Murphy, McNeilly and the police union in 2000, asking Common Pleas Judge Joseph James to compel officers to testify. The judge's decision could come as early as next month. Grattan said that police officers, like all citizens, have the constitutional right not to testify in proceedings that could lead to charges against them. The review board grew out of public outrage over allegations of police brutality that captured headlines in the mid-1990s -- most notably the case of Jonny Gammage, a black motorist who died in the city's Overbrook neighborhood at the hands of white suburban police officers, said Tim Stevens, president of the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP, a key supporter of the review board."The energy about the Citizen Police Review Board was somewhat fueled by the focus on that case and the ripples thereof," Stevens said. Pittinger said the review board serves a different function than OMI. OMI, she said, is focused on protecting the city from lawsuits, while the review board is independent. She also criticized a backlog of about 400 complaints at OMI, which was formed as part of a federal consent decree established to monitor the police department."You look at this backlog of OMI and you get a little dark in your interpretation," Pittinger said. While the review board has failed to see its recommendations for suspensions and firings upheld, the panel is having a positive influence on officers' behavior and treatment of citizens, Pittinger said. "When it comes to whether or not we're having an effect, I think police officers are thinking twice." Marc Lukasiak can be reached at mlukasiak@tribweb, com or (412) 320-7939. 5/6/02 Marian Kart From: BMohr(~cabq.gov Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 12:55 PM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Albuquerque Lost Independent Review Officer pic24865.gil Monday, April 22, 2002 Albuquerque Journal, Reprinted with Permission Review Officer Helps APD Serve Public By Colleen Heild Journal Investigative Reporter The police foot chase on Central Avenue began at 17:59. Within minutes, the officer had the suspect face down and limp, kicking him so many times that a bystander stepped in to stop him. The officer dragged the suspect backward by the handcuffs to jail him for criminal trespass and eluding. The bystander intervened again, trying to help the man get up and walk. The bystander, who didn't know the suspect, repeatedly asked for the officer's badge number. But the officer wouldn't respond. This account, as described in citizen complaint records, puts four other police officers at the scene that night. A subsequent inquiry by independent review officer Ann Steinmetz's office convinced her to recommend that the officer be disciplined.. "It should go without saying that the incident reported by the citizen in this case is a classic example of why the citizen complaint process exists," wrote Steinmetz in a Feb. 28 letter to Albuquerque Police Chief Gil Gallegos. "Poor behavior by officers needs to be reported and corrected, especially when it is not done so within the Department." Just as police work can be tough and challenging, the job of independent review officer has never been easy, says Steinmetz, a former state judge and federal public defender who started up the review office in early 2000. As a civilian attorney with new powers to review APD misconduct cases, Steinmetz says she has walked a "very thin line" between police opinion and politics. She's also tried to make sure "someone's watching out for the public, being that there's nobody else to do it." As of today, Steinmetz won't be at the job anymore. Mayor Martin Ch~vez, a major APD supporter, sought applications for the position instead of renewing her contract. Steinmetz didn't reapply. "I saw that when he (Ch~vez) wanted three (candidates') names I took that to mean three new names," said Steinmetz, an appointee of former Mayor Jim Baca. As of Friday, no successor had been named. Over the last 20 years, the city has beefed up its civilian oversight of APD. In the 1980s the city had an independent counsel to review misconduct cases. In 1998, the City Council, hoping for greater police accountability, formed a civilian police oversight commission. The reform measure replaced the independent counsel with an independent review officer. Unlike the parttime independent counsel, 1 the review officer works full time with a paid staff of investigators and reports to the civilian commission. The review officer screens and assigns complaints to the civilian investigators or APD's Internal Affairs division. Like the independent counsel, the review officer examines misconduct investigations and makes recommendations to APD. For the first five months on the job, Steinmetz worked out of a vacant room at the Main Library. Now she has two investigators, an administrative assistant and a multi-room Downtown office decorated with a sofa the APD seized from a drug dealer. The annual budget for the commission and the review officer is nearly $300,000. The public now has more information about complaints because Steinmetz's review letters are public, as are her quarterly and annual reports. The names of the officers and complainants are kept confidential, unless the complainant appears before the review board to appeal. City Councilor Greg Payne said the new system has room for improvement, but added, "I think Ann had a real challenge being essentially the first IRO. "It's a position where you're not going to be a fan of the law enforcement community and you're never going to be able to do enough to satisfy the people who don't like APD." Payne once criticized Steinmetz for being late in filing her reports to the council and said he has heard from "a lot of folks over at APD who weren't fans of her." "But, generally speaking," he added, "I think most people felt she was competent." To find rewards in the job, Steinmetz has to look only as far as her office wall. The 31 letters taped there reflect the times APD Internal Affairs supervisors changed their initial findings on a case and decided to take Steinmetz's recommendation. "They decided I was right," she said. Ultimately, the police chief decides whether a complaint will be sustained and what discipline to impose. In the early days, Steinmetz said she would walk into the Internal Affairs office and people would stop talking and disperse. The police argument had always been that "they don't need a review of what they're doing and certainly don't need it from nonpolice civilians," she said. But the longer she reviewed complaints, she sensed "they (the police) appreciate that someone was having some input in a nonbiased way to help them find their mistakes and fix them." For instance, Steinmetz said complaints of officers using profane language have dropped considerably. And there are fewer accused officers who have had prior complaints. "Those officers aren't around anymore. They removed them from citizen contact," she said. One of the exceptions: The officer accused of kicking the suspect had three other complaints in two years ? improperly macing and punching a suspect; swerving in and out of traffic; and improperly shooting a Rottweiler. He wasn't found to be at fault in any of the cases. In the most recent complaint, the officer told investigators that he kicked the suspect only once to get him to comply. APD had not reported its decision in the case as of Friday, Steinmetz said. About 25 percent of the more than 386 complaints reviewed over the past two years have been sustained, she said. Deputy Chief Ray Schultz said that aside from the initial confusion over how the new system would work, "I think we've worked very, very well together and complemented each other over the past year." And in the past six months, he said, there haven't been any instances in which differences between Steinmetz and APD on citizen complaints have forced a meeting with the police chief. "There have been several cases sent to me where she disagreed, and a lot of times I would read the case and say 'I think Ann has a valid 2 point here.' And the chief would concur." At times, Internal Affairs would find an officer at fault and Steinmetz would disagree, concluding that the citizen who complained was unreasonable, he said. A list from Steinmetz's office shows that, since 2000, APD has amended its standard operating procedures more than a dozen times as a result of citizen complaints. Take the case of a Santa Fe woman traveling home from Silver City who had no car insurance. According to Steinmetz's written review of the investigation, the woman complained that police left her stranded on 1-25 after towing her car. The police officer told investigators that he offered to call someone for her but that she knew no one in town. The case got the attention of the department. Police policy was changed to clarify that officers will make arrangements to ensure that the driver and other occupants are not left stranded when a vehicle is towed. Steinmetz said she hasn't had many problems dealing with police. The APD doesn't want bad cops on the force either, she said. "An officer not garnering respect from citizens is probably not garnering respect from his fellow officers." (Embedded image moved to file: pic24865.gif) Copyright 2002 Albuquerque Journal *** eSafe scanned this email for malicious content *** IMPORTANT: Do not open attachments from unrecognized senders Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 9:29 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Inspector General Releases First Annual Report on http;//iatimes~c~m/neWs/!~ca~/~a-~3239~may~Lst~ry?c~=!a%2Dhead!!nes%2Dca!!f~m!a Watchdog Gives LAPD Positive Marks Report: Analysis praises disciplinary measures started under Chief Bernard Parks. By JILL LEOVY LA TIMES STAFF WRITER May 7 2002 A decade after the Rodney King beating, the Los Angeles Police Department has become "by and large successful" in curbing misbehavior by following up on complaints, Inspector General Jeffrey C. Eglash has concluded. The Eglash report, released just two days after the forced retirement of former Chief Bernard C. Parks, gives a generally positive appraisal of many of the changes in LAPD discipline during his term and identifies areas in which improvement is needed. Investigations of officers accused of misconduct take too long and are sometimes flawed, according to the report. Nonetheless, overall, LAPD's internal investigations are balanced and objective, the report said. In fact, LAPD's disciplinary proceedings are slightly more likely to produce findings against officers accused of misconduct than is typically the case in police agencies, the report found. "With respect to the discipline system, I think we are doing well," Eglash said. "But we need to go to the next level." Eglash is the Police Department's civilian watchdog, a position created in 1995 following heightened public concern over officer wrongdoing in the aftermath of the beating of Rodney King, the riots and the Christopher Commission's report on police misconduct. The annual report, released Monday, is the first of its kind to be completed since the office was created. It is scheduled for consideration by the Los Angeles Police Commission today. Its release comes just weeks after the police commission decided against a second term for Parks, who had come under fire over a variety of issues, including his efforts to toughen officer discipline. The commission is expected to name an interim chief today. Parks cherished his reputation as a disciplinarian, and his tenure marked far-reaching changes in the LAPD's system of taking and investigating complaints against officers. In 1998, Parks ordered all complaints to be recorded and investigated, no matter how petty they seemed--a dramatic shift from past policy. Previously, supervisors at the precinct level had broad discretion to dismiss complaints they deemed too frivolous to be worthy of further action. The result was that the number of investigations against LAPD officers nearly tripled, creating a workload that nearly overwhelmed the department's internal bureaucracy. Many of those investigations involved allegations of relatively minor misconduct against officers, such as discourtesy. 5/7/02 Page 2 of 3 Administrative logjams meant many were resolved at glacial speed. Eventually, the new complaint system proved so controversial that Parks was pressured to scale back some of his initial reforms. At its height, "the department went as far as any agency I'm aware of in terms of recording or tracking complaints," Eglash said. Although Parks considered the complaint system one of his most significant accomplishments, Eglash said the timing of the report's release was unrelated to the decision to oust him. "All I can tell you is that this is something that we started work on quite a while ago," Eglash said. The findings neither vindicate nor fault Parks, he said. "1 don't think it's really about him. It is a lot of statistical information," Eglash said. Allegations of discourtesy, nearly 22% of all public complaints, were the most numerous. Complaints involving neglect of duty, unbecoming conduct and use of force also were common. The most frequent allegation made by the department against its own officers involved preventable traffic accidents. Fewer than one-third of all allegations against LAPD officers were sustained from 1998 to 2001, the report found. The percentage of complaints made by the public that were sustained is much lower, about 14%. Yet LAPD's internal investigations are still more likely to be resolved in favor of the complainant than those at the San Jose, San Francisco or San Diego County police departments, the report concluded. The report also explores one of the most controversial allegations frequently made against Parks, namely that his discipline system favored some commanders over rank-and-file officers. The report identifies six questionable disciplinary cases-including some in which it appeared high-ranking officers received lighter penalties than lower-ranking officers for similar offenses. It also noted mitigating circumstances in each case. "We found ... specific cases that raised concerns about disparity, but we did not draw conclusions beyond that," Eglash said. In conclusion, the report recommended that the LAPD develop greater flexibility in responding to citizens' complaints. The department should adopt a "customer service mentality," and allow supervisors more discretion to respond informally to complaints, Eglash said. Similarly, he said, complaints should prompt "introspection" by department brass, not just disciplinary proceedings, so that they can be used as the basis for better policies, he said. Capt. Pete Trilling of the LAPD's Internal Affairs Group agreed with the recommendations, saying the department, together with a working group led by Police Commissioner Rose Ochi, is already at work implementing similar ones. Although Police Commission President Rick Caruso said he had not yet had a chance to read the report, he concurred with some of its general findings about the disciplinary system. "We do a very good job in taking in complaints. We have that down to perfection," he said. "Now we need to have the same focus on disposing of them in timely manner." In a separate report, Eglash also found that shootings by LAPD officers have decreased, although the police are more likely to use fome to injure people in other ways. The number of officer-involved shootings has decreased from 97 in 1999 to 66 last year. The number of people injured by officers grew, but it was unclear whether this trend reflects changes in police conduct, or 5/7/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 9:33 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA X Rampart Cop Perez Gets 2 Years for Civil Rights Violations http;//!~times,com/news/Iocal/la-000032401 may07,story?coll=!a%2 Dhead!ines%2 Dcalifornia Perez Given 2-Year Term in Federal Case Court: The former Rampart officer gets the prison sentence for framing a gang member whom he and his partner had shot. By DAVID ROSENZWEIG LA TIMES STAFF WRITER May 7 2002 Former Los Angeles police officer Rafael Perez was sentenced to two years in federal prison Monday for violating the civil rights of an unarmed gang member who was shot by Perez and his partner and then convicted on trumped-up charges. U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder also placed Perez on three years' probation after his release and ordered him to pay $246,392 restitution. But the judge rejected a defense request that she recommend his assignment to a military-style boot camp for first-time offenders. Assistant U.S. Atty. Mary Carter Andrues said such a recommendation would be "inappropriate" under the circumstances. Perez, who sparked the Rampart police corruption investigation in 1999 after he was arrested for stealing cocaine from police evidence lockers, declined an invitation to address the judge. His lawyer, Winston K. McKesson, said outside the courthouse that his client "is happy to be putting all this behind him." Prosecutor Andrues said: "It is important for the people of Los Angeles and the justice system that Rafael Perez has finally been held accountable for his civil rights violations." In a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors last December, the former Rampart anti-gang officer admitted that he and his former partner, Nino Durden, conspired to fabricate evidence and testimony against Javier Francisco Ovando. Ovando, an 18-year-old gang member, was shot in the head, shoulder and hip on Oct. 12, 1996, when he walked into a vacant apartment west of downtown where Perez and Durden were conducting surveillance. After realizing that Ovando was unarmed, the two officers planted a short-barreled rifle beside him, claiming they fired in self-defense. Ovando, who was left partially paralyzed from the shooting, was subsequently tried, convicted and sentenced to more than 23 years in state prison. The frame-up remained undetected until Perez was arrested for stealing cocaine from LAPD evidence lockers. In a bid for leniency from the district attorney's office, he disclosed his and Durden's role in the Ovando shooting. He also implicated about 70 other Rampart officers in what he said was a pattern of misconduct involving beatings, shootings and false arrests. As a result of his allegations, more than 100 criminal convictions, including Ovando's, were overturned. Ovando received a $15-million settlement from the city. More than a dozen LAPD officers resigned or were fired over corruption-related allegations. Perez was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing cocaine, but he was granted immunity from state prosecution for framing Ovando. He served about three years of the state prison term before being released last year. 5/7/02 Page 2 of 2 The deal did not protect him from federal prosecution, however. Faced with a possible 15-year prison term on federal charges, Perez negotiated a plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's office last December. He admitted conspiring to violate Ovando's civil rights "by fabricating evidence, falsely arresting and presenting false testimony against him." He also acknowledged possessing a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle with obliterated serial numbers that he planted beside the wounded Ovando. In exchange for a lighter sentence, Perez agreed to cooperate in an ongoing federal probe of possible civil rights violations by LAPD officers. The deal called for him to serve another two years behind bars. However, each side retained the right to back out if the judge departed from the proposed two-year term. Perez was to have been sentenced in March, but the proceedings were delayed when a dispute unexpectedly arose between the U.S. attorney's office and the federal probation office, which advises judges on sentencing. The probation office recommended a 30- to 37-month sentence because of Perez's prior conviction and because he lied during Qvando's criminal trial. Snyder indicated at the time that she was inclined to side with the probation office. To resolve the matter, she asked defense and prosecution lawyers to file further written arguments under seal. On Monday, the judge said she had decided to impose a two-year sentence. "1 do so," she said, "because the government urges that accepting the agreement would be in the interest of justice." Snyder said the restitution payments will be used to cover the costs of having tried Ovando in Los Angeles Superior Court and housing him in county jail and state prison. Perez, who remains free on bail, was given 30 days to surrender to authorities, but the judge said she would consider an extension because he has been caring for his ailing mother, who lives in another part of the country. Durden, his former partner, pleaded guilty last year to violating the federal civil rights of Ovando and two other persons. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Snyder on May 20. 5/7/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 12:12 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Seattle's New Oversight System In Place for Policing Police Tuesday, May 07, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific New system in place for policing the police ByOim arunner Seattle Timesstaff reporter More than three years after a scandal that spurred calls for reform, Seattle's new system for investigating police misconduct became final yesterday with the appointment cf a three-member civilian review panel. The creation of the Office of Professional Accountability (CPA) Review Board came with plaudits from city officials, who say it will help restore confidence in the way police investigate their own. But critics say the reforms fall short of what was promised. And while significant changes have been made, some key facts haven't changed: Cops still investigate cops. The police chief metes out punishment. And most records of those internal investigations remain secret. The battle over how to police the police may be renewed in the coming months as the city and police union begin negotiations on the police contract, which expires at the end of the year. As a part of that negotiation, some public officials say they may seek more citizen input into police affairs. The misconduct scandal that led to the CPA involved officer Earl "Sonny" Davis. Davis, a homicide detective, allegedly took $10,000 from the home of a dead man in October 1996 and concealed the theft by returning most of the cash the next day, accompanied by his sergeant. At least 18 police officers heard about the alleged incident, yet no official investigation took place until Davis' partner casually mentioned it to a prosecutor 2-1/2 years later. Prosecutors twice tried to convict Davis on theft charges, alleging he did not return all the money. But the first jury deadlocked 7-5 in favor of acquittal and a second jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction in August 2000. After the revelations, former Mayor Paul Schell appointed a citizen panel to study the Police Department's internal-investigations process and recommend changes. In August 1999, the panel issued a report recommending that the Police Department's old internal-investigations section be replaced by a new office, the CPA, headed by a civilian. The City Council vowed to go a step further, proposing the creation of a three-member citizen panel charged with reviewing how the department handles citizen complaints. But that step was stalled because of disputes with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which has resisted civilian oversight, fearing that accused officers might not get a fair shake under the new system. In November, the city and Police Guild reached an agreement on what powers the civilian board would have and requiring its members to sign confidentiality agreements. That cleared the way for the City Council's approval of the three review-board members yesterday. "There will always be people who ask for higher levels of accountability and higher levels of review," said City Councilman Jim Compton, at a press conference last week introducing the members of the CPA review board. "We're starting with this." 5/7/02 Page 2 of 4 The three board members are Peter Holmes, a commercial attorney; John Ross, a former agent for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and Lynne Iglitzin, a mediator and former head of the Seattle Human Rights Commission. They will be paid a $400-a-month stipend for the review- board work. All three are optimistic about their chances of success in boosting confidence in the system -- both for the public and the police. "That they will be second-guessed is a fact of life for every po[ice officer, but if the process is principled and fair, I believe it will be embraced by civilian and officer alike," Holmes said last week. With the appointment of the board, the system has changed in some significant ways from before the Sonny Davis case came to light. The OPA replaces the Police Department's old Internal Investigations Section (liS). Unlike the IlS, the OPA is now headed by a civilian, attorney Sam Pailca, who reviews misconduct investigations and forwards recommendations on whether punishment is warranted to Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. Tnvestigating complaints How complaints against police will be filed and investigated: · Complaints (or commendations) about Seattle police officers can be made to the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) within the department. The OPA office number is 206-684-8797. Tts e-mail address is: opa@ci.seattle.wa.us. Complaints also can be filed online at www.ci.seatt]e.wa.us/eolice/OPA/Complaintform.html. Once received, complaints are investigated by police sergeants who work in the OPA's investigative unit. The investigator makes a recommendation on whether the accused officer violated any departmental policy and forwards that recommendation to the civilian director of the OPA, Sam Pailca. · Pailca may concur with the findings, direct further investigation or recommend a different finding to the police chief. The chief makes the final decision on whether an officer should be punished. The complainant is notified of the outcome.. The newly appointed OPA Review Board will not investigate individual complaints and cannot punish officers. However, the three-member civilian panel will review redacted copies of all complaints, look for trends, and make recommendations on whether departmental policies need to be changed. Source: Seattle Police Department, Office of Professional Accountability The actual investigative work remains in the hands of six police sergeants who conduct interviews and gather evidence where needed. Those investigators now conduct in- person interviews with officers accused of misconduct, instead of submitting their questions in writing as had been the longstanding practice. However, in some significant ways, the system remains inside the Police Department and not subject to public scrutiny. The final decision on whether an officer will be punished rests with Kerlikowske. Officers unhappy with a disciplinary decision can appeal to an independent arbitrator. After that, their only recourse is a lawsuit. The public has very limited access to reports. While complaints found to be "sustained" can be made public, reports of unproven allegations still are held confidential except for very general information about the type of complaint made against an officer, Pailca said. Full public access to such reports was a cornerstone recommendation of the citizen panel convened after the Davis scandal. But Schell, while accepting the rest of the panel's recommendations, balked at opening up the police files. Moreover, the department still has no rule that says police caught lying, cheating or stealing will be fired -- despite a pledge by Schell and former Police Chief Norm Stamper to make such a rule part of their "Accountability Action Plan" for police reform in 1999. The OPA board will not be investigating specific cases of officer misconduct or recommending punishment. In fact, in most cases board members will not know which officers are being investigated because they will have access only to reports with the names of accused officers and witnesses blacked out. Still, that's more than the general public gets to see, and the board will be allowed to 5/7/02 Page 3 of 4 look for trends in the types of cases it sees and recommend changes to Police Department policies. Pailca said she supports more public access to OPA investigative flies but doesn't think officers cleared by the office should have their names made public. "There are a lot of prices to pay for the incredible amount of power they (police) have, but I don't think that should extend to having their names in the paper when they haven't done anything wrong," she said. The issue of public scrutiny of police discipline has been a particular sore point for the Police Guild. Tn February, the guild announced it would conduct a no-confidence vote on Kerlikowske after he publicly issued an oral reprimand against Officer 3ess Pitts, who was accused of racism and bullying last summer by a group of Asian-American students who were stopped for jaywalking in the Chinatown International District. In punishing Pitts, Kerlikowske sided with Pailca, who had disagreed with the sergeant who investigated the case and believed none of the complaints had merit. Guild members said that amounted to bowing to political pressure and the vote came back overwhelmingly against Kerlikowske. Though the vote has no real power, it sent a message that many officers felt betrayed by the new system and the chief's complicity with it. Guild President Ken Saucier did not return calls for comment last week and yesterday. Of about 900 complaints of officer misconduct last year, Pailca said the jaywalking case was one of only three in which she recommended a "sustained" finding in a misconduct case when the investigating sergeant recommended "unsustained." In 10 cases, Pailca said, she did the opposite, finding no need for discipline in cases where the investigator said it was warranted. Still, the hurt feelings of police officers could stand in the way of city leaders who say they'd like to push for more public accountability within the police force this year as contract negotiations begin. "We started down the path toward greater citizen oversight and police accountability and we want to go further down that path," said City Councilman Nick Licata. Mayor Greg Nickels has said he would consider granting Pailca subpoena power, for example, but no specific proposal has been made. Nickels also insisted that the report on the Pitts incident be made publicly available on the Police Department's Web site. Some critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, contend that city officials should push harder for a truly independent citizen-led office to investigate complaints. But the citizen panel appointed by Schell in 1999 looked at that kind of setup and determined it has its own set of problems: namely that it creates an antagonistic relationship that can hinder investigations. "The reason we constructed it this way was to make sure the responsibility rested purely with the police chief and the mayor," said Mike McKay, a former U.S. Attorney who served on the panel. Now, just as before the Sonny Davis case, the police chief ultimately decides punishment for his officers and the mayor hires and fires the chief. 5/7/02 Page 4 of 4 Recognizing the unlikelihood of major changes to the fledgling OPA, the ACLU is pushing for smaller steps to give the citizen board more power. For starters, the ACLU is asking Nickels to devote more full-time staff to the board. "A volunteer board without serious professional staffing can't be expected to do an awful lot," said Julya Hampton, legal program director for the ACLU of Washington. Jim Brunner can be reached at 206-515-5628 or jbrunner~seattletimes, com. 5/7/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 12:23 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Miami CHiefs of Police Oppose Shooting Review; Call Civ Oversight Harmful Posted on Tue, May. 07, 2002 Miami Herald Chiefs oppose shooting review Citizen panel called harmful BY ANDREA ROBINSON arobinson@herald.com The heads of two dozen local police departments said Monday they "strongly opposed" a plan by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas for a civilian review board with subpoena power that would investigate shootings only involving county officers. Leaders of the Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police, during a meeting with The Herald's Editorial Board, said the new panel, if approved, could undermine any criminal investigation by local law enforcement. And, they said, such a panel could further harm police/community relations. "If there's a different conclusion [in the two investigations], public confidence is going to be eroded," said Pete Cuccaro, chief of the Miami-Dade School Police. Members also objected to a plan offered by community activists that asks county commissioners to create a civilian oversight panel similar to the one created in the city of Miami. Their plan calls for the panel to investigate all police shootings in the county. The chiefs did not comment about a plan by County Commissioner Joe Martinez that would allow two members of the Independent Review Panel to sit in on shooting investigations -- but they would not have subpoena power. "It's not right for Miami-Dade police or any municipality to be subjected to oversight of this type," said Thomas Ribel, chief of Aventura Police Department and organization president. Similar concerns were raised in an April 19 letter addressed to Penelas and signed by the top officers of 25 local agencies, including Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez, 23 municipalities and the Miami-Dade School Police.. The letter is dated April 19, but was made public on Monday. Among those not signing the statement was Chief Raul Martinez of the Miami Police Department. Other departments not represented were Florida City, Golden Beach, Homestead, Miccosukee and Sweetwater. Those who backed the statement questioned the need for another review of police-involved shootings, which already are investigated by internal affairs, the Miami-Dade state attorney's office and, in some cases, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and others. In the statement, members wrote that "proponents... are asking the public to believe that all these layers of legal review are inadequate, yet somehow a civilian review board will be able to determine the truth. We ask that all members of the County Commission take a leadership role in deciding this issue." 5/7/02 Page 2 of 2 The statement was released a day before Miami-Dade commissioners were expected to consider Penelas' proposal, which would let voters decide in November if a civilian review board is necessary. The board would investigate misconduct allegations against Miami-Dade police officers. However, Penelas said the proposal's sponsor, Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, had pulled the item off the agenda because U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek of Miami could not attend the meeting. Meek is a key supporter of civilian review, and both Rolle and Penelas want her to speak before the commission. Penelas said he did not receive the letter until Monday. He said the chiefs were entitled to their opinion. 5/7/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 10:42 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Turns to Retiree (who understands oversight) as Interim Chief May 8, 2002 L.A. Turns to Retiree as Interim Chief · LAPD: Commission picks Martin Pomeroy, a former top deputy to Parks. Nationwide seamh begins for a permanent leader. By TINA DAUNT, LA TIMES STAFF WRITER The Los Angeles Police Commission plucked a former LAPD deputy chief out of retirement Tuesday and tapped him to lead the department while the commission conducts a nationwide search for a new chief. Martin Pomeroy--a taciturn top-tier deputy to former Chief Bernard C. Parks--was picked from a field of six finalists, all current or former ranking members of the Police Department. The commission met with Pomeroy, who left the department in 2000 after 31 years of service, before choosing him to take over the agency for roughly the next six months. Other candidates considered for the temporary job included two deputy chiefs, a commander and two retired LAPD officials. According to commissioners and others, Pomeroy was the favorite because he has held a variety of supervisorial and management positions in the department over the years--forging strong ties with Mayor James K. Hahn and other city officials along the way. Recently, he worked for Parks on special projects, including helping draft police reforms as part of a long negotiation with the U.S. Justice Department over how best to address alleged civil rights violations by the LAPD. Those talks resulted in the crafting of a consent decree that gives a federal judge the authority to monitor the department's compliance. "Marty Pomeroy is someone I have known for many years and who has had a very distinguished career at the LAPD," Hahn said. "The goal is that we lose no momentum on finishing the job that we started on reforming the Police Department. "We are going to lose no momentum on continuing our commitment to community policing. We are going to lose no momentum on continuing our effort to improve recruitment and retention in the LAPD. The job of interim chief is not one to be taken lightly. I look forward to working with Chief Pomeroy." Pomeroy's appointment is effective immediately. And with an interim leader in place, city officials say they are ready to move forward with a nationwide seamh for a full-term chief. Although commission staff members estimate that it could take six months or more to replace Parks, city officials hope to have the process completed by the end of August. The city will hire a head-hunting firm to identify qualified candidates in police departments across the country. Meanwhile, commissioners say they intend to form a citizens' committee to establish the criteria for picking the new chief. The Police Commission and the city personnel department will interview applicants and narrow the list to the top three candidates. Hahn will then decide whom to nominate for the position. The nominee requires City Council confirmation. Among those who have expressed interest in the permanent position are LAPD deputy chiefs David Kalish and Margaret York, LAPD Cmdr. Jim McDonnell, Oxnard Chief,Art Lopez and Portland, Ore., Chief Mark Kroeker. While the search moves forward, Pomeroy said he hopes to leave his mark on the LAPD in the coming months. "1 love this organization," Pomeroy said. "1 hope that when I leave in six months, you will say the LAPD is better because I was hera. I'm grateful for this opportunity." The commission sought a temporary chief who was not interested in the full-term position. The job comes with the same benefits as those for a chief. The annual salary range is $168,105 to $252,147. 5/8/02 Page 2 of 2 The department last had an interim chief when Bayan Lewis filled the top spot for almost three months in 1997, after then- Chief Willie Williams was denied a second term and before Parks was appointed. Lewis retired after Parks was in place. Parks had sought to stay on for a second five-year term, but the Police Commission denied his request, saying he had not done enough to boost officer recruitment and lower the crime rate. Hahn had also expressed concerns, questioning, among other things, Parks' commitment to reforming the department. The former chief is considering running for the City Council. Pomerey--who moved to Montana after he retired in 2000--will take the helm of the department at a time when the LAPD is under the eye of federal authorities. Last year, the city entered into the consent decree with the federal government mandating wide-ranging changes to department policies and practices. Under the terms of that decree, the LAPD is required by law to meet certain deadlines for programs: installing computerized officer tracking, for instance, and collecting data related to the race of those stopped by LAPD officers. Top LAPD officials, including then-Chief Parks, had opposed some of those provisions, but the city's agreement to implement the decree obligates the department to meet the deadlines or face possible sanctions from a federal judge. As a result, Pomeroy inherits not only the difficulties faced by many big-city chiefs, but also the oversight of a judge and court-approved monitor who are charged with ensuring that the department keeps its word on the areas covered by that document. Commissioners said Tuesday that they have confidence in the new interim chief, in part because of his wide-ranging background and familiarity with the consent decree's requirements. In addition to working on reform efforts, Pomeroy recently supervised the department's SWAT team, the criminal intelligence unit and a variety of other special detective functions. Pomeroy also commanded all LAPD disaster response operations during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Commission President Rick Caruso said he would like the next chief to have qualifications that mirror Pomeroy's. "[Pomeroy] understands the role of civilian oversight in the operation and the management of running this department," Caruso said. "He has an unblemished record of integrity and of service to this city.... We welcome him back." 5/8/02