19th-quarterly-report.pdf

Nineteenth Quarterly Report of the Independent Monitor for the Oakland Police Department October 30, 2014 Page 52 Next Steps: During our next site visit and upcoming technical assistance visits, we will again meet with relevant Department personnel to discuss the Department’s progress in this area. We will further discuss the Department’s various Task 34-related data systems to assess their operability, accuracy, and utility in storage, and ease of access to stop data. We will continue to work with OPD on ways to verify the legal basis for stops, searches, and other related activities expeditiously. We will also discuss how conducting internal audits of its stop data forms can help the Department to identify any disparities in its treatment of citizens. Task 35: Use of Force Reports - Witness Identification Requirements: 1. OPD shall require, by policy, that every use of force report, whether felonies were involved or not, include the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of witnesses to the incident, when such information is reasonably available to the members/employees on the scene. 2. In situations in which there are no known witnesses, the report shall specifically state this fact. Policy shall further require that in situations in which witnesses were present but circumstances prevented the author of the report from determining the identification or phone number or address of those witnesses, the 3. report shall state the reasons why the member/employee was unable to obtain that information. Reports shall also include the names of all other members/employees of OPD witnessing the use of force incident. (Negotiated Settlement Agreement VI. C.) Discussion: OPD published Special Order 8066, Use of Force—Witness Identification (April 12, 2004), which incorporates the requirements of Task 35. Additionally, OPD published Departmental General Order K-4, Reporting and Investigating the Use of Force (February 17, 2006), which also incorporates the requirements of Task 35. OPD revised DGO K-4 on August 1, 2007. The revised policy also incorporates the requirements of Task 35. As the Department has trained at least 95% of relevant personnel on these policies, we find OPD in continued Phase 1 compliance with this Task. During all of the previous reporting periods, we found OPD in Phase 2 compliance with Task 35. To assess Phase 2 compliance for Task 35 for this reporting period, we reviewed 14 use of force reports, including: two Level 1; three Level 2; and nine Level 3 use of reports covering incidents that occurred between April 1, and June 31, 2014. (Per DGO K-4, Level 4 use of force reports do not require witness identification.)