fourteenth-report.pdf

Independent Monitoring Team Fourteenth Status Report of the Independent Monitor Delphine Allen, et al., v. City of Oakland, et al. July 31, 2009 to January 13, 2010 Page 29 Agreement sets forth certain criteria that must be included in this policy, including that OPD establish a staffed complaint hotline; make complaint forms, brochures and guidelines easily and widely available, including in OPD vehicles; translate those forms; and accept anonymous complaints. • By October 1, 2004, OPD must implement the above referenced policy. • By June 1, 2004, IAD must be located in a dedicated facility removed from the Police Administration Building. b. Status of Compliance and Assessment The implementation deadline for this task occurred in October 2004. As previously noted, OPD is in compliance with the requirement that IAD offices be located off-site from the Police Department. During the seventh and eighth reporting periods, OPD completed the policies incorporating this Settlement Agreement task and trained its personnel on these policies. The policies are General Order M-3, Complaints Against Departmental Personnel or Procedures; the Internal Investigation Procedure Manual (Training Bulletin Index Numbers V- T.1 and V-T.2); and the Internal Affairs Policy and Procedure Manual (including Policies 05-01 through 05-04). As discussed above, during the eleventh reporting period, several of these policies were substantially revised. In addition, during the eleventh reporting period, the Parties agreed to modify the Settlement Agreement’s language related to the Task 7 requirement that OPD staff a recordable, toll-free complaint hotline that has an advisement that the call is being recording. As modified, OPD policy and the Settlement Agreement require that callers be advised that the call is being recorded only when a complaint is taken by IAD. After-hours calls taken by the Communications Division will not include this advisement. During the ninth reporting period, the IMT audited OPD’s actual practice compliance with portions of this task. A complete discussion of our audit findings is included in our ninth status report. We found that OPD has made its complaint system more transparent and accessible to individuals who live and work in Oakland. In addition to locating IAD offices off- site from the Police Department, these efforts include setting up a recordable, toll-free complaint hotline; providing complaint information and posters at locations throughout the City; and translating informational brochures regarding the complaint system, and, as of the tenth reporting period, citizen complaint forms, into Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. During the tenth reporting period, the IMT found OPD to be in compliance with Task 7.5, the requirement that OPD members/employees distribute complaint forms and informational brochures when a citizen wishes to make a complaint, and upon request. A complete discussion of this review is included in our tenth status report. Also during the tenth reporting period, several of the compliance standards for this task were lowered from 95% to 85% or 90% and modified to include a more subjective pass/fail assessment.