ninth-report.pdf

Independent Monitoring Team Ninth Status Report of the Independent Monitor Delphine Allen, et al., v. City of Oakland, et al. May 13, 2006, to November 30, 2006 Page 30 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. During the last two 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). During this reporting period, the IMT audited OPD’s actual practice compliance with this task. 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 into Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Task 7.1 requires OPD to operate a recordable, toll-free complaint hotline. While OPD has set up the hotline, based on several unanswered calls we placed to the complaint hotline on different days, OPD is not yet in compliance with this task. Task 7.2 requires the Department to make complaint forms available and prominently post information regarding the complaint system at designated Department and municipal locations. The IMT visited all nine locations listed in OPD’s policies and found prominently posted complaint guidelines. However, neither complaint forms nor informational brochures were always available. The guidelines and brochures also are required to be provided to Neighborhood Services Coordinators for “availability at Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meetings.” The IMT interviewed 10 of the 15 current NSCs to verify this requirement; nine of the 10 (90%), confirmed that OPD has provided them with complaint forms and brochures for distribution to interested community members. OPD is in compliance with the requirement that officers have complaint forms and brochures available while on duty. It is also in compliance with the requirement that complaint forms be processed in accordance with state law. It is not, however, in compliance with the requirement that the complaint forms and brochures be translated consistent with City policy. While Your Guide to Filing a Complaint Against the Police has been translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese, the complaint forms stapled inside all four versions of this brochure are only in English. According to OPD, although it has not translated the complaint forms, it provides translators to non-English speakers who wish to file a complaint. This task also requires OPD to accept and investigate anonymous complaints to the extent reasonably practicable. Since the implementation of General Order M-3, six anonymous complaints have been filed with OPD. Based on available documentation, we were able to determine that OPD complied with this requirement in three of the cases.