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 32 During the upcoming reporting periods, the IMT will determine whether OPD’s actual practices comply fully with this Settlement Agreement provision. 9. Contact of Citizen Complainants (Task 9; S.A. III.I.) a. Settlement Agreement Requirements • By August 13, 2004, OPD must develop and, by October 1, 2004, implement, a policy requiring that IAD, or the investigator assigned to an investigation, contact citizens who have made complaints as soon as possible, in order to determine the nature, scope and severity of the complaint, as well as to identify potential witnesses and/or evidence as quickly as possible. b. Status of Compliance and Assessment The implementation deadline for this task occurred in October 2004. During the last two reporting periods, OPD completed the policies incorporating this Settlement Agreement task and trained its personnel on the policies. The policies are General Order M-3, Complaints Against Departmental Personnel or Procedures, and Training Bulletin V-T.1, Internal Investigation Procedure Manual. During this reporting period, the IMT audited OPD’s actual practice compliance with this task. Task 9 requires that complainants be contacted as quickly as possible by IAD or other OPD staff to begin gathering information regarding the complaint. One of the most striking and beneficial improvements we observed this reporting period is how quickly IAD contacts complainants to learn the details of their complaint and to begin the investigative process. IAD was diligent in its efforts to contact complainants; it was not uncommon for an investigative file to record repeated attempts to make initial investigative contact with complainants. The greatly improved quality of OPD internal investigations is in large part due to the quick contact of complainants by the IAD intake unit. Complainants in 74% of the cases we reviewed were contacted as soon as possible by IAD in accordance with this requirement. As OPD continues to improve in this area, we expect it will shortly attain compliance with this task. During the upcoming reporting periods, the IMT will determine whether OPD’s actual practices comply fully with this Settlement Agreement provision.