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 34 o upon completion of the investigation and issuance of a final report, provide subject members/employees with access to the underlying data upon which an IAD report is based, including all tape-recorded interviews, transcripts and investigator’s notes. • By October 1, 2004, OPD must implement this policy. 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 staff 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 11.1 requires OPD to provide members/employees with a brief synopsis of any complaint alleged against them, and not to allow the member/employee to read the complaint itself or to review citizen or other witness statements prior to the member/employee’s interview. OPD now asserts that it is not required to notify its employees of pending complaints unless it interviews the employee. In the IMT’s judgment, the Settlement Agreement requires that OPD notify officers of pending complaints regardless of whether the officer is interviewed, and documentation in internal investigation case files indicates that IAD shares this understanding. We found insufficient documentation that subject employees were provided a brief synopsis of complaints against them regardless of whether they were interviewed. We were able to verify that subject employees were provided a synopsis of the complaint against them and that the synopsis was retained in the file in only 37% of cases reviewed. We also found insufficient documentation that interviewed subject employees were not permitted to read complainant or witness statements prior to being interviewed. In addition to the above requirements, Task 11 requires IAD to notify the subject’s immediate supervisor and commander when notifying a member/employee that a complaint has been filed against him or her. While OPD initially indicated this task was ready for audit in July 2006, we were informed during the course of our review that OPD only recently began documenting notification of the subject's immediate supervisor and commander in the investigative file. In the cases we reviewed, we were able to confirm notification in only 38% of the relevant cases. OPD is in compliance with the final requirement of Task 11 which requires it to provide subject member/employees access to the underlying data on which the complaint investigation reports are based upon conclusion of the investigation.