65A - POLICE OVERSIGHT DIRECTION

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Informational Report: Police Oversight Models September 15, 2020 Page 4 create significant problems for the community and police department. The board or commission must have the ability to compel evidence (subpoena) and the ability to hear testimony from officers. Would require significant and adequate funding to function properly. Summary Although the models set forth above depict the two general types of oversight board/commissions, there are numerous variation between those with investigatory power and those without. There are civilian review boards, monitors, auditors, and inspectors general, among the variations. The "best" approach continues to be a subject of debate among scholars and practitioners. In part, this is because so many different factors influence what particular agencies and communities need and can sustain. A variety of police oversight classification systems have developed over the years because of the wide variation in approaches adopted by communities. The National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) adopted a system developed by Samuel Walker in 2001 with some modifications of their own. NACOLE places police oversight bodies in one of three classifications: 1. The investigation -focused model involves routine, independent investigations of complaints against police officers, which may replace or duplicate police internal affairs processes, staffed by non -police civilian investigators. 2. The review -focused model concentrates on commenting on completed investigations after reviewing the quality of police internal affairs investigations. Recommendations may be made to police executives regarding findings, or there may be a request that further investigations be conducted. A review board composed of citizen volunteers commonly heads this model, and they may hold public meetings to collect community input and facilitate police -community communication. 3. The auditor/monitor model focuses on examining broad patterns in complaint investigations including patterns in the quality of investigations, findings, and discipline rendered. Further, in some cities that use this model, auditor/monitors may actively participate in or monitor open internal investigations. This model often seeks to promote broad organizational change by conducting systematic reviews of police policies, practices or training, and making recommendations for improvement. Since the 1970s, more than 200 police oversight commissions have been established throughout the United States. For information that is more detailed please see Exhibit 1 for a report published in 2018 by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services entitled Civilian Oversight of the Police in Major Cities. In order to better understand how police oversight plays a role in local law enforcement in California, a summary of police oversight bodies in select cities is provided in Exhibit 2. Civilian oversight programs vary significantly from one city to the next and even within the general categories described here, and some communities deploy police oversight commissions that incorporate more than one characteristic of each of the models. 65A-4