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Police Review Board RECOMMENDATIONS One of the Board's key functions is to make formal recommendations to APD about new approaches to policing in the city. In this way, the Board brings a fresh perspective — and occasionally fresh challenges — to the Department's way of doing things. This year's recommendations arose from incidents and issues that we encountered during our regular monthly meetings. We identified several topics that interested or concerned us, asked for further information from knowledgeable sources within or outside APD, and reached consensus as a group about these The Board recommends that the Police Department review and consider adopting the following recommendations: • Timing of Interviews after Critical Incident Throughout the year, the Board learned through specific examples and broader discussions about the investigative process that follows certain critical incidents. These matters are reviewed both criminally and administratively, and different rules apply to the respective categories. We were surprised to learn that days routinely pass between an APD shooting and the first interview of involved officers. In our view, it makes sense to have that statement occur much sooner, to reduce the chances that anything will interfere with the accuracy of the officer testimony. In order to promote the integrity of investigations in the aftermath of a shooting or in -custody death, and in the absence of extraordinary circumstances (such as severe injury to the officer), the Department should ensure that a subject or witness officer provides an interview statement prior to the end of the relevant shift. • Hiring/Assignment after an Officer -Involved Shooting In a few of the shootings incidents we looked at this year, some of the involved officers had used deadly force in the past. Since the vast majority of officers never have even a single shooting, this statistic seemed significant. We understand the question is a complicated one, and that deadly force is a reality of policing. Still, we encourage the Department to assess this reality with more rigor in the future. a. When considering the applications of lateral hires to the agency, the Department should review prior deadly force incidents and take them into careful consideration before offering employment — particularly for individuals with more than one officer -involved shooting. b. The Department should devise and implement a protocol for reviewing multiple shooting incidents involving the same officer, with an eye toward determining whether duty assignments should be adjusted to minimize risk of future deadly force events. Page 14 65D-64