Panel Backs Civilian Role in Police Review

A citizens advisory task force recommended Wednesday that civilians monitor San Diego police investigations of officer misconduct, but stopped short of offering any firm proposals.

After voting, 9-3, to endorse the general concept of civilian review, the Citizens Advisory Board on Police-Community Relations gave its executive committee three weeks to suggest a specific model that would allow citizens to review the police handling of complaints against officers.

Advisory Role Stressed

“We feel some level of citizen involvement is necessary,” said Murray Galinson, chairman of the City Council-appointed task force. “Now let’s go from there, whether it is a full-blown civilian review board or a citizen talking once every six months to the city manager or somewhere in between.”

Calling the recommendation “a major step,” Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen said it is clear that task force members feel that citizen involvement is needed to re-establish credibility in the police complaint process. Burgreen stressed, however, that the panel has no authority to compel the San Diego Police Department to follow its recommendations.

“They are in place to advise and counsel the city manager,” Burgreen said. “They have recommended something. Now it’s incumbent on us to say, How could it work in the real world?”

The task force recommendation comes as no surprise to police administrators, who were warned as long ago as 1983 that a civilian review board would be “shoved down your throat if you don’t do anything about it,” Superior Court Judge Laura Hammes told the task force Wednesday.

Hammes said that, as a deputy district attorney, she spent six months in 1983 studying the San Diego police internal affairs unit and civilian review boards in other cities. While Hammes said she concluded that the police conduct thorough investigations against their officers, she said she advised police officials to consider allowing citizens to monitor internal investigations.

Dusted-Off Recommendations

“They said, ‘We are doing a good job . . . It won’t happen here,’ ” Hammes recalled.

Some of the same recommendations Hammes made to police administrators four years ago are now being presented to the task force by the Police Department. These include using the county grand jury to audit police investigations; using prior unsustained complaints to punish officers by showing a pattern of misconduct, and assigning minor complaints by citizens--such as rude conduct and the use of racial slurs--to the internal affairs unit for investigation.

Members of the task force said they supported Police Department proposals to change its internal procedures and have the county grand jury conduct periodic audits of internal investigations. But they said the suggestions were not enough to overcome the community’s perception that police cannot fairly investigate their own officers.

Police Chief Bill Kolender has been under pressure from minority groups to allow an independent panel of citizens to review the Police Department’s handling of citizen complaints. The department has been criticized in recent months for exonerating officers who were accused of using excessive force against minorities.

“There remains an element of doubt on the part of many citizens as to the effectiveness of police investigations,” said Phil Hart, chairman of the task force subcommittee on police misconduct. “Because the Police Department is prevented from sharing details of their work, citizens do not have the whole story.”

Hart, who noted that officers feel the department is too harsh in meting out discipline, suggested that the task force let City Manager John Lockwood determine the appropriate level of civilian input. But that proposal was rejected when several members said they felt it was the panel’s responsibility to draft a specific civilian review plan.

“If all we do is turn it back over to the city manager, what have we done? . . . Nothing,” said Katherine So, a former aide to Councilwoman Gloria McColl.

George Penn, the city manager’s liaison to the task force, said Lockwood’s office will await the panel’s recommendation before deciding how to involve citizens in the review process.

Lockwood has already expressed support for Kolender’s plan to use grand jury members. Minority leaders have attacked the proposal because it would not allow for timely review of specific complaints of police misconduct.

Among those who voted against the task force recommendation to support citizen input was Officer Vince Krolikowski, representing the San Diego Police Officers Assn. The POA, which has proposed using the Civil Service Commission to investigate citizen complaints, has refused to accept any form of civilian review board.

Krolikowski argued Wednesday that the task force should not settle on civilian review without exploring other alternatives. He suggested, for example, that the Police Department recognize minority organizations as places where citizens could go to file complaints against officers.

“We could have done that today,” Krolikowski said. “I came here prepared to spend the whole day working, but we didn’t do it. Passing this motion stopped this board from working.”

Krolikowski also criticized the panel’s decision to let its five-member executive committee come up with a proposal behind closed doors without considering input from officers and citizens alike.

Galinson said that, after a year and a half of hearing public comment on civilian review boards, the executive committee is prepared to produce a proposal for consideration by the full task force.

On Wednesday, the task force again heard minority leaders call for civilian participation in the police review process.

“Citizen participation appears to be viewed as something that (police officials) have to contend with, something they have to tolerate,” said Irma Castro, executive director of the Chicano Federation. “It’s a little difficult to go to a meeting (with police) and feel . . . you represent one million people and what you have to say is taken lightly.”

Richard Calvin, a former San Diego police officer who is running for the City Council’s 4th District, said citizens are making the same demands today as they did 20 years ago when he worked as a community relations officer.

“Citizens wanted input, investigation, independence and information,” Calvin said. “In 1987, they’re still saying the same thing. It appears as though the citizens want an independent group to give them the answers to their complaints.”

Hammes said that, even though some form of civilian input is “important,” full-fledged civilian review boards traditionally do not achieve the level of independence that citizens demand. The cost of providing office space and secretarial services is not worth establishing a civilian review board, she said.

Hammes, who took a six-month leave of absence from the district attorney’s office in 1983 to study how San Diego police investigate complaints, said she concluded that police “by and large are doing a good job.” She reminded the task force that county prosecutors also serve as a watchdog of police.

“The district attorney’s office is not chummy with the police,” Hammes said. “They have distinct functions.” She added that she was “greatly surprised” that police officials gave her complete access to the internal affairs units in 1983.

Hammes suggested that, together with the authority of the district attorney and grand jury, the proposed police changes in internal investigations would give San Diego “the best review situation in this country.”