Review Panel Getting Quiet Police Nod : Not All Officers Endorse About-Face

Frustrated by recent reports that San Diego Police Department internal affairs investigators were biased and that one officer may have lied in his zeal to fire a patrolman, some police officers for the first time are expressing support for City Manager John Lockwood’s controversial civilian review proposal.

Sgt. Ty Reid, chairman of the San Diego Police Officers Assn.’s legal defense committee, said that the dismissal of Officer John Halsey has convinced him that rank-and-file officers need an independent review panel to assure that they get a fair shake from the internal affairs investigators.

“There’s been no adequate relief valve that we have been able to go to if something goes wrong in the middle of an investigation . . . ,” Reid said. “While at first I was extremely skeptical about any civilian review process of police practices . . . I think the manager’s proposal would provide additional safeguards for officers and citizens. I’m 100% in support of it.”

Quiet Support

For the last year, the impetus for civilian review has come from citizens who argue that complaints of police brutality are inadequately investigated. Now some officers are quietly supporting an independent review panel for the opposite reason--they fear that citizens who complain get favored treatment.

Lockwood offered his plan to use retired judges and former members of grand juries and the city Civil Service Commission to monitor the police internal affairs unit as a compromise between police officials, who wanted no civilian review, and community leaders, who demanded an independent panel to ensure that citizen complaints are thoroughly investigated.

The city manager’s proposal has been widely criticized because the panel will be selected from a pool of primarily white, elderly citizens who will review completed investigations and have no authority to oversee current investigations.

The Police Officers Assn. has consistently opposed any citizen involvement in internal investigations. But Reid said he intends to ask POA leaders this week to endorse the civilian review plan.

Reid’s view is not shared by all police union officials. Many officers said they oppose citizen review panels of police investigations despite the outcome of the Halsey case.

Halsey’s firing was upheld on June 4 by the Civil Service Commission, which voted 2-1 that Halsey used “excessive and unnecessary force” when he struck two black men in the head with a flashlight last summer outside a bar in Southeast San Diego.

The commission criticized the fairness of the police investigation and said that one investigator was so “negatively influenced” and “prejudiced” by his past associations with Halsey that he should have removed himself from the case.

‘Several Inaccuracies’

By comparing taped interviews of witnesses with internal affairs reports summarizing those statements, the commission found “several inaccuracies, misrepresentations and pertinent omissions which detracted from the overall credibility, reliability and impartiality of the investigation.”

In his dissenting opinion, Commissioner Stanley E. Willis II said that these techniques were used to fire Halsey “at the cost of the truth.” He wrote that internal affairs Sgt. Ed Petrick “appeared to have perjured himself under oath” during his testimony before the commission.

The Police Department launched a criminal investigation last week to determine whether Petrick lied. Police officials said an earlier review of Petrick’s testimony found that he did not commit perjury or make any major mistakes. Petrick declined to comment on the case.

Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen said he could understand why police officers would support a civilian review board because historically such panels have sustained fewer complaints against officers and imposed lighter discipline.

“We think we’re fair and we hold them accountable,” Burgreen said. He said he had no reason to question the credibility of the internal affairs division, but acknowledged that police administrators are concerned about the publicity surrounding the Halsey case and its impact on officer morale.

For many officers, Halsey’s firing confirms their fears that internal affairs detectives sometimes lose their sense of fairness and objectivity when they are assigned to investigate officers who are not popular or “golden boys” on the department.

Personal Bias?

POA Atty. Patrick J. Thistle said he has defended many officers who have been treated unfairly by police investigations because they were disliked by their supervisors, missed work due to injuries or had filed disability claims.

In Halsey’s case, Thistle said, the officer was not well-liked by Petrick, who suspected that Halsey was gay.

During the internal affairs investigation, Petrick asked one of Halsey’s former partners if the officer was homosexual. The partner testified that she assured Petrick that Halsey was not gay.

Thistle said that Petrick had no business asking a fellow officer about Halsey’s sexual preference: “Once you start talking about homosexuality on a macho police force, the rumors never go away.”

To show the bias at work in internal affairs, Thistle said, his law office recently began comparing the tape recordings of interviews conducted by internal affairs to the investigative reports summarizing those statements.

“We have consistently found gross errors indicating prejudice and omissions from reports of statements that would benefit the officer,” Thistle said.

Thistle said he believes some kind of independent panel is needed to oversee the internal affairs unit.

“Somebody is going to have to step in and protect these officers . . . I don’t care who it is. It’s not working the way it is. I think if unbiased people are put in who have an intimate knowledge of what’s going on, they’re going to find that the victims of this whole system at this time are more the police officers than any citizens. It’s probably going to be surprising to them.”

In the Halsey case, Civil Service Commissioner Willis suggested that the overzealous investigation in part resulted from the trial and retrial of Sagon Penn, the young black man who was acquitted of murder in the March, 1985, shooting of two police officers and a civilian ride-along. A Superior Court jury is currently deciding Penn’s fate on charges including attempted murder and manslaughter.

‘Emotional Atmosphere’

“A highly emotional atmosphere presently exists in this community,” Willis wrote in his dissent. “The Sagon Penn retrial and the issues of racism and the overreaction, whether by police officers or civilians, have heightened tensions and increased suspicions and sensitivities.”

He called it “unfortunate” that the Halsey investigation might well raise suspicions that the officer was used as a scapegoat to appease an aroused minority community.

“If that possibility becomes the belief of his fellow officers, then it could be a potentially serious threat to the morale of our entire police force,” Willis wrote.

Indeed, many officers have contacted the Police Officers Assn. to express concerns about the internal affairs unit since the Halsey decision was released 10 days ago, Reid said.

“There have been rumors for several years that officers have not received proper and fair treatment by internal affairs,” said Reid, a former POA president who currently is a patrol sergeant. “Many police officers have come up to me within the last several days extremely concerned about what kind of backing they would get from the police administration.”

Reid said that officers are “frustrated” and “disheartened” by reports that internal affairs investigators let bias and prejudice get in the way of a fair investigation in the Halsey case.

“It’s had a chilling effect on police operations around the city,” Reid said. “That is not something I sit behind a desk and get phone calls on. It’s something I see in the field as a sergeant in Southeast. Officers are concerned about keeping their jobs and their homes and families at the end of their shift as a result of terminations that have occurred.”

Opinions Split

Police union officials appear split over how to resolve their concerns about the fairness of police investigations.

Vince Krolikowski, treasurer of the Police Officers Assn., said that Lockwood’s plan or any other civilian review proposal is not the answer.

“I’m not in favor of a police review board and that’s exactly what this is,” Krolikowski said. “The San Diego Police Officers Assn. has a concern about the treatment of our officers and the fairness of certain cases and we have in the past aggressively taken action to try to correct that.”

But Reid said that some changes have to be made when the Civil Service Commission finds that internal affairs officers are biased.

“If we get some experienced citizens in there who know what is going on, I think we might be better off than the system we have now. Basically, I see it as a vehicle in cases where officers are being abused and their rights are being violated. We are going to go directly to those people who are hopefully representative of the community at large.”