Focus on Police Department : City Faulted on Handling Employee Injury Benefits

The San Diego Police Department and other city departments have been “highly adversarial” and “unsympathetic” toward police officers who apply for leave or medical benefits for injury or sickness, concluded a report issued Thursday by two civil service commissioners and adopted by the full commission.

The report also finds that the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, which is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct by police officers, has issued some written conclusions that are marred by inaccuracies and “pertinent omissions.”

But, overall, the report says that many of the alleged personnel abuses--including intimidation of witnesses who testify against the Police Department at civil service hearings--are either unfounded or have ceased, and the city has enacted new procedures to make sure that employees will receive better treatment when applying for their benefits in the future.

‘A Bit More Humanistic’

“I think our major finding was that the city needs to be a little bit more humanistic in its approach in dealing with its employees,” said David Lewis, one of the two commissioners who wrote the report. “It appears, at least, that in some cases the employees are being dealt with as enemies, rather than someone to be assisted.”

Deputy Police Chief Norman Stamper, who worked closely with the two commissioners during their inquiry, acknowledged that the Police Department caused problems by the way it handled disability claims.

He said part of the department’s tough stance came from concerns within the law enforcement community that some officers were making fraudulent retirement claims.

“In some cases, the attempt to cure the problem went too far,” Stamper said.

Stamper said the department conducted its own internal inspection and concluded that “there were some policy and procedural problems and . . . we have moved to correct those problems.”

One of the biggest moves, he said, was to have one person in the city’s Risk Management Department assigned full-time to the police force.

Thistle Filed Complaint

The report by Lewis and Commissioner Hope Logan ends an 11-month investigation that began last November when Police Officers Assn. attorney Patrick J. Thistle alleged that police supervisors used lies, intimidation, retaliation and discrimination against officers who file disability claims.

Invoking a rarely used provision in the City Charter, Thistle asked for the investigation by the commission and submitted a thick volume of charges about alleged abuses.

Part of that volume contained the 58-page diary of Officer Jeanne Taylor, who wrote that she was asked to run personal errands for Chief Bill Kolender and other high-ranking administrators after she was assigned to work “light duty” in the chief’s office. An investigation by City Manager John Lockwood subsequently confirmed Taylor’s story and resulted in written reprimands against Kolender and Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen.

Thistle said Thursday that the commissioners’ findings about other personnel abuses were “significant.”

“Throughout this entire report, it is a pretty strong indictment of past practices, in particular those of the Police Department,” Thistle said.

But the POA attorney said he doubts that the city will make any significant changes.

Applies to All Workers

The report, which dealt mainly with the Police Department but also applies to all 8,000 city employees, addressed 39 allegations raised by Thistle. The issues pertain to the city’s programs for medical treatment, industrial leave, worker’s compensation, long-term disability, disability retirement benefits, light-duty assignments, special leave without pay and discrimination complaints.

Lewis and Logan took what they described in the report as “intense, compelling and dramatic” testimony from city employees who tried to get their benefits.

They concluded that the city took a “highly adversarial” stand toward ill or injured employees.

“Employees testified that during the process to obtain benefits, the attitude toward them appeared to be an unsympathetic and uncaring one,” the report said. “This perception caused employees with existing medical problems to develop a negative attitude towards the City and the programs themselves.

“The frustration, despair and anxiety felt by some employees due to the administration of the various benefit programs could be reduced by increased and clearer communication and an administrative structure to provide it.”

Commissioners also addressed Thistle’s specific allegation that the Police Department harassed or discriminated against officers who simply filed reports of job-related injuries or disability claims.

Procedural Changes Made

The department admitted to being “over reactive” because of “previous abuses in claims filed by police officers against the city,” the commissioners reported. Police administrators have since instituted a new procedure, which includes the hiring of a “medical benefits officer.”

But the commissioners specifically absolved the Police Department of one of Thistle’s primary allegations--that its supervisors pressured or retaliated against officers who testified at Civil Service Commission hearings.

To investigate the allegation, the commissioners sent 195 questionnaires to current and former officers and city employees who have testified before the Civil Service Commission during the last two years. Of the 13 responses, only three people said they felt pressure from their supervisors because of their testimony; none of the three were former or current police officers. In addition to the questionnaires, the commissioners also interviewed 35 witnesses about possible retaliation.

“We did not find evidence that Police Department employees are pressured or intimidated to present testimony favorable to the Police Department at Civil Service Commission disciplinary hearings,” the report said. “We also did not find evidence of punitive actions being taken against Police Department employees who presented testimony favorable to disciplined employees at commission disciplinary hearings.”

The commissioners did find, however, that there were questions about the credibility of the department’s internal affairs reports on police officers accused of misconduct.

“It was our finding that these reports have been inadequate in some cases,” the commissioners wrote, adding that a recent disciplinary case found “several inaccuracies, misrepresentations and pertinent omissions” when a report was compared with actual tapes of Internal Affairs Division interviews.

“These inaccuracies, misrepresentations and omissions detracted from the overall credibility, reliability, and impartiality of the investigation,” the commissioners wrote.

The report said the Police Department has begun a pilot program of videotaping internal affairs interviews, and the city manager’s office has undertaken a “comprehensive evaluation” of the procedures used by the department’s watchdog unit.

The commissioners also expressed reservations that the Police Department could adequately investigate equal employment opportunity complaints against itself.

“The commission has reservations concerning the ability and propriety of the Police Department accepting and then conducting its own equal employment opportunity investigations,” they wrote. “While the objectives are laudable, the long-term ability of internal police investigators to conduct equal employment investigations within the department raises serious questions.”

Those concerns were “mitigated” by the department’s intent to advise anyone making such a claim he or she could also contact other city claims officers not based in the department.

Other findings by the commissioners:

- The city attorney’s office had determined as unfounded an allegation by Thistle that Deputy City Atty. Grant Telfer recommended retaliation against some police officers who testified against the department before the Civil Service Commission. The city attorney’s office, however, said Telfer had an “emotional conversation” about the testimony with a police sergeant, and that he was cautioned to separate his “emotional concerns” from legal advice.

- A special task force should investigate allegations by Thistle that Police Department psychiatrists diagnose an officer’s condition based, in part, on what his supervisor says about him as an employee. The Injured Employee Task Force, which has been inactive, is composed of representatives from various city departments, such as the city manager’s office, risk management, personnel and retirement.

- The city needs to better publicize what benefits are available to municipal employees.

- Current procedures and policies “are not adequate to ensure impartial and equitable treatment” of employees who file claims for work-related stress.

Lewis said the commission has agreed to reopen its investigation into the personnel practices in one year to see if, in fact, the Police Department and city have changed the way they handle disability and sickness claims.