S.D. Police Want Results of Misconduct Probes to Be Public

The San Diego Police Department will seek legislation to circumvent a recent state attorney general’s opinion barring the public release of statistical information dealing with citizens’ complaints about police misconduct.

“We are going to follow the attorney general’s opinion,” acting Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Friday. “However, we don’t like it and we are going to try to change it. We think the law ought to be changed.”

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp ruled last month that California law forbids the public release of statistical data about the results of citizens’ complaints. The attorney general even said that the person filing a complaint against an officer cannot be told whether the complaint was sustained.

Van de Kamp said the release of such information must be barred because an officer’s privacy rights are more important than the public’s right to know.

Since the opinion was announced, San Diego police officials have begun meeting to determine how it will affect the new police review board.

A Civilian Advisory Panel on Police Practices was established last September. Since then, it has issued two quarterly reports listing the number of citizens’ complaints it has reviewed, the nature of the complaints and the statistical results of internal police investigations into the allegations.

But the new review board has also been sharply criticized by some community leaders as just another arm of the Police Department.

Burgreen said the police legal staff will begin drafting proposed legislation to change state law to allow public release of the statistical data. He said the draft then will be studied by the review board and submitted to the City Council’s Rules Committee for its endorsement.

“We are disturbed about this,” the acting chief said. “We think that this is an untenable situation and that the public has a right to know the statistics on complaints.”