Police Review Board Wants Added Powers

Concerned with the rising number of shootings by police officers, the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices voted unanimously Tuesday night to ask the San Diego city manager to expand the group’s power by allowing it to investigate every incident in which an officer fatally shoots or seriously wounds a member of the public.

The vote, which marks the first time the entire board has agreed on a single issue, came despite a warning from John Kaheny, a deputy city attorney, that the ballot proposition creating the review board does not permit it to review cases in which complaints are not first filed by the public.

Police officials said only a fraction of officer-involved shootings result in complaints from the public. If the board did receive an expanded role to automatically investigate all officer-involved shootings, its workload would increase dramatically.

Kaheny also warned that, even if the expanded powers were granted, the board would be playing a conflicting, dual role of selecting specific complaints for review, then judging those very complaints.

“It sets a policy that, every time an officer uses a weapon, it’s an act of misconduct,” he said.

Nevertheless, the board members said the growing number of police shootings in San Diego--five fatal and 10 non-fatal so far this year--has prompted a rash of calls, letters and encouragement from the public for more civilian scrutiny of the Police Department.

Arthur Ellis, the panel’s vice chairman, said: “The citizenry has to have some feeling of credibility about the Police Department and its agents. And I think our review board could bring a dimension that would enhance that credibility, and thereby enhance good police officers and good police work.”

Chairman Murray Galinson agreed, saying he is concerned about a public perception that officers are becoming increasingly trigger-happy as crime escalates.

“Rumor breeds rumor, and people hear something and repeat it, and it gets worse,” he said. “And what I’m hearing is that the civilians, the people, the voters, want the citizens involved in reviewing these shootings.”

Several police shootings in recent weeks have drawn public outcry, and numerous witnesses and community leaders are questioning whether officers should use more peaceful means to subdue people.

In May, a 24-year-old man was killed by a San Diego policeman on Interstate 5 in La Jolla after he darted across rush-hour traffic while waving a cement trowel. Just last week, an out-of-work lawyer was shot to death when he threatened San Diego officers with a baseball bat and a pair of scissors in an altercation in Mission Beach.

San Diego has not been alone in the increase in police shootings. Last month, in a case that continues to draw sharp community criticism, county sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a young Vista construction worker whom they mistakenly believed was a car thief.

A countywide study of the officer-involved shooting cases on file with the county district attorney’s office shows that the number of people shot by local law enforcement officers in San Diego County has more than tripled in five years.

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Tuesday night that only about 10% to 25% of the officer-involved shootings prompt citizen complaints. Although some of the victims are illegal aliens or homeless people--for whom no family members are available to file complaints--the small number of complaints actually is a result of the fact that the county district attorney never finds officers criminally liable for the shootings, Burgreen said.

“Our officers are not indiscriminately shooting people,” he said.

In addition, he said, only a “low number” of officers suffer administrative discipline for firing their weapons.

The chief assured the board that he will abide by whatever action the city manager takes on its recommendation. If a City Charter change is sought from voters, however, he will remain neutral during the campaign, he said.

“I don’t think the chief of police should be telling the people how the department should be supervised,” Burgreen said.

However, Kaheny noted several times during the meeting at police headquarters that the ballot proposition that created the review board specifically gave it the authority only to investigate complaints, and not the power to study every act by police regardless of whether a member of the public has complained.

He said he will tell the city manager’s office that a charter amendment would be required before the board’s powers could be changed. For now, he said, “when there’s no citizen complaint, the board has no authority to review and evaluate.”