NEW OCC REPORT CONFIRMS BREAKDOWN IN SFPD ACCOUNTABILITY, SAYS ACLU – CALLS FOR MAJOR POLICE REFORM


For Immediate Release: April 24, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a highly critical report released on April 23, the Office of Citizen Complaints (“OCC”) accused the San Francisco Police Department (“SFPD”) of obstructing its investigations of police misconduct and failing to act on sustained cases of misconduct. Citing numerous examples and statistics, the report documents a pattern of obstruction and delay that is undermining the ability of the OCC to fulfill its mission.

“This report provides further proof of the breakdown in accountability within the Department and highlights the need for reform,” said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Police Director of the ACLU of Northern California. “More than that, it demonstrates the failure of the Police Commission to fulfill its Charter mandated duty of overseeing the OCC and Police Department. Many of these issues have been raised in the past, yet the Commission has failed to act.”

The OCC is charged by the City Charter with investigating all citizen complaints and the Charter requires the “prompt and full cooperation and assistance from all departments, officers and employees of the City and County.”

According to the OCC report, “despite the unequivocal duty to cooperate with the OCC, the Department has routinely obstructed and delayed OCC investigations” in a number of ways including: failing to respond to requests for documents, withholding documents in officer-involved shootings and death-in-custody cases for a year or more, and even refusing to follow a City Attorney’s opinion that the City Charter requires disclosure of documents.

Further, the report documents a lack of officer cooperation in attending required interviews and completing member response forms, abuses by officer representatives, failure by the Department to act on OCC findings of sustained misconduct, and lax imposition of discipline.

The OCC report follows a report released by the ACLU on March 12, documenting a breakdown in accountability mechanisms within the Department and calling for reforms.