The El Monte and West Covina police departments are looking to improve the ways citizens file complaints prompted by a 2017-18 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury investigation.
Both cities’ police departments were criticized in a Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury report titled “Policing the Police,” released at the end of June, for issues like not having complaint forms freely available without asking for them, not offering the forms online or in multiple languages and not having them in locations other than at the police stations.
The Grand Jury examined citizen complaint processes and internal affairs functions in 12 city police departments across the county from 2013 to 2017 — Bell Gardens, Burbank, Culver City, El Monte, Glendale, Inglewood, Pasadena, Pomona, San Fernando, South Gate, Torrance and West Covina.
Neither El Monte nor West Covina had a system set up to track complaints and their subsequent investigations, and those investigations weren’t used to identify possible problematic trends within the department, according to the report.
El Monte specifically was criticized for not providing citizens a space on the form to describe the incident that prompted their complaint as well as for not furnishing a copy of the report to the citizen at the time they filed it with the department.
El Monte Police Department Chief David Reynoso said the department has already made several of the recommended changes in advance of the Sept. 30 response deadline, including adding a system that not only tracks complaints and investigations but analyzes them to look for problematic trends.
While the complaint process is important, Reynoso said, another important aspect he wants his staff to focus on is communication. Complaints often stem from citizens’ frustration with the criminal justice system or its processes, he said, so the department’s officers are instructed to clearly communicate those processes.
“It’s our job to make that process as smooth as possible, keeping in mind the feelings and needs of the public,” Reynoso said.
One issue specifically identified with West Covina’s citizen complaint brochure is that it included a warning that the person filing the complaint may be subject to a polygraph test, which could deter citizens from coming forward with their complaints, according to the report. West Covina was the only city reviewed that included this warning.
The West Covina City Council is set to review and discuss the Grand Jury recommendations at its meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday, City Manager Chris Freeland said in an email.
Reynoso said the report and its findings have been a positive topic of discussion among San Gabriel Valley police chiefs.
“The Grand Jury made some good and useful recommendations that we’re definitely going to or already have moved on,” Reynoso said.
Both Pasadena and Pomona have also begun implementing the Grand Jury recommendations specific to their police departments.
Pasadena, which had the highest percentage of “sustained” complaints among the 12 cities investigated, has already addressed several issues, including removing a warning that complainants are filing the form “under penalty of perjury.”
Pasadena city staffers are working on an appeal process to allow residents to challenge unsatisfactory findings on their complaints, to be implemented by December 2018, according to a staff report.
Pomona has already taken significant measures to address most of its specific Grand Jury recommendations. Chief Michael Olivieri created a “Professional Standard” unit to oversee internal affairs functions, policies and procedures, training, backgrounds and recruitment, he said in a statement.
Since the recommendations were released, Olivieri said the department is in the process of implementing numerous changes, including adding signage in multiple languages indicating the location of complaint forms and making those forms available in multiple languages online.
August 15, 2018
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
By Christopher Yee
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