June 18, 2024
Police Department
DATE: June 18, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Bisa French, Chief of Police
Subject:
Sole Source Contract with Chaplin & Hill Investigative
Services LLC.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: This estimated first year expenditure of $25,000 will come from the Police Departments proposed Fiscal Year
2024 – 2025 budget, and the remaining contract years
will be budgeted for appropriately (01191021-400201).
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
N/A
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
A services agreement with Chaplin & Hill Investigative
Services LLC is needed to investigate administrative
investigations into police misconduct, which will include high profile use of force incidents.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: APPROVE a sole source contract with Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC, for an amount not to exceed $50,000, for the term June 19, 2024, to June 30, 2027 – Police Department (Chief Bisa French 510-621-1802).
DISCUSSION:
The Police Department is requesting an immediate service agreement with Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC, to provide investigative services for administrative investigations into police misconduct and use of force cases. Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC have investigators that are trusted subject matter experts and former Chiefs of Police with 55 years of combined experience from local police agencies.
AGENDA
REPORT
June 18, 2024
Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services possess a deep understanding of the Peace Officers Bill of Rights and the requirements of an administrative investigation. Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC possess the necessary expertise, experience, and credibility to produce a work product with usable findings related to the Richmond Police Department’s (RPD) policies and procedures.
While there are other law firms and investigative agencies capable of similar work, they cannot deliver the specific work product needed. Richmond Police staffs’ past experiences with these alternatives have been unsatisfactory. In every case that Richmond Police staff outsourced, the resulting work product took an extended period (6-12 months) to produce, was not readily usable, and lacked an analysis of how RPD policies applied to the facts. These reports also failed to provide findings related to RPD policies, necessitating extensive time to review evidence from our own analyses, necessitating a second investigation and additional, duplicated, costs.
Investigators at Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC, possess a deep understanding of the nuances of the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, particularly as it pertains to Police Officer Association Elected Board members. They stand alone in possessing the necessary expertise, experience, and credibility to produce a work product with usable findings related to RPD policies. This will enable an expedited review process, allowing RPD to take immediate action if necessary within the 4-week time frame required to meet employment law obligations. Failure to complete these types of investigations promptly could result in the inability of RPD taking immediate action that could result in significant loss of an employee’s liberty.
RPD currently has an open investigation of a high-profile use of force case that is being investigated by Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC, and while a short form contract was initiated and started, the amount of work required to complete the initial case, and/or any future cases, will fully exhaust the funds originally set aside by the short form contract.
The rates for Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC starting on July 1, 2024 will be $225 per hour ($200 per hour prior to then), plus any associated expenses incurred as a result of the investigation.
The Police Department is requesting that the City enter into a standard contract with Chaplin & Hill Investigative Services LLC, for a total contract amount of $50,000, for a contract term of June 19, 2024 to June 30, 2027.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Original Contract