Up to 30% of all the cases included in the 2022 year-end report were subject to this egregious and unethical practice. Bearing in mind that under state law an alleged misconduct allegation must be adjudicated within a 365-day statute of limitations, it was revealed that if the previous IPA received a case within 45-days of the statute of limitations she would designate the case as “closed with concerns”. If the previous IPA received a case within 10-days of the statute of limitations, then it would be designated “disagreed”.
Apparently, the merits of the investigation and the personal toll these designations have on the lives and reputations of police officers were of no concern but rather the pursuit of a political agenda was of paramount concern. This was a shameful practice.
This practice has the effect of dramatically increasing the number of “closed with concern” or “disagreed” with findings, when in fact the former IPA may not have even bothered to review the files.
This startling revelation begs the questions; How long has the IPA’s Office been misleading the City Council? Was this the IPA’s standard operating procedure? Since the previous IPA did not rely upon an established policies or procedures manual to manage her Charter mandated responsibilities, this revelation confirms that she ran a standardless operation with blatant disregard for producing accurate data. If any city department were run like this, it would rightfully be skewered.
The Council should retain an independent investigator to review past IPA year-end reports, remove the automatic “closed for concern” and “disagreed” with categories described above, and issue revised, accurate, and honest versions of them.
More broadly, we encourage both the SJPD command staff as well as the IPA to work on process improvements to speed delivery of completed internal affairs investigations to the IPA.
We support a modest personnel increase for the Office of the IPA on the condition that a policies and procedures manual is created so that a uniform and fair application of the law, rules, and due process protocols are followed. We also support additional oversight emanating from the City Manager’s office to ensure a fair alleged police misconduct investigation process.
Sincerely,
Steve Slack, President
San Jose Police Officers’ Association (SJPOA)
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