Present (abbreviations in parens): (members) Chairman, Police Chief Gold (PC), Fire Chief, Sebastian, City Councilor Diane Moore (Diane), Ron, _____, Secretary(?). (community) Pat Leahan (Pat), Carol, Daniel Patterson, Trace, Joe Whiteman, Bruce McCallister (?).
Oversight Board¶
PC
LVPD says anything that could make it better (for the community) we want. We currently have an Internal Affairs (IA) division. It reports to the Chief. If a civilian makes a complaint, they fill out a form, it comes to the IA div, they decide whether it meets criteria for an investigation. Categorizes at 1,2,3 (least serious to most). If 3, send to investigator. The investigator makes a finding, which is reported to the Chief, with a recommendation. If it is not category 3, it is sent to a supervisor, who decides punishment. I have a log book with all the IA investigation since I became Police Chief. It was 43 entries now.
{describing how an oversight board could work} It is made up of members selected by the mayor (in ABQ there are 5). A citizen complains to the board, they decide if it’s warranted, then they come to independent investigator, who makes a recommendation to the oversight board, and that goes on to the chief of police.
All of these people need to understand and follow the police officers due process, there are laws and procedures as to how an officer is disciplined, to be fair to officers.
“Of course the chief is going to have to be responsible for making sure that’s all done.”
Pat
Reads/summarizes a letter presented to the committee with documents and recommendations as to how to proceed.
PC
One option is to get rid of the people in IA {doing this work}, and use an RPF (?) – ie, rotate a new person from somewhere different in the state every year.
“I have to make the decision to go off of the recommendation”
“The key is the truth”
Chairman
I totally agree with this. {from the perspective of formerly being police chief} We (as the police) have nothing to hide.
Pat
We (as the LV P&J center) visited Albuquerque, and sat in on hearings, and they had space for both sides to fairly present their case. We were impressed by how fair it was.
{note} Even if no disciplinary action is taken, in their system a record is put on their file permanently, so long as they remain at the same police department.
Joe Whiteman
Citizens need to be responsible for public servants. This {an oversight board} is a way to do this. To lower the level of resentment towards the police by giving people a venue to be heard. If the oversight committee is transparent, empowered, everything will get better.
Police will be more respected, appreciated, compensated, if we have a system that allows people to be heard.
Bruce McCallister
I haven’t been around here for very long, I’m from Oklahoma, but when 100 people come to discuss an issue {referring to community forum I think}, then it’s time as come. It {an oversight board} would be a real good investment.
Diane
It’s needed. What bothers me is that negative press. We need to realize the police department and the community both want to have a board. I’m in support of this, but I don’t support paying someone.
PC
We would pay an independent investigator {but not anyone on the board itself}
Pat
The independent investigator is quite important, and giving them resources to conduct thorough investigations.
PC
{in response to questioning about whether his reference to getting IA off of civilian complaints would mean it wouldn’t exist anymore} IA will always be there. I really want to give my IA file to them (the oversight committee or the community). The problem is that I can’t share {due to confidentiality}.
Pat
Under previous chiefs, we {the public safety committee} were able to get cases where the names of the officers were removed. {no direct response to this by PC}
Diane
It’s very important that members are law abiding, and it would be great if there could be at least one woman, youth, a representative from each ward, perhaps a former judge. If this were created, what would be the public safety committee do?
PC
The public safety committee would continue to do what it always has done – act as an advisory committee.
Pat
In most cases the public safety committees and the police oversight boards are completely separate.
PC
I spend most of my time in meetings…. I wish someone could see {the cases} but confidentiality.
“I can go to sleep at night because I know I am making the right decisions”
Diane
I want to support this. We will talk about this at the retreat, when we will have had the chance to look at the documents.
Ron
I’m not an expert, but nationally there is a trend in this direction. The problem is when oversight is internal. People will always wonder, is the police department protecting it’s own? It really helps if there is an independent oversight. I overwhelmingly support this.
PC
I’ve been an investigator for 22 years. Cops have to be accountable. IA can do as good a job as an independent investigator. “We have to trust them”
Diane
“Gary, I’ve been in two meetings with you about this, but there IS a problem, let the committee resolve it. The more you say, ‘we do a good job’, but we know there ARE problems. We all recognize there are good cops. I commend you for supporting them, but there are red flags happening”
PC
You haven’t seen the cases. All of IA’s investigations don’t go public.
Pat
{in response to questions as to whether an oversight committee would result in the information being public} Some committees are completely transparent, some are not.
Sebastian
I support this ideas. We should also consider allowing members from areas surrounding vegas to serve on the board, as they are affected by the police too, and community members might be intimidated if the whole board is from vegas.
Chairman
What direction is this going?
PC
I’m going to meet with Pat, and we are going to come up with a plan, to submit to the city council (?), that fits our needs.
Chair
Bring it before us again before it goes to city council.
{Addendum on citizen’s police academy}
Chair
Have people heard of a citizen’s academy. It is similar to police training, but condensed. Then the citizens get to ride along with police officers.
PC
Think it’s a great idea.
Chairman
What do you think about it {to pat}?
Pat
It’s actually a requirement of many oversight boards, that they have to do ridealongs twice a month or year.
Diane
I’d like to see that {the citizens academy}
Chairman
{in response to question of not having cops to run the program} we could have retired cops.
PC
We could do that.
