Eugene interim police auditor reports 320 complaints in 2024; Civilian Review Board flags camera and cultural issues

Interim Police Auditor Lindsay Fultz told the Eugene City Council on June 18 that the Office of the Police Auditor received 320 deduplicated complaints in 2024 and continues to refine intake and preliminary-review practices.

"For 2024, we had 320 complaints," Fultz said as she opened the office's annual presentation. She said the phone remained the primary intake source and a web portal launched two years ago is now the second-largest source of complaints.

The auditor's office conducts a preliminary review of every intake using police reports, CAD records, body-worn and in-car video, 911 recordings and any materials submitted by reporting parties. That process produced 17 intakes classified as allegations of misconduct in 2024; those 17 intakes generated 51 separate allegations against 14 employees, Fultz said. Roughly 60% of allegations were sustained and about 30% of allegations ended by employee resignation, she said.

The auditor emphasized the office's limits: it oversees investigations and reports on disciplinary trends, but does not make disciplinary decisions. "The chief has the final disciplinary authority," Fultz said.

The office also reviewed uses of force. Fultz said there were 173 reportable uses of force recorded in 2024 and two uses of potentially deadly force: one that resulted in a nonfatal injury and one that resulted in a fatality. Those critical incidents were investigated by an Interagency Deadly Force Investigation Team (IDFIT) and reviewed by the district attorney; Fultz said the DA deemed the IDFIT findings lawful in both cases. The auditor's office participates on the subsequent administrative deadly-force review board as a nonvoting member.

The Civilian Review Board (CRB) presented its 2024 annual report immediately after the auditor's presentation. CRB Chair Jose Cortez said the board convened nine public meetings and reviewed eight misconduct cases, four supervisory reviews and one intake-classification review in 2024. "Our goal is not punitive, but rather educative," Cortez said, describing the CRB's role as ensuring investigations and adjudication reflect community expectations.

The CRB highlighted recurring concerns: failures to activate body-worn cameras in multiple cases, uneven camera coverage for specialized teams such as SWAT, and workplace conduct problems. The board pointed to a case involving eight sustained allegations against a single officer, including workplace harassment, and said the pattern resembled a 2023 case and merited continued data collection and monitoring.

The CRB also noted at least one instance in 2024 where the auditor recommended sustained findings in a use-of-force case but the chief adjudicated the conduct as within policy; the board said such differences underscore the value of independent review.

Council members asked for additional breakdowns and trend reporting. Fultz and councilors discussed vehicle pursuits (a spike in earlier years that fell back to typical levels in 2024) and patrol-response timeliness: 31 complaints in 2024 raised concerns about patrol response time, and staff found that, in all but one of those cases, dispatch and triage appeared to have been handled correctly.

Fultz credited improved preliminary reviews and cooperation with Eugene Police Department Internal Affairs for more accurate classifications and fewer insufficient-evidence outcomes. She also outlined staff and transition plans: long-serving staff departures in 2024 and an incoming auditor, Craig Renetsky, scheduled to start August 20, 2025. The auditor's office reported participation in more than 25 community events in 2024 to promote accessibility to the complaint process.

Councilors praised the presentations and requested future analyses, including a clearer listing of the specific policies implicated in allegations that rose to sustained findings and more data-driven work on uses of force.