Carlsbad Police brief commission on complaint process, disability 'blue envelope' program, staffing and drone use

Carlsbad Police Chief Calderwood presented an overview of the department's personnel-complaint procedure, summarized complaint statistics for calendar year 2024 and described several community-facing programs and recent City Council actions affecting policing.

Chief Calderwood said the department's personnel complaint rule is Policy 10-20 and "provides guidelines for the reporting, investigation and disposition of complaints regarding the conduct of the Carlsbad Police Department members." He told the commission the department investigated 26 complaints in 2024: 7 were officer-involved traffic collisions, 5 came from internal sources and 14 were received from external complainants. Findings for those 26 investigations were two exonerated, eight unfounded, seven sustained and two not sustained; the most common allegation was discourtesy.

The complaint form the chief showed to commissioners has an acknowledgement referencing California Penal Code section 148.6 and offers options for anonymous submission by mail, email or in person. Calderwood said complainants receive a written acknowledgement when a complaint is opened and are notified when an investigation is complete, but personnel-file confidentiality means they are not told specific discipline. He also described the Professional Standards Bureau as consisting of one lieutenant and one sergeant responsible for investigations, plus an additional training sergeant; the bureau currently splits investigations between those staff and may add another sergeant within five years.

Calderwood told the commission that Policy 10-20 classifies complaints as type 1 (allegations that would not reasonably result in punitive action) and type 2 (allegations that could reasonably result in punitive action), and that officer use of body-worn camera footage speeds resolution of many cases. "With most of all of these, we can very quickly tell if this happened or not," he said, adding the department often invites complainants to review body-worn camera footage when appropriate.

The chief also described the countywide Blue Envelope program, which the department has adopted as a voluntary, non-registrant accommodation system for people with disabilities. "The Blue Envelope program does not have a registry component," Calderwood said, and explained the envelope or keychain can identify that a person may have autism, dementia, anxiety or another condition and list an advocate's contact information so officers can call for assistance during an interaction. He said the program was created through San Diego law-enforcement partners and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and went live in September 2023; the department has limited public advertising of the program and maintains brochures and envelopes in its lobby.

On City Council actions affecting the department, Calderwood said the council on March 4 unanimously adopted a municipal code amendment prohibiting camping in vehicles; that ordinance took effect April 17 and the department spent the 30 days after adoption conducting outreach and connecting people living in vehicles to resources before enforcement. He also told the commission the council unanimously approved six new police positions on March 25: a civilian digital-forensics specialist, three patrol officers, one Internet Crimes Against Children detective and one special-events sergeant assigned to traffic. Recruitment for those positions is underway with a target to fill them by July 1; Calderwood said some hires will require police-academy attendance and that adding the positions will raise sworn strength from 132 to 137 when funded.

Calderwood closed with a high-level overview of the department's drone program. He said Carlsbad PD has 11 certified pilots, nine active drones and logged 226 mission-based flights so far this year (about 700 flights in the prior year). He described operational limits because of the city airport, the use of Axon's DroneSense software to stream live video to supervisors and the department's interest in future investments such as a real-time crime center once a new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system is implemented in the next 9—2 months. "The difference between what [other agencies] have and what we have is they can stage drones on buildings for immediate deployment," Calderwood said; Carlsbad pilots currently transport drones in vehicles to incidents.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about which complaints go to internal affairs, how the complaint form changed, whether it could be made a fillable PDF, the Professional Standards Bureau staffing, and the number of annual interactions the department handles (Calderwood said the department responds to more than 100,000 calls for service each year). Several commissioners praised the department's body-camera use and encouraged continued transparency via online dashboards and public communication.

Calderwood said the department will pursue a follow-up presentation focused on the drone team's training and cases where drones have helped locate missing persons or support tactical responses.