Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the OCC Staffing And Capacity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
OCC director asks commission to note mayoral funding; agency still faces heavy caseloads
Summary
Joyce Hicks told the commission Mayor Lee proposed funding that would add 4.25 OCC positions; she said one investigator carries a caseload of 36 cases versus a best‑practice target of 16 and discussed modest non‑staffing steps to improve complainant communications.
Joyce Hicks, director of the Office of Citizen Complaints, told the Police Commission the mayor’s public‑safety funding proposal included 4.25 new OCC positions and that, if approved by the Board of Supervisors, the OCC’s staffing would rise to 39 positions.
Hicks said the OCC has struggled under long‑standing budget constraints and attrition that make it difficult to fill established positions; she reported an investigator had a caseload of 36 active matters while best practice is about 16 cases per investigator. That imbalance, she said, has driven the OCC to seek incremental staffing increases and deploy efficiency measures.
Hicks and commissioners discussed whether the mayor’s proposed addition would be sufficient to bring caseloads down to best practice levels. Hicks said the OCC is not currently asking for more than the mayor proposed but could request additional resources in future budget cycles if workloads remain high. She also proposed low‑cost operational fixes such as periodic status letters to complainants to update them on long investigations.
Hicks noted the introduction of body‑worn cameras could affect complaint volumes and may reduce certain types of complaints, but added the OCC will still need resources to process and analyze new complaint types and body camera evidence.
Next steps: the OCC will seek to fill at least one investigator vacancy and continue to work with the mayor’s budget office and the Department of Human Resources to define positions and recruit staff; the commission offered to support efforts to restore or add funding if caseloads do not decline.
