OCC reports 36 mediations in August and outlines steps to clear assault-kit backlog

Director Hicks told the Police Commission that the Office of Citizen Complaints had 36 mediations through Aug. 31 and that the chief reviewed eight sustained complaints in August—seven categorized as neglect of duty and one for discourtesy. "We had 36 mediations, through August 31," she said. "There were 8 cases that were reviewed by Chief Sir... 7 of them were for neglect of duty, and 1 was for discourtesy."

Hicks highlighted a specific language-access failure in which a Spanish-speaking complainant's account did not make it into the incident report; she said department bulletins on report-writing responsibilities will be issued to address the problem. She also described a pursuit case that led to a weapon display to a 14-year-old in a park; the chief found the display was not out of policy but said the officer should have explained the situation more carefully and should have issued a certificate of release, and the officer received admonishment and retraining.

Responding to questions about sexual-assault-kit testing, the chief said the department launched the ASAP (additional sexual-assault evidence program) in January to stop future backlogs and that the DNA section's staffing has increased by more than 400% (now four supervisors and 11 analysts). The department also contracted with two private labs for outsourcing; 60 backlog cases have been sent with a stated goal to complete the remaining backlog by mid‑2015. "This program has been in place since January... 60 cases from the backlog have already been sent and our goal is to have the complete backlog completed by mid 2015," the chief said.

Commissioners thanked Director Hicks and requested updates on disciplinary follow-through and backlog progress at future meetings.