Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Police Oversight topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Office of Citizen Complaints director outlines complaint process, statistics and mediation program
Summary
Joyce Hicks, director of San Francisco’s Office of Citizen Complaints, described OCC jurisdiction, investigative steps, subpoena power and 2013 case statistics (722 complaints, about 59 mediations, ~6% sustain rate) during a Police Commission town-hall.
Joyce Hicks, director of the San Francisco Office of Citizen Complaints, briefed the Police Commission and the Richmond community on OCC responsibilities, investigative procedures and case statistics.
"We are the third largest civilian oversight of law enforcement agency in The United States," Hicks said, noting only New York and Chicago exceed San Francisco in scale. She described OCC's origin in a 1982 board-of-supervisors-sponsored charter amendment and said the office has about 35 employees, mostly investigators, plus attorneys and support staff.
Hicks explained the OCC investigation process: intake of complaints from the public, interviews of complainants and involved officers, use of subpoenas to compel testimony or documents, site visits, evidence collection and an investigatory standard of "preponderance of the evidence." She said the OCC aims to complete investigations in nine months, with a one-year limit except for limited exceptions.
On mediation, Hicks said the OCC offers voluntary mediation as an alternative to discipline and partners with community mediation boards and the San Francisco Bar Association to provide neutral mediators. "Last year, that is in 2013, the OCC [conducted] 59 mediations," she said, representing about 8% of the 722 cases closed that year.
Hicks walked through 2013 complaint demographics: she reported that African Americans made up about 28% of complainants, Caucasians about 30%, Latinos 12%, Asian Americans 6%, Native Americans/Pacific Islanders 2% and others 3%; she said 19% declined to state race. The OCC provides intake and interviews in multiple languages including Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Burmese, Tagalog and English, and the office publishes information online and accepts complaints at district stations.
Hicks said that if the OCC finds misconduct or neglect of duty, it forwards reports to the chief, who may impose discipline up to a 10-day suspension; matters requiring greater discipline are within the police commission's jurisdiction.
The OCC director concluded by inviting residents to take brochures and to speak with senior investigator Sherry Fletcher, who was in the audience.
The presentation supplied residents with contact channels and timelines for oversight investigations, and commissioners said the OCC's work helps build trust between the public and the police.
