OCC presents 2011 annual report; seeks $9,000 for online complaint filing

Joyce Hicks, director of the Office of Citizen Complaints, told the San Francisco Police Commission on May 2 that the OCC received 784 complaints in 2011 and closed 846, leaving only one pending case from 2010 that was just closed. "The OCC's mission is to promptly, fairly and impartially investigate civilian complaints of police misconduct and make policy recommendations," Hicks said in presenting the office's 2011 annual report.

Hicks outlined staffing and workload trends, noting a 6% decline in sworn San Francisco Police Department staff between 2009 and 2010 and an OCC investigator caseload average of 23 cases (the best-practice target noted in the report is 16). The OCC sustained 59 allegations in 2011, a sustained rate of 6.97%, compared with a 19-year median sustained rate of 8.8 percent. Hicks said the OCC closed all but one 2010 case and that the office's mediation program mediated 61 cases using pro bono mediators.

The report included demographic and language-access data: English intake accounted for about 95% of intakes, Spanish 4%, Cantonese 1% and Mandarin less than 1%. The OCC noted an overrepresentation of African Americans among complainants (28% of complainants versus about 6% of the city's population, per the presentation). "Any language that we do not speak, we obtain translation services," Hicks said.

Hicks summarized the OCC's compliance with the 2007 controller's audit: "We have substantially complied with 38 of those recommendations," she said, and described remaining work such as adding online complaint filing and automated deadline prompts. When asked about the online filing cost, Hicks said the office is budgeting approximately $9,000 and will borrow funds from other areas in its existing budget to implement the feature.

Commissioners pressed for implementation benchmarks and cautioned that increased accessibility could raise incoming workload. Commissioner Turman asked how the OCC would measure whether online filing improved accessibility and staff efficiency; Hicks replied the OCC will benchmark usage and track utility from day one. OCC IT lead Chris Wisniewski told the commission that open-source tools are evaluated but some cloud-based solutions raise confidentiality and security concerns for sensitive investigative materials.

The OCC also listed policy priorities for the coming year including proposed changes to the vehicle pursuit policy (DGO 5.05), adding "complaint of pain" language to use-of-force reporting (DGO 5.01), and expanded language-access training and roll-call bulletins (DGO 5.02). Samra Marion, OCC policy analyst, told the commission these items are among the office's top priorities for eventual formal recommendations to the department.

The report concluded with a note on limited discretionary funds: Hicks said the OCC's budget is largely personnel-driven and that at present online filing and deadline automation are being pursued within constrained resources. "We want to make the OCC more accessible," Hicks said, "and we'll benchmark to see how much it helps our work." The commission requested copies of the OCC's PowerPoint and follow-up data on specific SRO complaints and sustained-case breakdowns.

Votes at a glance: the commission also adopted procedural minutes earlier in the meeting by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded for that administrative motion.