Police commission reviews controller's audit of OCC; interim director outlines reforms amid union criticism

The San Francisco Police Commission on April 6 heard the controller's performance audit of the Office of Citizens Complaints and received a public report and response from the interim OCC director.

Interim OCC Director Ms. Fields told the commission that anonymous employee survey narratives cited a small set of ethical concerns and that management took steps including reissuing sign-in policies, sending supervisors to DHR training and instituting progressive discipline classes. "In closed session, you asked me specifically to comment on the items on page 30 of the controller's audit," she said, summarizing the four categories of concern the commission requested be disclosed. Fields said OCC staff had implemented or begun 17 of the 45 recommendations in the report.

The director disputed broad characterizations that cases were left unattended for years and provided case-timing statistics to the commission: "In 02/2005, 92 percent of all cases were closed within 1 year. In 02/2006, 94 percent of all cases were closed within a year…