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County Watchdog
Announces Report on Sheriff’s Investigations of
Officer Misconduct Complaints, Recommends Changes
Today the King County Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO) released a
report, Internal Investigations Complaint Classification Review of the King
County Sheriff’s Office, at a briefing of the Metropolitan King County
Council’s Law and Justice Committee. The report identifies concerns with the
King County Sheriff’s Office’s internal investigations system and recommends
related improvements to policy and practice.
“We undertook this review after noticing inconsistent handling of complaints
from the public, and growing concern that serious complaints were not properly
addressed,” said OLEO Director Deborah Jacobs. “Although we have already seen
some improvements under the new leadership of Sheriff Johanknecht, we’re
proposing significant changes that can bring the Sheriff’s Office closer to the
fair and transparent treatment of complaints that the public expects.”
OLEO engaged the Daigle Law Group, a national
expert on law enforcement agency operations and risk management, to analyze how
the Sheriff’s Office determines which misconduct complaints it will
investigate. Presently, the Sheriff’s Office classifies incoming
complaints into three categories:
- Non-investigatory
Matter - even if the facts are true, the allegation does not amount to a policy
violation.
- Supervisor
Action Log – include allegations of minor policy violations that are sent to
the employee’s supervisor to address.
- Inquiries
– allegations involving misconduct that are formally investigated.
The
Daigle Law Group conducted a review of 280 complaints received in 2016 and how
the classifications were handled. Key findings from this review were:
- Of
the files reviewed, half of the complaints classified as “non-investigatory
matters” were classified incorrectly, or contained insufficient justification
for that classification.
- Some
of the complaints that were classified incorrectly involved allegations about
excessive force, illegal search and seizure, discourtesy, and biased-based
policing.
- There
was a lack of documentation/explanation for how the reviewer made the initial
complaint classification.
- There
was a lack of standardization for investigation reports of all complaints,
regardless of how the complaint is classified.
The report
recommends key changes to improve consistency, accuracy and fairness in
Sheriff’s Office internal investigations, including that it should:
- Restructure
the entire classification system by classifying complaints based on how the
complainant perceived the situation, rather than after preliminary
investigation, which will keep the public’s point of view as the benchmark as
information is gathered.
- Broaden
the scope of investigative reports to require investigators to include
additional findings such as: whether the officer complied with policy and
training and if different tactics should or could have been used.
- Improve
communication with complainants by providing additional notifications regarding
case status, which is an essential step in establishing trust.
- Increase
staff size of the Internal Investigations Unit (IIU) and designate a specific
force investigator with specialized training.
These changes
would ensure that all complaints and allegations are documented as part of the
discipline system, that similar allegations against different personnel are
processed uniformly, and that there is greater consistency between an IIU and
front-line supervisor investigation. This alignment, coupled with better data,
will allow for identification of any gaps in policy or training.
Since Sheriff Johanknecht took office and appointed a new IIU Captain, Rodney
Chinnick, OLEO has seen significant improvements in internal investigations,
including correcting mis-classifications, which are addressed in the report
released today. OLEO hopes that the Sheriff’s Office will similarly embrace the
recommendations in this report that, if also implemented, will further improve
KCSO’s own internal accountability structure to promote greater transparency,
consistency and fairness to both the public and its employees.
OLEO is an independent office established by the County Council that represents
the interests of the public in its efforts to hold the Sheriff’s Office
accountable for providing fair and just police services. It conducts systemic
reviews of the Sheriff’s Office’s policies, practices and trainings, and makes
policy recommendations to the Sheriff’s Office and the County Council for
meaningful improvements.
You can read OLEO’s report online at: https://kingcounty.gov/~/media/independent/law-enforcement-oversight/Documents/2018/DLGReview_KCSO_Int_Affairs7-2018.ashx?la=en
Learn more about King County’s Office of Law Enforcement Oversight at http://www.kingcounty.gov/OLEO
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