Since February, San Jose, Ca., police officers have shot six people — five fatally. Despite a pledge to turn over detailed reports on the shootings to the city’s independent police auditor for review, the department has yet to provide the agency with a single document, the San Jose Mercury-News reports. Without the reports, Independent Police Auditor Teresa Guerrero-Daley said, she cannot determine whether the department’s internal affairs division conducted a thorough investigation to see if the officers involved violated department policies. The reports are also necessary to spot weaknesses with police training that may have contributed to the deaths.
Police Chief Rob Davis, who took office in January, agreed to provide Guerrero-Daley with a copy of the department’s reports “as soon as practical” after a decision was made on whether to file criminal charges against an officer. Davis said his internal affairs investigators are still reviewing this year’s shootings. He said the time it takes to complete an administrative review, looking at whether the officer acted within police policy or should be disciplined, varies with the circumstances of each case. A survey of other police auditors in cities similar in size to San Jose found that they receive the investigatory documents no later than six months after the officer-involved shooting. Ronald Hunter, head of the criminal justice department at Western Carolina University and former supervisor of the criminal investigations unit at the Tallahassee (Fl.) Police Department, said police shooting investigations usually wrap up within three to six months, depending on the complexity or controversial nature of the case.
Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/10061802.htm