Police work to improve review policies
Published April 6, 2007
The Columbia police internal review policies are outdated and often inconsistent, according to a review conducted by a consultant hired by the department.
The report was presented Monday to the Columbia City Council by Aaron Thompson, the Eastern Kentucky University associate vice president for academic affairs who led the review. The 100-page report offers suggestions for new policies to implement and portions of the existing policy to rewrite.
According to the report, the internal affairs procedures were developed more than 20 years ago. In that time, the department has grown by 53 sworn officers.
Columbia police Capt. Mike Martin, the internal affairs commander, said implementing the suggestions from the report would allow complainants to be more involved.
"Transparency is something we really want to focus on," Martin said.
Martin said under the proposed changes, the department would talk to people who file a complaint throughout the investigation process.
In the report, the researchers recommend that the department make information about reporting available to the public and explore new opportunities to relay information to the public regarding the complaint process.
Internal affairs investigations are divided into two categories. The internal affairs process is initiated when an employee could have committed a criminal offense.
When department policy could have been violated but no criminal action was taken, the department instead conducts a supervisory review.
According to the report, the system could allow supervisors' own biases or prejudices to influence the outcome of the investigation.
The report also states investigations conducted by different supervisors often result in inconsistent outcomes.
To combat these problems, the report suggests creating a Professional Standards Unit to conduct most administrative investigations and all criminal cases. The unit would be staffed by investigators, supervisors and managers.
Martin said the new policies would allow more supervisors to be on the streets with the officers they supervise and be involved in police work.
The report also directs the department to separate use of force investigations from the internal affairs investigation process.
"Transparency within our own agency would be important," he said. "We're intending to provide as much transparency to our own officers."
The report compared the Columbia police procedures to those of the best practices in law enforcement, but it excluded systems that use citizen review boards. Martin said the City Council decided to limit the examination because the council members wanted to know if the system works.
"We're dealing with two different processes," he said. "Is our process broken? And if so, how can we fix it?"
To collect the data for the report, the researchers met in Columbia with a focus group including Columbia Police Department Chief Randy Boehm and the five police captains. Martin said the report was commissioned at the direction of the City Council through the department's budget.