- Overview
- Training
- Policy and Protocols Review
- Oversight
Law Enforcement Investigations
Most law enforcement officers patrol their local communities with integrity and respect for those they serve. However, when a member of the community files a complaint against an officer, the department’s response must be unimpeachable. Ensuring a thorough, objective, timely, and well-reasoned law enforcement investigation helps individuals know they have been heard and increases the public’s trust in its police or sheriff’s department.
OIG’s Law Enforcement Oversight Team, led by former U.S. Justice Department attorney Jack Morse, frequently serves as an external investigatory arm for law enforcement agencies. The team’s attorneys and support staff have more than 50 years of combined experience in law enforcement oversight, including police and related investigations regarding allegations of bias, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and unreasonable searches and seizures (including excessive force). Adhering to the parameters of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights (POBR), we have investigated patrol officers and command staff in departments across California utilizing an impartial, fact-finding process that protects the rights of all involved.
Effective training accomplishes multiple goals. It equips both prospective and experienced peace officers with an understanding of the relevant laws and policies that govern their work, and in so doing, it prepares officers to police their communities in the most effective way possible. Thoughtful and detailed training also communicates the cultural values and ethics of the law enforcement agency. When carried out successfully, training serves as a necessary bulwark against misconduct that can harm community members and ruin officers’ careers.
Our Law Enforcement Oversight Team has the expertise and experience needed to provide law enforcement agencies and officers with training regarding subjects, such as:
- Searches and seizures
- Conducting investigations
- Conducting pedestrian and vehicle stops
- Bias-free and community-based policing
- Use of force (including compliance with Penal Code 835a and the Graham standard)
Law Enforcement Oversight Team members also have experience evaluating and auditing an agency’s own training to ensure it effectively incorporates adult learning techniques and persuasively communicates key concepts from an agency’s policies, protocols, and the law.
Effective policies are an essential component of a law enforcement agency’s approach to policing the community. Policies inform training, give teeth to accountability systems, and serve as an ongoing resource for officers. Sound policies clearly articulate applicable legal standards and echo best practices that are generally accepted among similarly situated law enforcement organizations as the most effective means of securing public safety, serving the community, and mitigating harm. Good policies also reflect an agency’s values and principles, capitalizing on an opportunity to inspire the community’s confidence that the department’s members respect the lives of every person.
Robust, precise polices that reflect best practices also help guard local governments against costly liability. Specifically, up-to-date policies may help officers avoid high-risk uses of force—for example, by articulating and emphasizing thorough de-escalation tactics and techniques. Doing so helps avoid the kind of force that results in serious bodily injury and can lead to expensive lawsuits.
Our Law Enforcement Oversight Team reviews agencies’ policies, protocols, and procedures to ensure they are up-to-date with current legal requirements, including those within California’s Senate Bill 230 and Assembly Bill 392.
In today’s policing climate, many agencies find themselves subjected to law enforcement oversight as the result of litigation brought by the Justice Department or entities representing private plaintiffs. Court-enforceable consent decrees may exceed 100 pages and require law enforcement agencies to make extensive changes to practices regarding the use, reporting, and investigation of force; the receipt, investigation, and resulting dispositions regarding community complaints; mechanisms to engage the community and build and maintain the community’s trust; protocols to ensure bias-free policing; early intervention strategies to track and address questionable conduct; training plans and curricula for officers and supervisors; and others.
Our Law Enforcement Oversight Team helps agencies achieve full and effective compliance with such agreements and can track outcome measures to ensure reform efforts are effective. We will work with your agency to track data ─ such as use of force incidents, community complaints, pedestrian and vehicle stops, and searches and seizures ─ to identify troubling or promising trends and adjust accordingly.
