Independent monitors: V.I. Police Department's compliance with consent decree is 'unacceptable'

The V.I. Police Department has made some progress meeting the mandates of a federal consent decree, but, according to a report, most of its efforts wax and wane around scheduled visits by independent monitors overseeing the process - a situation the monitors say is unacceptable.

"More than two years after the VIPD entered into the Consent Decree, the VIPD appears to be unable or unwilling to independently move towards compliance at an acceptable speed," a recently released report from independent monitors William Johnson and Steven Witzel, who were hired to track the department's compliance with the consent decree, states.

The report covers the period from January through March.

According to the report, police efforts to comply with the consent decree pick up in anticipation of monitoring visits, and then tend to drop off shortly after monitors leave the territory.

V.I. Police Commissioner Novelle Francis Jr. said that in his opinion, that is "far from the truth."

"There are weekly meetings that are held, and reports that are provided to the management of the Police Department," Francis said.

Francis said that he had issues with releasing the memoranda outlining details of those meetings to the monitors, because the meetings offer participants the opportunity to openly discuss deficiencies.

"I had issues with releasing that information because it's a work in progress," he said. "That's their opportunity to vent those issues. I don't think that's something I want to expose to the monitors."

The monitors stress in the report that the V.I. Police Department's top brass must immediately recommit themselves and the department to complying with the decree - and dramatically pick up the pace.

"To that end, the police commissioner should no longer tolerate any VIPD personnel who shortsightedly view the consent decree as a distraction," the report states.

"I totally agree with them," Francis said. "I try to lead from the front and indicate and clearly support that the consent decree is in place."

However, the commissioner noted that "we do have human beings that work for us and they have the right to their own feelings and emotions," although he said those emotions should not get in the way of the job.

Consent Decree

The consent decree came about after the Special Litigation Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division launched an investigation into the V.I. Police Department's use of force in March 2004.

That investigation came after The Daily News' publication of "Deadly Force," a 44-page investigative report detailing the Police Department's history of using excessive force and failure to investigate or prosecute the officers involved.

After wrapping up its investigation, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit contending that the Police Department was engaging in a pattern or practice of using excessive force and was tolerating that conduct by failing to adequately train, supervise, investigate and discipline its officers and by failing to establish consistent policies, procedures and practices to appropriately guide and monitor their actions.

The consent decree, which a federal judge signed off on in March 2009, settled that lawsuit by forcing the territory to remedy the situation by meeting a myriad of mandates, with specific deadlines to meet each mandate.

However, because police had already missed a number of deadlines, the Police Department and U.S. Justice Department came up with a new timetable last fall for police to reach substantial compliance with each mandate.

Progress

The Police Department's most significant recent accomplishment, according to the report, was finalizing a number of force-related policies, including those pertaining to use of force, reportable use of force, impact weapons, electronic control weapons, pepper spray, vehicle pursuit, off-duty official action, spike strips, canines, and firearms - as well as a form to document reportable uses of force.

A key element in the consent decree is that police must develop the infrastructure - including a variety of policies, procedures and forms - to adequately document, investigate and track its officers' use of force.

The department must then train its officers in those policies and procedures, and substantially comply with them for two years before being released from the consent decree.

Independent monitors praised the Police Department - in particular, its Policies and Procedures Committee - for finalizing eight force-related policies and beginning to train officers in those policies during the first quarter of the year.

That committee has developed what monitors describe as a "robust policy writing infrastructure," and appears to understand its role and function and how to effectively operate, according to the report.

However, the monitors also note that many of the department's other efforts to comply with the consent decree have stalled.

As an example, they note that several other committees - which Francis established at a consent decree summit in early January to work toward meeting key provisions in the consent decree - "have made minimal progress since being formed."

Without active involvement from the Office of the Independent Monitor, "it appears unlikely that those working groups would have made any progress whatsoever," the report states.

Francis said that reaching compliance is a work in progress, and that police are continuing to actively move forward - but he also noted the challenges the department faces.

Among those challenges, he said, is the fact that the department does not have "a cadre of people" assigned to deal with consent decree compliance.

"Additionally, the same individuals that's responsible for ensuring the consent decree mandates are met are the same individuals that's out there fighting crime," Francis said.

The chiefs of police and training directors - key players in working groups aimed at complying with different aspects of the consent decree - have a myriad of other responsibilities, including ensuring an adequate level of service to the community, he said.

Finally, the territory's financial problems, the department's inability to provide training until the policies are completed, and a sometimes lengthy procurement process to bring in outside trainers all factor into the department's ability to meet the timelines for compliance, Francis said.

"But we don't want to be adversarial," Francis said. "And we still want to work feverishly in terms of agreed timelines, so that we can meet the mandates of the consent decree."

Training and moving forward

The monitors note that police have begun training in the newly approved policies - but found a significant difference in the quality of training between districts that will require some officers to take the training again.

The quality of instruction on St. Croix was "generally good," while on St. Thomas, instructors primarily read the policies aloud, verbatim, without using visual aids, role-playing or other commonly-used adult teaching techniques, according to the report.

"Most of these pitfalls could have been avoided by conducting a 'test run' of the training program," the report states.

It goes on to say that although monitors "previously stressed the importance of vetting training programs, the VIPD failed to heed those recommendations."

The Police Department, the report said, will have to retrain officers in the St. Thomas-St. John District as soon as possible.

Francis said police are addressing the issue, and will be working to ensure the training programs are vetted before training begins. He said that different teaching aids will be used, and that training will also be evaluated.

At this point, the Police Department has still only reached substantial compliance with three requirements of the consent decree, according to monitors. However, the department is close to achieving compliance with its obligation to review and revise its force-related policies.

Monitors said the remaining force-related policies and key foundational policies for the citizen complaint process need to be finalized by the end the current quarter.

The Police Department's executive leadership team must make the consent decree a top priority for the department, according to the independent monitors.

"With a few notable exceptions, the department's lack of urgency and accountability with respect to the consent decree is unacceptable and must change immediately," the report states.

"The VIPD has spent the last two years developing the tools and infrastructure necessary, as well as receiving extensive guidance" from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the Independent Monitor, to comply with the consent decree, the report states as it concludes. "The time has come for the VIPD to execute."

- Contact Joy Blackburn at jblackburn@dailynews.vi.

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