Monitors unhappy with slow progress of police reform

More than a year and a half into a federal consent decree mandating that the V.I. Police Department make a multitude of specific improvements, the department has reached substantial compliance with only three.

According to the recently released third report from independent monitors hired to oversee the department's compliance with the consent decree, police have made some progress in several areas but have much work to do.

"It is telling that more than a year and a half after entering into the Consent Decree, the VIPD admits that it is 'just starting the CD compliance' process," the report from independent monitors William Johnson and Steven Witzel states.

The 33-page consent decree, which a judge signed in March 2009, contains more than 70 mandates with which police must substantially comply - and maintain that compliance for two years - before being released from the consent decree.

So far, the department has complied with mandates to select the independent monitors, appoint a compliance coordinator and issue quarterly status reports on the steps it is taking to meet its obligations under the consent decree, according to the report from Johnson and Witzel.

The department "has not yet substantially complied with any of the other substantive provisions of the Consent Decree, most significantly those relating to use of force. The VIPD will not be able to make progress substantially complying with the Consent Decree until it addresses those foundational requirements," the latest report states.

The department has made progress in meeting some of the mandates - a fact borne out by the report - but must fully meet each mandate before it is considered "in significant compliance" with that mandate, Police Commissioner Novelle Francis Jr. said.

"I think there is some marks in terms of some improvements. Some progress is being made in terms of compliance," Francis said. "Unfortunately, we don't get marks for being 90 percent there. We have to continue pressing forward. If we're not 100 percent in compliance, there's no real credit being given."

The commissioner said police have devoted a "tremendous amount of work" to meeting the mandates in the consent decree and will continue to do so.

Also, he said, the department has been sent back to the table multiple times to revise its use of force policy - a policy that must be in place before some of the other requirements can be met.

"The use of force is the biggest component of this, of the consent decree, so a lot of the work that needs to be done is predicated on the use of force policy being in place," Francis said.

In the meantime, Francis has issued directives to start the department in the right direction until policies are in place, he said.

In their most recent report, the monitors found that the department's "most significant accomplishment relating to the consent decree this quarter was its finalization and submission of the revised use of force policy to the United States Department of Justice" for approval.

The U.S. Justice Department commended police for making progress in developing the policy but wants additional changes before it can grant final approval, according to the report.

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

The investigation ended with the Justice Department filing a lawsuit in federal court 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 settles that lawsuit by forcing the territory to remedy the situation over the course of five years.

The recently released report - the third quarterly report from the independent monitor - notes areas where the department is making progress toward meeting consent decree mandates and others in which police seem to be faltering.

Positive steps that the monitors noted include the reorganization and streamlining of the Police Department's Policies and Procedures Committee and the hiring of a "well-respected" policy consultant, Eric Daigle.

The monitors also noted progress with the department's efforts to establish a citizen complaint process, pointing to the public information campaign police have launched, the posting of compliment/complaint forms on the department's website, the printing of brochures on the process and the posting of drop boxes for the forms.

However, the monitors again expressed concern about the prominence of brochure warnings threatening legal action for making a false complaint.

That warning also is featured prominently in televised public service announcements.

"The OIM is concerned that many of the materials relating to the complaint policy place too much emphasis on warning the complainants about the consequences of making false reports," the monitor report states. "The OIM strongly believes that the value of any such warning is heavily outweighed by the risk that potential complainants, especially those that are already wary of interacting with police officials, will be discouraged from reporting improper conduct by police."

The monitors also took issue with the citizen complaint policy itself.

Noting that they are pleased with the progress of the department's public information campaign, the monitors stressed that police must focus on making required revisions to the complaint policy - particularly since they've already started publicizing it.

The report notes that on Sept. 2, the Office of Independent Monitor received the Police Department's draft version of the citizen complaint policy and asked the committee to make certain revisions and resubmit it.

As of Nov. 1, the monitors had not received the revised version, according to the report.

The monitors also found that the Police Department "continues to falter" with documenting use-of-force events.

Although Francis issued a use-of-force directive in April, there is "considerable uncertainty among VIPD officers" about the department's reporting requirements, according to the report.

"At this stage, there is no excuse for officer uncertainty about the Department's use of force reporting requirements," the report states.

Francis said that there had been some miscommunication about what was required in documenting use of force but that now has been clarified.

The report also notes that in order to adequately investigate use-of-force events, the department must develop a reliable tracking system - which has not yet happened, a year and a half into the consent decree.

"Although the VIPD has invested significant resources implementing a computerized tracking system, that system is not yet fully operational because of various technical roadblocks," the report states, noting that it is unclear when that computerized system will be "fully operational."

Francis said the issue is one of infrastructure. Although Internal Affairs can use the computerized system in each district, there is no interconnection between islands to create the centralized tracking system the consent decree requires, he said.

Also, zone commands are not linked into the system.

"It's functional at the IA level, but not all complaints are received at the IA level," Francis said, noting that logbooks now have been purchased to manually track complaints and issues that do not rise to the level of Internal Affairs.

Because there is no reliable tracking system in place, the monitors reviewed incident reports and arrest reports and determined that police officers are "greatly underreporting use of force events in violation of the reporting use of force directive."

The monitors also found recurring deficiencies in use-of-force investigations conducted by the Internal Affairs Bureau and zone commands, including failing to interview all potential witnesses and failing to prepare sufficiently detailed investigative reports.

Francis said that witnesses do not want to come forward.

"There are some cultural changes that need to happen," Francis said. "It's a problem with witnesses who don't want to talk to Internal Affairs or police officers about what they saw. Witnesses are not forthcoming with information."

Monitors urged the department to devote significant attention to improving the quality of its use-of-force investigations and to complete its work on multiple, specific use-of-force policies.

The monitors were "disappointed by the lack of progress" the department's training division made during the quarter, noting that training is key to many other elements of the consent decree.

Although the monitors note the slow progress overall to date, they say in the report that they believe many members of the Police Department "are genuinely committed" to complying with the consent decree.

Francis said police are trying to do as much as they can to meet the mandates, based on whatever the experts recommend.

However, he said, it is taxing resources.

"The same individuals that's required to work on these policies and also provide the training are the same individuals who are also required to respond to the crime situation," Francis said. "It puts a strain on us either way."

He noted, though, that the department remains committed to fully implementing the consent decree, and said he expects to achieve some substantial compliance with policy mandates by June.

- Contact Joy Blackburn at 774-8772 ext. 455 or e-mail jblackburn@dailynews.vi.

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