Some progress, but much still to be done, according to police consent decree update

The specifics have changed, but the overall theme remains the same.

The latest report released by independent monitors evaluating the V.I. Police Department's progress in meeting the mandates of a consent decree continues some of the themes that have been part of their reports - released quarterly - for some time now.

The clock is ticking.

Time is rapidly running out, and the V.I. Police Department is "clearly in danger" of failing to reach compliance with the requirements of the consent decree before it expires.

Some progress has been made.

There still is much work to be done.

"Despite entering into the consent decree more than two-and-a-half years ago, many within the VIPD (including some senior personnel) still view the department's compliance efforts as being at odds with its 'core' police functions," the report's executive summary states. "Such thinking has hampered the department's consent decree compliance efforts for too long."

Independent monitors William Johnson and Steven Witzel, of the Fried Frank law firm, wrote that police should view the consent decree as a guide to helping themselves improve.

"Far from being an obstacle, the consent decree provides the VIPD with a roadmap for improving the VIPD's operations, including its capacity to provide first-rate police services," the report summary states. "In addition, as the VIPD begins to comply with the consent decree and hold personnel accountable for misconduct, the department's relationship with the community will improve, facilitating great cooperation and better policing."

The most recent report, released in late December, covers the third quarter of 2011, from July to September.

The 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 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 federal investigation ended with the U.S. Justice Department filing a lawsuit contending that the V.I. Police Department was violating residents' civil rights by 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 settled that lawsuit by forcing the territory to remedy the situation through myriad mandates contained in its pages, with specific deadlines for each mandate. The territory agreed, and is legally bound, to meet those mandates.

A federal judge signed off on the decree in March 2009, setting the clock ticking on its provisions.

It has a five-year life, although the Police Department has missed many deadlines that already had been pushed back from timetables set in the original document.

The report

Johnson and Witzel note in the report that during the third quarter of 2011, Assistant Police Commissioner Raymond Hyndman led the department's compliance efforts and wrote that they have been "pleased with his leadership."

The report notes that Hyndman has provided the independent monitors with greater access to documentation they had requested.

Other items noted in the summary of the 94-page report include:

- Hyndman designated an audit unit to evaluate the effectiveness of internal controls across the department and directed the training division to focus exclusively on consent decree-related training going forward.

- During the period covered by the report, an impasse between the V.I. Property and Procurement Department and the Police Department that "prohibits vital training programs from proceeding" - a problem mentioned in an earlier report - had not been resolved.

Training is a major component of the consent decree mandates.

"The Training Division is concerned that the department's relationship with potential vendors is damaged because the Training Division has repeatedly cancelled or postponed programs because it has been unable to secure contracts for several important vendors," the report states.

Johnson and Witzel say that the Police commissioner, the attorney general - and possibly the governor - must develop a "fast track" approval process for consent decree-related training programs, "a process that was purportedly attempted with no success during this quarter."

- The report states that in September, 10 supervisors retired.

Supervisors play a "critical role" in various provisions of the consent decree, and monitors said that it was "imperative that the department promote personnel as soon as possible and provide them with all associated management and consent decree training."

While the monitors note that local budgetary restraints were the main obstacle to beginning the process, they also point out that the Police Department and the territory "must devote sufficient resources to satisfying their obligations under the consent decree."

- Monitors wrote that they were "discouraged" with the action plans of the Police Department's working groups. The monitors said that in most cases the plans lack adequate specific detail and should be continuously revised.

"The plans' deficiencies are an unfortunate indicator of some of the working groups' overall slow progress," the report states. It does note, however, that some of the working groups are exceptions to the critique.

- The Police Department issued one additional force-related policy during the third quarter, bringing the total to 10.

- Police revised a checklist that is used as a guideline intended to ensure thorough documentation and investigation of use-of-force incidents.

Even though supervisors on St. Croix are using the list, supervisors on St. Thomas were not, according to the report.

Monitors said they expected to see the checklist used in both districts by the end of 2011, or a reasonable explanation why it was not being used across the board.

- The Police working group on Use of Force conducted an audit on St. Thomas that showed personnel were documenting use-of-force incidents, but supervisors were not always conducting complete investigations and reviews, according to the report.

- The same working group audited the K-9 unit on St. Croix and found that the dogs were not able to follow some commands, the report states.

The Police Chief ordered the K-9 unit commander to train the dogs and suspend them from active duty until proficiency was achieved.

- The same working group was unable to review the force reporting practices of Internal Affairs or units overseen directly by the commissioner's office, according to the report.

The group inquired July 1 about its role in those investigations but had not yet received a response.

- Monitors saw improvement on force reporting and supervisory investigations at the zone level in both districts, although deficiencies remain, the report states.

- The citizen complaint process is well under way, and monitors found complaint-related materials at many district zones, substations and in vehicles.

However, the Police Department had not yet adequately trained personnel on all complaint-related policies and had not yet demonstrated that the complaint process is working properly, according to the report.

- The department recently had brought its risk management system online and still was working to resolve some technical difficulties, according to the report.

The system is used to track force-related incidents and identify patterns of potentially problematic behavior at an early stage.

Police still needed to upload basic human resource data and provide supervisors outside of Internal Affairs access to the system, the report states.

Police also needed to issue and train on several risk-management related policies and ensure that personnel are following protocols and plans, according to the report.

A bone of contention

The V.I. Police Department complained in a press release that monitors have not given police enough praise for taking the steps that they have taken toward meeting the consent decree's mandates.

"I appreciate the efforts of all those in the department who have worked diligently to address our obligations under the consent decree. It is unfortunate that in many instances the department has not been given credit for the progress it has made," Acting V.I. Police Commissioner Henry White Jr. said in a press release the Police Department issued recently to notify the public that the monitors' report and the Police Department response had been posted to the Police Department website.

"Despite these issues, the VIPD stands ready, and continues to apply its limited resources to ensure full consent decree compliance," White said. "I have also reiterated to all personnel that the consent decree is, in fact, a court order and that contempt of court issues could arise should the VIPD not shoulder the tasks to meet the consent decree mandates."

In January, White returned a Daily News call seeking comment on the monitors' report but declined to answer questions, deferring instead to the Police Department's eight-page written response to the report.

The monitors' reports typically describe the progress police have made toward meeting the consent decree during the quarter, as well as the work that remains to be done to achieve "substantial compliance" with the provisions in each area.

Monitors consider "substantial compliance" to mean fully implementing a mandate.

Police contend that the monitors' method of reporting substantial compliance with the provisions of the consent decree does not accurately gauge the progress police have made. The monitors' reporting method instead gives the "mistaken impression" that the department has not made any advancement, the press release states.

"Although the department has completed more than 98 percent of the policy; more than 50 percent of the training; and those policies where the training has been completed are being implemented by the officers, regrettably the OIM maintains that the VIPD is out of compliance," the V.I. Police press release states.

The monitors' perspective

In their report, monitors describe their perspective, saying that the Police Department "misguidedly focuses on the fact that it issued a number of policies and provided only some corresponding training (with varying levels of success) to many (but not all) personnel. But as we have repeatedly stated, the consent decree requires the VIPD do more."

For example, monitors wrote, police must provide adequate training for every policy issued; ensure that personnel required to attend training programs do so and become proficient in the policy; enforce compliance with those policies, including disciplining officers; and regularly assess and rectify any deficiencies.

In their written response to the monitors' report, police also took issue with other items.

The territory and the V.I. Police Department agreed to fully implement each and every provision of the consent decree when V.I. Attorney General Vincent Frazer and James McCall, who was Police commissioner at the time, signed it.

The job of the independent monitors, outlined in the consent decree, is to monitor the Police Department's implementation of the consent decree through compliance reviews and to issue quarterly reports about the department's progress. Those reports are to be made public.

According to the independent monitors, while progress has been made and efforts to meet the mandates are well under way in some areas, the Police Department still has reached substantial compliance with only three mandates: selecting the independent monitor; appointing a compliance coordinator; and issuing quarterly status reports.

Police have posted links to the monitors' report and their written response on the V.I. Police Department website at http://www.vipd.gov.vi/Consent_Decree.aspx.

- Contact Joy Blackburn at 714-9145 or email jblackburn@dailynews.vi.

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