Police complaint process hinders effective management, public trust

As a business person, you know that it’s critical to stay state-of-the-art in your industry and with customers. One unfortunate transaction or missed opportunity can affect you for a long time, even when you have a record of good products and service. It’s not fair to your customers, your employees, your organization or your shareholders to perpetuate missteps — especially if they might be preventable.

In my opinion, this principle also applies to local government. Aaron Thompson, Ph.D., is an expert in community policing with Eastern Kentucky University. The EKU campus houses the Kentucky Regional Community Policing Institute and is part of a national training network created by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1997.

At our invitation, Thompson and his colleagues studied the complaint investigation process used by the Columbia Police Department and found it not only out of step with current standards but also widely perceived as secretive, biased, cumbersome and contradictory. In short, as good as the Columbia police are — and we have an excellent force — the department’s complaint process hinders effective management and public trust.

I had to swallow hard when I read Thompson’s report, but I also was pleased to see his recommendations for change. It is not in anyone’s interest to perpetuate something that has outlived its time. We can and will take steps to change the department’s complaint investigation process into something that police officers and citizens can respect for its fairness, honesty and integrity.

A bit of history is in order. When our 2006 city employee survey revealed that police department employees perceived their jobs differently than the rest of our workforce, Chief Randy Boehm asked the University of Missouri’s Center for the Study of Organizational Change to go below the surface and get the answers behind the answers.

Then, with the Columbia City Council’s direction, he asked Thompson to take a deeper look at the department’s complaint investigation process. We knew that the process, by its nature, was controversial. What we learned is that the 20-year-old investigation guidelines no longer reflect best community policing practices.

As I looked more deeply into the report, I was struck by its emphasis on fostering better communication, providing more transparency for government processes and improving internal management processes. I couldn’t agree more. Here’s a brief preview of steps we could take.

Modernizing the process. Thompson recommends creating a Professional Standards Unit within the department. It would be staffed with trained personnel who would conduct most of the department’s administrative reviews and allegations of criminal conduct. This would efficiently assign significant investigations to a more independent unit and place use-of-force reviews with more direct supervisors. The unit could call upon in-house experts when their special expertise is needed. An updated investigation policy would provide clear guidance to all who use it.

Using data to help ourselves. Thompson recommends doing a better job of collecting information to spot trends before they become behaviors that lead to complaints. With this early warning system, supervisors could coach more effectively and the department could address issues with targeted training. This is a lot like preventive health — the more you know, the more you can control your future.

Sharing information. Thompson recommends determining what information can be released, by law, and making a commitment to release it internally and to the public whenever possible. He says that police departments, in particular, guard information carefully, even when disclosure might benefit employees and the public. The key is to be more “transparent” — to provide useful and easily accessible facts that let people know how complaints are handled and disposed. Although it is a delicate balance, I believe it can be achieved.

Thompson’s approach is consistent with commitments I made when named city manager last year and with statements since my appointment. We have a special opportunity to actively involve citizens in modernizing the department’s complaint investigation process, and I look forward to working with Chief Boehm, Thompson and the City Council.

What do you think? You may review Thompson’s complete report on our Web site at www.gocolumbiamo.com/Police/index.php. I’d like to hear from you.