PD audit scope expands
City Council receives update during Tuesday's meeting
The audit of the Vacaville Police Department is moving along, and the scope of the work has expanded over the course of the process, according to the OIR Group, which is performing the audit.
The OIR Group presented an update on the process at Tuesday's Vacaville City Council meeting, and the final report is anticipated sometime later in the year.
The city announced that an audit of the Police Department would be conducted in early 2021 at a time when tensions between the public and law enforcement were high, especially in the wake of the much-publicized killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and other high-profile incidents.
Around this time, the Vacaville Police Department was under high public scrutiny following incidents such as an officer caught on camera striking a K-9, local protesters alleging unfair treatment by officers and another officer caught on camera punching an autistic teen during an arrest, the latter of which occurred after the audit was announced.
In August, the council approved an agreement with the OIR Group, a Playa del Rey-based firm led by former civil rights attorney Michael Gennaco which has worked with local governments and law enforcement agencies to address issues in policing and make recommendations toward reform. The agency has conducted audits for police departments in Vallejo, Davis, Santa Cruz and Palo Alto, among others. It also has experience working with the law enforcement arms of BART and the California State University system.
Shortly thereafter, the OIR Group observed an offsite department training day and began gathering documents. In November, OIR began interviews with city staff, members of a social justice collaborative group and third-party investigators.
Gennaco said the interviews were “an opportunity to learn a lot about the issues the people wanted us to look at as part of this audit.”
The initial scope of work was provided by the city and included examining the department's organization and leadership, organizational culture, efficacy of administrative and support services, hiring and retention, employee performance evaluations, identification of potential conflicts of interest, use of force training, pursuit policies, social services provided by the department and civil liability.
“There's nothing unusual about this list,” Gennaco said. “I think this list is consistent with many of the other audits we've done for other cities and counties in the state of California, and these are the kinds of topics that are important to your public, important to your community and important to ensure that the Police Department is functioning consistent with industry standards.”
However, additional areas for review came up following the initial site visit. These included body-worn camera policies, school resource officers, recruitment, background investigations, dealing with the unhoused population, responding to mental health calls, social media policies, officer wellness, K-9 program sergeantlevel supervision, and “bias by proxy.” Genacco said these were also topics OIR had experience in examining.
OIR will continue to gather feedback, collect more documents and materials to complete the audit and conduct a community forum on policing, tentatively scheduled for June and to be done in a hybrid format to allow as many participants as possible.
“Your community will have an opportunity to weigh in on other ideas, other thoughts and we will certainly be part of that process and learn what your community has to say,” Gennaco said.
The final report will include OIR's observations, findings and recommendations.
Councilman Michael Silva said community engagement was important, which was echoed by Councilman Nolan Sullivan.
“Over the last two years ago, there have been a couple of high-profile incidents that have really shaken the public's trust,” Sullivan said.
While Sullivan felt that new Police Chief Ian Schmutzler has done a good job in alleviating some issues that have taken place, he wanted to make sure that the public knew the process was being done with validity.
Councilwoman Jeanette Wylie said the city should be mindful in how it advertises the community meeting and suggested possibly schedule it twice so anyone who wants to can attend.
“I think that public meeting will provide you information, but it will provide the community a feeling of, `I've had a chance to have my voice heard,'” she said. “People want to be heard, but they can't be heard if we don't get the word out to them in the correct way.”
Councilman Roy Stockton agreed, suggesting multiple meetings might be necessary. He said he was impressed after his meeting with OIR and the process. Earlier in the meeting, Councilman Greg Ritchie had talked about the difference between interactions with the LAPD and Vacaville PD, and Stockton said the community meeting could incorporate the different experiences of those who visit Vacaville and those who live or work in Vacaville.
“Both are valuable to know for our Police Department to be able to address concerns to both,” he said. “I'm glad that the audit is moving forward and that you're getting the information that you need to really give us that feedback that we're hoping to get.”
In other business, the council unanimously approved a contract for Gateway Pacific Contractors to relocate the Solano Irrigation District Byrnes Canal between Elmira and Hawkins roads to allow for widening of the Jepson Parkway project.