Police audit contract ‘a step backward for transparency’

Palo Alto council members vote to remove internal department complaints from an independent review

In a move criticized by a prominent former job and independent police auditor, the Palo Alto City Council unanimously has agreed to exclude internal police personnel matters from independent review.

Former Santa Clara Superior Court judge LaDoris Cordell blasted the council this week for what she called “vague and loosey-goosey language” in the new contract with independent police auditor OIR Group. The contract states that complaints and investigations of internal personnel or human resources matters will not be part of future audits.

She said the contract language is “a step backward for transparency in the police disciplinary process.”

The new agreement comes months after a Palo Alto police captain came under fire for allegedly saying a racial slur when joking to a black officer. That investigation against Capt. Zach Perron was referred to the city’s Human Resources Department instead of the independent auditor, effectively keeping the matter hidden from the public and evading scrutiny until the complaint was leaked to the media.

“But we still don’t know what, if any, discipline was given to the captain,” Cordell said. “It’s my belief that when an officer is accused of using a racial slur, it is not a personnel matter, and I’m not alone in thinking this way.”

Cordell, who previously served as the independent police auditor for San Jose, said that city’s Police Department annually publishes a report of all their department-initiated investigations and showed council members a copy of a 2016 investigation of officers making disparaging remarks against another employee or making a comment deemed unprofessional or offensive.

She said other police departments don’t treat misconduct like Perron’s as an internal matter but rather as behavior that falls into forms of misconduct for which officers can be disciplined.

“It’s behavior unbecoming of a police officer,” Cordell said. “The language in the proposed contract must be clarified so that conduct such as that which Capt. Perron was accused of is properly classified as misconduct and investigated by internal affairs. The public has a right to know if the women or men who patrol our streets are our friends or our foes.”

Former Palo Alto Mayor Karen Holman also rejected the council’s proposal, asking it to “please not limit police personnel complaint matters to the purview of HR.”

“As you all know or surely the public knows, HR reports to the city manager,” Holman said. “This is setting up a situation where it’s a circular evaluation process. Sunshine and truth are the only ways that insular situations can be corrected. This has nothing to do with HR; it’s about the insular nature of such a process.”

In an effort to assuage complaints from Cordell and others, Palo Alto City Manager Ed Shikada — who said he met with Cordell and did not completely agree with her — proposed including all investigations not reviewed by the independent auditor in a summary report that the council will have

“Obviously, we hold our police to a higher standard because of their exceptional powers and responsibilities. For that reason, we should support an independent auditor of police activities.”

access to in lieu of an independent review.

For Council member Adrian Fine, the proposed summary report was enough to deal with the review gap.

“Obviously, we hold our police to a higher standard because of their exceptional powers and responsibilities,” Fine said. “For that reason, we should support an independent auditor of police activities. But there is an issue of diffusion of responsibility; some incidents shouldn’t be handled by the auditor. That said, the chief and city manager’s proposal I think does address this issue that there might be internal police misconduct that is of public interest.”

Palo Alto Police Chief Robert Jonsen said the language could be perceived as a loophole that would mean certain investigations never go to the auditor.

But he made clear that the council will create a process in which no matter where a case was investigated or by whom, a summary would be given to make sure people know what happened.

“That’s why I agree with it,” Jonsen said. “Moving forward, I think we should have this process where things that may not normally go to the auditor would still be disclosed in a summary.”