SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Before this summer's highly criticized clashes between San Jose police and demonstrators during protests over police brutality and racial injustice, citizen complaints against officers had dropped to its lowest point in years, according to new report by the San Jose's Office of the Independent Police Auditor.
The city-appointed civilian watchdog agency tallied 216 complaints against police in 2019 with allegations ranging from excessive uses of force to unwarranted searches and detainment to procedural violations, which accounted for the lion's share of filed grievances. Complaints last year were at their lowest point in at least six years _ down 36% from 2014.
Still, Shivaun Nurre, the city's independent police auditor, sees room for improvement _ most notably in problematic training of recruits, the culture within the police department and what the department deems as use of force.
While these findings predate the police department's response to protests earlier this summer sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the concerns raised by Nurre and her team take on a new resonance in the midst of a city, state and national reckoning of police reform and accountability efforts.
Similar to what Nurre recommended last year that the police department track an officer pointing their guns at someone as a use of force incident, this year Nurre wants to see the department do the same log when officers hit suspects with their vehicles.
Currently, if officers injure someone or cause damage with their police vehicle beyond that which was reasonably expected, it's documented as a vehicle collision.
"I think classifying this type of conduct as an accident sets a mindset that the officer didn't intend something and I don't think that's really reflective of the circumstances," Nurre said.
One case highlighted in the report detailed an encounter in which officers responded to a call about two security guards involved in a confrontation with two men. When officers arrived at the scene, the suspects ran onto a nearby dirt trail and one officer followed in his vehicle. After unsuccessfully using his vehicle several times to block the suspects' path, a patrol car collided with one of the suspects and ran him over.
The suspect suffered a broken tibia, pelvis and ankle.
An internal investigation found that the officer did not intend to hit the suspect and ruled the collision accidental and an allegation of force deemed unfounded. After the independent police auditor appealed the decision to the police chief, the department reopened its investigation, analyzed it as a force allegation and exonerated the officer.
Unlike typical annual police auditor reports released by Nurre's office, this year's report does not provide details on instances in which in independent police auditor's office disagreed with the findings of an internal affairs investigation conducted by the police department. Nurre said those details were left out due to staffing shortages amid the pandemic and an effort to make the report shorter and more digestible for a wider audience given the elevated interest in the police department's conduct
In 2019, her office disagreed on the findings of six investigations that they audited _ or just 4%.
Overall, only 3% of the citizen complaints filed against police officers in 2019 were deemed "sustained" _ or officers were found to have committed the reported misconduct _ after an Internal Affairs investigation. Yet, internally generated misconduct complaints filed by officers or employees within the department itself were substantiated by police investigators at a much higher rate.
In 2019, the department sustained 80 of the 141 internal misconduct allegations _ or 57%, which is slightly lower than the five-year average where 64% of internal misconduct allegations have been sustained. The vast majority of those were procedural violations or accusations that fall into the broad category of "conduct unbecoming of an officer."
Officers accused their colleagues of harassment five times last year and two of the complaints were sustained. In the case of both the internal allegations and citizen complaints, the department did not sustain any allegations of use-of-force misconduct nor discrimination.
While reviewing citizen complaints over the past few years, Nurre's office began to notice a pattern of red flags raised about the police department's Field Training Program, where new recruits are assigned to experienced "Field Training Officers" for training and evaluation during their first few months on the job.
In several instances, the field training officers _ tasked with providing an exemplary model for younger officers _ taught recruits to issue questionable citations, instructed them to conduct improper pat-down searches and made inappropriate comments to detainees in front of the recruit, according to the report.
Nurre's office also found that a handful of the officers tasked with training recruits also had a considerable number of citizen complaints. One field training officer, for instance, had 14 complaints filed against him in the past six years, and another had seven complaints _ three of which were sustained.
To ensure the program is effective and teaching the right lessons to recruits, Nurre says that the department needs to reassess who is qualified to serve as a field training officer, how they are trained and how their performance is evaluated.
"That phase of a young officer's tenure in the department can really mold their mindset of the department and how to be a good officer," Nurre said. "The culture of the department is transmitted to the recruit by the Field Training Officer and I think we need to be mindful of which officers we have serving as that role model."
The San Jose City Council will discuss the report at their meeting on Tuesday.
Paul Kelly, president of the Police Officers Association, said the drop in citizen complaints cited in the report "validates our officers' success at de-escalating volatile situations and the thoroughness, objectivity and fairness of Internal Affairs Investigations conducted into citizen complaints of officer misconduct."
"These facts certainly don't support the calls by some for the disbanding of the Internal Affairs Unit, that looks more and more like a solution in search of a problem," he said in a statement, adding that he has "no objection to exploring the appropriate category to place incidents involving police cars into."
And as far as the recruiting program, he added, "we will continue to participate in continuously improving how we train recruits and reinforce the values, integrity, and best police practices in them to ensure successful police and community outcomes."
