Investigating Deaths Involving Law Enforcement

Recommendations 6

• R1
  For incidents in which a member of a law enforcement agency uses deadly force, the district attorney should consider releasing a public report about the incident or filing charges of the incident and without necessarily waiting for the coroner’s inquest. Contra Costa County 2022-2023 Civil Grand Jury Report 2304 Is the coroner’s inquest timely and does it provide sufficient transparency? The Sheriff’s LEIFI Policy provides: INQUESTS. In each police involved fatal incident where a member of the public dies and where no criminal charges have been filed, a coroner’s inquest will normally be held. The purpose of the inquest is to develop any further evidence and to inform the public of the facts of the incident. Sheriff’s LEIFI Policy Section (J)(2) at . One of the primary purposes for coroner’s inquests is to provide transparency regarding incidents involving law enforcement. The Legislature requires that these proceedings be open to the public. However, in Contra Costa County, the coroner’s inquests are not consistently publicized in advance. State law requires that coroner’s inquest testimony be transcribed at county expense and filed with either the court clerk or the coroner3. In Contra Costa County, the coroner is the designated entity. However, the availability of a record of the proceeding, other than the verdict itself, is not made public. When coroner’s inquests are scheduled with the court, family members of the deceased are notified, as are members of law enforcement, the DA’s office, and testifying witnesses. Generally, a press release from the sheriff/coroner’s office is used to notify the public about the inquest. Members of the civil grand jury attended three coroner’s inquests, listed below. These coroner’s inquests were poorly advertised, if at all, as in the Hickey inquest. The other two inquests we attended were publicized only one or two days in advance and on obscure websites. Using the Google search engine, we were unable to find the coroner’s inquest for Robert Jones in advance, but the Bing search engine found the notification on the www.thepress.net website. None were advertised on the sheriff’s press release or coroner’s inquest web pages. Government Code, sections 27502-03 Contra Costa County 2022-2023 Civil Grand Jury Report 2304 Advanced Coroner’s Inquest Date of Notification Source Inquest Date Notification (days) Naya Jackson 11/18/22 11/16/22 2 KTVU.com Robert Jones 1/13/23 1/12/23 1 www.thepress.net Kent Hickey 1/20/23 None N/A N/A If members of the public did not attend the inquest in person, the one-page inquest verdict would be the sum of what information is publicly available. However, by statute the inquest hearing is recorded by a court stenographer and the proceedings are transcribed at county expense and available in the coroner’s office. The transcription is not mentioned on the inquest verdict or elsewhere on the sheriff-coroner’s website. Also, the verdict in the Kent Hickey inquest, held on January 20, 2023, has, as of May 8, 2023, not been posted or referenced on the sheriff-coroner’s website. Further, there is no section on the sheriff-coroner’s website where information about all prior coroner’s inquests is consolidated. The DA’s website provides an example of posting all LEIFI reports in one section of the site. That section also includes the DA’s LEIFI policy. The San Diego County website also provides an example of posting information about investigations into officer-related fatalities. We noted earlier that coroner’s inquests presently take an average of ten months to complete and that the DA waits for completion before making a criminal charge determination. Given the goal in the Protocol to complete the criminal investigation reports and that doing so is “essential,” and that an authoritative source reported to us that all aspects of the investigation could be done in as little as three months and up to six months, the sheriff-coroner should consider completing the coroner’s inquest within four months of the incident, but no later than six months. Completing the coroner’s inquest would reduce the time for the DA criminal charge determination to nine months, and less if the DA did not wait for the coroner’s inquest.
• R2A
  For fatal incidents in which a member of a law enforcement agency is involved, the sheriff-coroner should consider completing the coroner’s inquest within four months of the incident but no later than six months.
• R2B
  The sheriff-coroner should consider providing advance notice to the public of all upcoming coroner’s inquests, including the location, date, and time.
• R2C
  The sheriff-coroner should consider posting press releases concerning all upcoming coroner’s inquests on the sheriff’s website.
• R2D
  The sheriff-coroner should consider posting information about prior coroner’s inquests, including the verdict and how to obtain a copy of the transcript. This information should remain available on the sheriff-coroner’s website and/or other sites known and accessible to the public. Contra Costa County 2022-2023 Civil Grand Jury Report 2304 Does the Protocol need to be updated? The Protocol has not been updated since 2014. There have been several statutory enactments since 2014 that have implications for LEIFI procedures. The Police Chiefs’ Association and other parties to the Protocol may be well-advised to review and revise portions of the 2014 Protocol and the appended checklists to ensure consistency with current state law and with the policies of the DA and Sheriff’s offices.
• R3
  The parties to the 2014 Protocol should consider updating the Protocol to ensure that it is in compliance with current state law, the procedures identified in the DA’s LEIFI Policy, and any applicable changes in the Sheriff’s LEIFI Policy. This should include updating the checklists that are part of the Protocol. Contra Costa County 2022-2023 Civil Grand Jury Report 2304