Score: -2 (0/3/2)

Santa Clara County Grand Jury • 2012-2013 • Agency Response

Response to: City of San Jose

Law Enforcement Public Complaint Procedures*

Published: September 24, 2013 25 pages

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⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings and Recommendations 2 findings

F17 Page 2

"The Palo Alto Police Department does not make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy in their lobby." The City agrees with Finding 17.

Related Recommendations (1)

R17

Page 2

"The Palo Alto Police Department should make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy in their lobby." The City has implemented Recommendation 17. Response: On June 26, 2013, the Palo Alto Police Department implemented this recommendation. Complaint materials are now freely available in hard copy in the police department lobby.

F18 Page 2

"The Palo Alto Police Department does not make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby." The City agrees with Finding 18.

Related Recommendations (1)

R18

Page 2

"The Palo Alto Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby." The City has implemented Recommendation 18. Response: On June 26, 2013, the Palo Alto Police Department implemented this recommendation. Multilingual complaint materials are now freely available in hard copy form in the Police Department lobby. City of Palo Alto (ID # 4085) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 9/23/2013 Summary Title: Response to Grand Jury Report Title: Approval of Response to Grand Jury Report on Law Enforcement Public Complaint Procedures From: City Manager Lead Department: Police Recommendation Staff recommends that Council review, provide input, and approve the following response to the 2012-2013 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury Report entitled, "Law Enforcement Public Complaint Procedures" ("Grand Jury Report"). A copy of the response is included as Attachment A. Background On June 18, 2013, the Civil Grand Jury of Santa Clara County released the Grand Jury Report which surveyed various municipal law enforcement jurisdictions in Santa Clara County to determine their respective complaint procedures. The report was released publicly on June 24, 2013. A copy of the Grand Jury Report is included as Attachment B. Discussion The Grand Jury Report culminates in thirty (30) findings and recommendations (see pages 9 through 15 of the Report). Two (2) of those recommendations related to law enforcement complaint practices of the Palo Alto Police Department. The following discussion responds to the recommendations.

Conclusions 40

CL1 Page 22

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety does not make all of their complaint materials available in all Department of Public Safety websites operated by the City of Sunnyvale.
CL2 Page 22

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety does not make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL3 Page 22

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety complaint materials include reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory.
CL4 Page 17

The Milpitas Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. 10
CL5 Page 16

The Campbell Police Department makes their complaint procedure available only in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL6 Page 16

The Campbell Police Department makes their complaint procedure available only in English.
CL7 Page 16

The Gilroy Police Department makes their complaint materials available only upon request.
CL8 Page 16

The Gilroy Police Department makes their multilingual complaint materials available only upon request.
CL9 Page 17

The Los Altos Police Department makes all of their multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL10 Page 17

The Los Altos Police Department complaint form includes reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory.
CL11 Page 17

The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL12 Page 17

The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department complaint materials are only available in English.
CL13 Page 18

The Milpitas Police Department does not make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL14 Page 18

The Morgan Hill Police Department does not make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL15 Page 18

The Morgan Hill Police Department complaint materials are available only in English.
CL16 Page 18

The Morgan Hill Police Department complaint materials include reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory and language that mirrors the California Civil Code Section 47.5 civil advisory.
CL17 Page 19

The Mountain View Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in their lobby in hard copy form.
CL18 Page 19

The Mountain View Police Department complaint materials are available only in English.
CL19 Page 19

The Mountain View Police Department complaint materials include reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory.
CL20 Page 20

The San Jose Police Department complaint form provides little guidance to the complainant about what information is needed.
CL21 Page 20

The San Jose Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all of their lobbies.
CL22 Page 20

The San Jose Police Department does not make all of their multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies.
CL23 Page 20

The Santa Clara Police Department does not make all complaint materials available on- line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL24 Page 21

The Santa Clara Police Department does not make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.
CL25 Page 21

The Office of the Sheriff does not make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies.
CL26 Page 21

The Office of the Sheriff does not make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies.
CL27 Page 21

The Office of the Sheriff complaint materials include language that mirrors California Civil Code Section 47.5 civil advisory.
CL28 Page 21

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety on-line complaint form provides little guidance to the complainant about what information is needed. 14
CL29 Page 14

California Penal Code Section 832.5 requires entities that employ peace officers to establish a procedure: To investigate complaints from the public against their personnel . To make a written description of the complaint procedure available to the public 0 The Grand Jury reviewed and assessed the procedures established by the Office of the Sheriff and the municipal law enforcement agencies within the county for receiving complaints regarding their personnel. The report was prepared using the responses of a survey addressed to and answered by 12 jurisdictions, email clarifications when necessary, a review of their websites, and on-site visits to their offices. All law enforcement agencies surveyed have a procedure to address complaints from the public. Through agencies' responses, web searches, and on-site visits, the Grand Jury determined that the availability to the public of the complaint procedure varied by jurisidiction. Differences between agency were: (a) access to complaint materials in hard copy form or on-line; (b) the existence of a complaint form; and (c) the availability of multilingual complaint materials. 7
CL30 Page 15

The Grand Jury recommends that agencies make their complaint materials - complaint procedure and complaint form - available on-line and freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Additionally, the Grand Jury recommends that agencies make their complaint materials available in multiple languages reflective of their community. The Grand Jury noted that the cities of Campbell and Santa Clara do not provide complaint forms. Complaint forms, when they exist, vary widely among agencies. With the goal of collecting all relevant complaint information, the Grand Jury recommends that all agencies make available a detailed complaint form on-line and freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. The Grand Jury found that the complaint materials of some agencies include reference to California Penal Code Section148.6, which has been held unconstitutional and/or language similar to California Civil Code Section 47.5, which has been called into question. Continued reference to these code provisions presents a risk that citizens will be intimidated and deterred from from filing legitimate complaints. As a result, problems may go unidentifed and uncorrected. The Grand Jury recommends that offending agencies remove reference to California Penal Code Section 148.6 and/or language similar to California Civil Code Section 47.5 from their complaint materials. 8
CL31 Page 16

Findings and Recommendations Finding 1 The Campbell Police Department makes their complaint procedure available only in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 1a The Campbell Police Department should make their complaint procedure available on- line. Recommendation 1b The Campbell Police Department should make a complaint form available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 2 The Campbell Police Department makes their complaint procedure available only in English. Recommendation 2 The Campbell Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 3 The Gilroy Police Department makes their complaint materials available only upon request. Recommendation 3 The Gilroy Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 4 The Gilroy Police Department makes their multilingual complaint materials available only upon request. Recommendation 4 The Gilroy Police Department should make their multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. 9
CL32 Page 17

Finding 5 The Los Altos Police Department makes all of their multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 5 None Finding 6 The Los Altos Police Department complaint form includes reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory. Recommendation 6 The Los Altos Police Department should remove reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory from their complaint form. Finding 7 The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 7 The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 8 The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department complaint materials are only available in English. Recommendation 8 The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 9 The Milpitas Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. 10
CL33 Page 18

Recommendation 9 The Milpitas Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 10 The Milpitas Police Department does not make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 10 The Milpitas Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 11 The Morgan Hill Police Department does not make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 11 The Morgan Hill Police Department should make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 12 The Morgan Hill Police Department complaint materials are available only in English. Recommendation 12 The Morgan Hill Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 13 The Morgan Hill Police Department complaint materials include reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory and language that mirrors the California Civil Code Section 47.5 civil advisory. Recommendation 13 The Morgan Hill Police Department should remove reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 advisory and the language that mirrors the California Civil Code Section 47.5 civil advisory from their complaint materials. 11
CL34 Page 19

Finding 14 The Mountain View Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in their lobby in hard copy form. Recommendation 14 The Mountain View Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 15 The Mountain View Police Department complaint materials are available only in English. Recommendation 15 The Mountain View Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 16 The Mountain View Police Department complaint materials include reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory. Recommendation 16 The Mountain View Police Department should remove reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory from their complaint materials. Finding 17 The Palo Alto Police Department does not make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 17 The Palo Alto Police Department should make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 18 The Palo Alto Police Department does not make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. 12
CL35 Page 20

Recommendation 18 The Palo Alto Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 19 The San Jose Police Department complaint form provides little guidance to the complainant about what information is needed. Recommendation 19 The San Jose Police Department should add content guidance to their complaint form. Finding 20 The San Jose Police Department does not make all of their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all of their lobbies. Recommendation 20 The San Jose Police Department should make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Finding 21 The San Jose Police Department does not make all of their multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Recommendation 21 The San Jose Police Department should make all of their multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Finding 22 The Santa Clara Police Department does not make all complaint materials available on- line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 22 The Santa Clara Police Department should make all complaint materials available on- line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. 13
CL36 Page 21

Finding 23 The Santa Clara Police Department does not make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 23 The Santa Clara Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 24 The Office of the Sheriff does not make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Recommendation 24 The Office of the Sheriff should make their complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Finding 25 The Office of the Sheriff does not make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Recommendation 25 The Office of the Sheriff should make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in all their lobbies. Finding 26 The Office of the Sheriff complaint materials include language that mirrors California Civil Code Section 47.5 civil advisory. Recommendation 26 The Office of the Sheriff should remove the language that mirrors California Civil Code Section 47.5 civil advisory from their complaint materials. Finding 27 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety on-line complaint form provides little guidance to the complainant about what information is needed. 14
CL37 Page 22

Recommendation 27 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety should add content guidance to their on- line complaint form. Finding 28 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety does not make all of their complaint materials available in all Department of Public Safety websites operated by the City of Sunnyvale. Recommendation 28 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety should make their complaint materials available in all Department of Public Safety websites operated by the City of Sunnyvale. Finding 29 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety does not make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Recommendation 29 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety should make multilingual complaint materials freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. Finding 30 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety complaint materials include reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory. Recommendation 30 The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety should remove reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory from their complaint materials. 15
CL38 Page 23

Appendix A California Penal Code Section 832.5 (a)(1) Each department or agency in this state that employs peace officers shall establish a procedure to investigate complaints by members of the public against the personnel of these departments or agencies, and shall make a written description of the procedure available to the public. 16
CL39 Page 24

This report was PASSED and ADOPTED with a concurrence of at least 12 grand jurors on this 4^{th} day of June, 2013. Steven P. Mc Pherson Forenerson Foreperson Lyn H. Jønnson Foreperson pro tem Chester F. Hayes Foreperson pro tem Thins Vientes Francis A. Stephens Secretary . 17 131
CL40

山田学等1件。 Honorable Gregory Scharff MayorCity of Palo Alto250 Hamilton AvenuePalo Alto, CA 94301 Santa Clara CountyCivil Grand Jury191 North First Street San Jose, CA 95113 . ٠

Agency Responses 6

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

2017 Update from the County of Santa Clara

August 21, 2012 • 2 responses View Details ▾

PDF

2 responses to findings and recommendations

The Los Altos Police Department should remove reference to the unconstitutional California Penal Code Section 148.6 criminal advisory from their complaint form.

Response: Unknown

Score: 0

Not Applicable

The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.

Response: Unknown

Score: 0

Agree as to

City of Mountain View

October 11, 2013 • 3 pages • 2 responses • Score: 0 (+0, 1, 0) View Details ▾

PDF

2 responses to findings and recommendations

R14

The Mountain View Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.

Response: Implemented

Score: 0

The Mountain View Police Department should make their complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. City Response: This recommendation has been implemented. The Police Department has updated its website to provide a written overview of the complaint procedure as recommended by the Civil Grand Jury. The complaint form is also available online. In addition, a brochure (which contains the same information as the web page) and complaint forms are now available freely in the lobby. The complaint form is also available online.

R15

The Mountain View Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.

Response: Unknown

Score: 0

Mandarin-certified translators to implement this recommendation. Once the complaint materials have been successfully translated, they will be available online and in the lobby of the Police Department.

City of San Jose

November 08, 2013 • 24 pages View Details ▾

PDF

City of San Jose

September 23, 2013 • 7 pages • 2 responses • Score: -2 (+0, 0, -2) View Details ▾

PDF

2 responses to findings and recommendations

R1a

The Campbell Police Department should make their complaint procedure available on- line.

Response: Will Not Implement

Score: -1

The recommendation will not be implemented because it addresses an issue specific to another agency. Grand Jury Recommendation 1B The City of Gilroy should implement a plan to lower its IDR rate. City

R1b

The Campbell Police Department should make a complaint form available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.

Response: Will Not Implement

Score: -1

The recommendation will not be implemented because it addresses an issue specific to another agency. Grand Jury Finding 2 Averaged over the past five years, the City of Los Altos has the highest police department-only IDR rate of 19%. City

City of Santa Clara

September 30, 2013 • 36 pages • 2 responses • Score: 0 (+0, 2, 0) View Details ▾

PDF

2 responses to findings and recommendations

R22

The Santa Clara Police Department should make all complaint materials available on- line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby. 13

Response: Implemented

Score: 0

The recommendation has been implemented per 933.05(b)(1) of the California Penal Code. The forms can be downloaded and printed out on the Santa Clara Police Department's (SCPD) official website on the "Forms" page at the following link: http://scpd.org/index.aspx?page=130. In addition, complaint forms have been made freely available in hard copy form in the SCPD's main lobby (601 El Camino Real, Santa Clara CA 95050) and at the Northside Substation lobby (3992 Rivermark Parkway, Santa Clara CA 95054). It is now the responsibility of all personnel assigned to desk duties and Professional Standa...

R23

The Santa Clara Police Department should make multilingual complaint materials available on-line and also freely available in hard copy form in their lobby.

Response: Implemented

Score: 0

The recommendation has been implemented per 933.05(b)(1) of the California Penal Code. The SCPD has translated and made complaint materials available in the following languages: Vietnamese, Hindi, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Korean, and English (see Exhibit 2 of all forms in noted languages). All of these multilingual complaint materials can be found on the SCPD's official website on the "Forms" page at the link: http://scpd.org/index.aspx?page=130. The forms can be downloaded and printed out for use by citizens. In addition, all of the multilingual complaint materials have been made freely a...

County of Santa Clara, Office of the Sheriff

July 11, 2013 • 1 pages View Details ▾

PDF

No Responses Found 4

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

East Palo Alto City

Milpitas City

Morgan Hill City

Sunnyvale City

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.