Auditor praises internal police reviews.

Byline: REBECCA NOLAN The Register-Guard

An independent auditor hired by the city to review police internal investigations found that the department does an "admirably thorough" job of investigating complaints against officers.

In a report made public Friday, Howell Lankford, a Portland lawyer and labor mediator, commended the department's handling of citizen complaints. He praised the speed and thoroughness of the investigations, as well as the "reasonableness" of the disciplinary action taken.

But he also identified two areas that need improving: investigators' occasional lack of attention to the details of a complaint, and senior officers' failure to question investigation methods and findings.

Interim Police Chief Thad Buchanan was "generally pleased with the overall report," spokeswoman Pam Alejandre said.

Buchanan withheld further comment until Tuesday, when interim City Manager Jim Carlson will present the report to the city's police and human rights commissions.

Former City Manager Jim Johnson proposed an outside audit after Eugene voters narrowly defeated a 1998 measure that would have created an external police review board. The city hired Lankford in February after a yearlong search.

Lankford, who specializes in employment mediation and labor relations, is contracted at $160 an hour, not to exceed $15,500 a year, to conduct the audit at least once a year - more often if the city manager requests it.

The report is the first ever outside evaluation of police handling of citizen complaints. Previously, the city manager's office oversaw such police operations.

In compiling his report, Lankford examined 20 internal affairs cases of about 65 filed in 2001, including all eight excessive force complaints and one discrimination allegation.

The other 11 files were randomly chosen from the remaining complaints filed last year regarding courtesy, performance or conduct.

Of the 20 complaints, the police department had judged 10 unfounded. Nine others were sustained and one lacked enough evidence to be decided one way or the other.

Lankford disagreed with the outcome of only one: a case ruled unfounded in which an officer handcuffed a suspect, supposedly to prevent evidence tampering, even though all the evidence had been turned over.

In conducting his audit, Lankford didn't redo the investigations but evaluated whether the investigations supported the rulings.

He found room for improvement in the following areas:

In some of the cases, investigators showed a tendency to examine the general charge against an officer and overlook some of the specific details of the complaint.

He cited a case involving an officer who stopped a car and found a marijuana pipe sitting between a white female driver and a black male passenger and charged only the man with drug possession. While the investigation looked closely at the general accusation of racial discrimination, and ultimately cleared the officer, it didn't address the officer's choice to charge only the man.

Lankford found that senior officers reviewing completed cases raised few questions, even when it appeared that additional investigation was needed.

Overall, the report found that the internal investigation process works well, and that "the department and its supervisors devote great care and attention to the investigation" of use-of-force and discrimination complaints.

POLICE INTERNAL AFFAIRS AUDIT

The city will present findings of an outside audit of Eugene police internal affairs investigations at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Eugene City Council Chamber, 777 Pearl St. The auditor was asked to review 20 cases and answer the following questions:

Was the investigation thorough? Did it include necessary contacts and questions?

Was the investigation handled in a timely manner?

Did the result appear to be objective? Was there any bias or prejudice?

Was the conclusion logical and consistent with the facts?

If discipline was warranted, was it appropriate?