Funding sought in review of police.Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard The Eugene Police Commission will ask the City Council for additional money to help speed up its review of the police complaint process. When commissioners make their annual presentation at the council's July 28 work session, they'll ask for $65,000 to fund an outside researcher and more staff time. An additional $5,000 would go toward educating the public on other unrelated policy changes. It will be the first time the commission has asked for such funding. "The reason we're making this contingency contingency n. an event that might not occur. request is to get this work done in 10 to 12 months," Commissioner Tim Laue said. "If we don't get this contingency request, we're looking at 18 to 24 months." Police Chief Robert Lehner asked the commission in March to look at alternatives to the way the police department currently handles complaints against its employees. The chief said he was frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: and uncomfortable with the quality and secrecy secrecy see confidentiality. of internal investigations, and he suggested some form of external citizen review as a possible solution. Since then, a critical audit of the internal affairs Internal affairs may refer to:
Lehner already has imposed some short-term fixes to the complaint system, but the police commission - a 12-member policy-review board - has been charged with developing a long-term solution to current shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw. Shortcomings may also be:
The commission dropped much of its work planned for fiscal year 2005 to accommodate the project, but members felt they couldn't get the review done without additional resources. City councilor coun·cil·or also coun·cil·lor n. A member of a council, as one convened to advise a governor. See Usage Note at council. coun and police commissioner Bonny Bonny (bŏn`ē), town, SE Nigeria, in the Niger River delta, on the Bight of Biafra. In the 18th and 19th cent., Bonny was the center of a powerful trading state, and in the 19th cent. it became the leading site for slave exportation in W Africa. Bettman said she has begun reaching out to fellow councilors to let them know the request is coming. In the coming year, the commission also plans to help launch the department's program testing Tasers as a possible "less-lethal" tool. The department will issue Tasers to a group of trained officers, and commissioners will help evaluate the results and develop a policy for the use of the stun guns stun gun, hand-held electronic device that produces a high-voltage pulse that can immobilize a person for several minutes with no permanent damage in most cases. . They'll also review a draft policy for the use of video cameras in patrol cars and continue their work developing a downtown policing plan, reviewing police officer uniform standards and educating the public about a department policy that allows officers to ask people for their social security numbers but also allows people to refuse to provide them. |
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