2008-04-07_Bill_270 - Laserfiche WebLink

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i` Honorable Pudding Lassiter and Members of the { Hawaii Police Commission May 17, 2006 Page 2 The Present Process At present, a member of the public may file a "complaint" against a police officer with either (1) the Police Commission, and/or (2) the Police Department. For complaints filed with the Police Department (hereinafter"HPD"), the department initiates its own investigative process that necessarily involves the Internal Affairs Division. The Police Commission (hereinafter "Commission") is generally not involved in the review and investigation of these complaints. For complaints filed directly with the Commission, the Commission "investigates" the complaint by offering to hear the complainant and police officer2 in person, reviewing the police reports and criminal history summary of the complainant, and reviewing the written complaint filed with the Commission. The following graph illustrates the present process: Police Commission Police Department May public file a complaint? Yes Yes Who investigates complaint? Commission HPD Internal Affairs If complaints are filed with Yes Yes both the Commission and HPD, is there concurrent investigation? How soon is complaint Not until next Immediately investigated? Commission meeting How long does investigation Time varies depending Normally within 90 days take? on meeting schedule and length of outsourced investigation. In some cases, has taken over one year. Presently, there are significant impediments to the Commission conducting a thorough and speedy independent investigation. These limitations include: 2 The police officer is not required to attend the Commission hearing, nor make any written or oral statement on his behalf.