Civilian Police Investigative Agency

With all the recent controversy surrounding the McHenry County Sheriff's Police Department it might be prudent for the McHenry County Board to consider establishing a Civilian Police Investigative Agency. In order to be successful the Civilian Investigative Agency would have to possess the following elements:

1. Independence - The civilian review body must be independent of the Sheriff's Police Department.


2. Investigative Power - The civilian review body must have the authority and resources to independently investigate complaints.


3. Mandatory Police Participation (aka Subpoena Power) - The civilian review body must be able to compel the participation of officers in their investigations and hearings.


4. Role in the Discipline System - A civilian review body must have a role in the discipline of officers where complaints are upheld. That role may be advisory to the Police Department, or civilian review may have a disciplinary role in certain defined cases.


5. Statistical Analysis and Reporting - The civilian review body should issue a report at least annually on statistics involving police complaints and other aspects of policing, and analyze the data to identify trends and to identify practices or even individual officers that may require remedial action to improve policing and prevent future incidents.


6. Policy Recommendations - The civilian review body should be both retrospective, investigating individual complaints, but also prospective, proactively looking at ways to improve policing. Policy recommendations in civilian review bodies are often the result of investigating individual complaints, which may identify a need for new or better police practices, policies, or training.
7. Hearing Component (Formal or Informal) - The civilian review body must have the ability to conduct hearings on individual complaints and on matters of policy.
8. Adequate Funding - Funding must be adequate to effectively support the investigative, analysis and reporting, and policy roles of civilian review.
9. Reflects Community Diversity - Both the staff and the civilian review body should reflect community diversity.
10. Accessibility - The public must be able to easily and directly access the civilian review body, whether physically, by phone, e-mail or fax. The physical location of the civilian review body office is an important consideration, and should reflect both the public accessibility of the body, and its independence from the police department.
11. Qualifications and Training - The civilian review staff must be appropriately qualified and trained, and time and funding dedicated to continuing education and peer-to-peer learning. The members of the civilian review body will probably need to meet certain qualifications, and should be given initial orientation and training, with opportunities for ongoing education and peer-to-peer learning.

The above was taken from a discussion by Director Tom Radulovich,BART Police Department Review Committee Meeting of April 29, 2009.