Council adopts motion requesting annual report from Sheriff’s Office regarding internal investigations

November 12, 2013

Summary

Annual report will provide data about complaints and investigations of employee misconduct and offers transparency for the public

Story

The Metropolitan King County Council today unanimously adopted a motion requesting an annual report from the King County Sheriff’s Office with data regarding complaints and investigations of employee misconduct. The data in the report will make the Sheriff Office’s investigation of complaint process more transparent for the Council and the public.

“The primary job of our law enforcement is to protect our communities,” said Council Vice Chair Julia Patterson, the sponsor of the motion. “The public must know that we take these complaints very seriously and that work will continue to be done to strengthen public trust between our residents and our law enforcement.”

Since 2006, the Council has taken numerous actions to improve law enforcement oversight in King County and to build public trust. Over the past year, the Sheriff’s Office has made improvements to its system for monitoring and investigating alleged personnel misconduct. The information provided in the annual report called for in today’s motion will help the Council and the public understand that the work that Sheriff’s Office is doing to monitor employee misconduct. By doing so, this report will create transparency and build upon previous Council efforts to establish public trust of county law enforcement.

“Transparency is good for government in general and police agencies in particular,” said Sheriff John Urquhart. “Councilmember Patterson’s motion will help ensure consistency and accountability in the Sheriff’s Office.”

The motion calls for a yearly report to be transmitted to the Council. The report will include the following information for the most recent year and three prior years:

• The number of complaints and allegations that Sheriff Office employees have received;
• The number of complaint, allegation and incident resolutions;
• Data on the types of personnel actions taken when complaints are sustained
• The number of individual employees that have accrued three or more complaints in the reporting year or eight or more complaints total in the reporting year and three prior years;
• Narrative information about trends identified through the Sheriff’s Office internal investigations and complaint process;
• Possible recommendations for legislative changes that the Sheriff’s Office has identified in its evaluation of data that, if implemented, could improve public trust in law enforcement.

King County’s Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO) is responsible for reviewing complaint investigations that the Sheriff’s Office Internal Investigation Unit (IIU) conducts to ensure that investigations are conducted properly. The report outlined in today’s approved motion will provide data regarding all complaints of employee misconduct that the Sheriff’s Office receives, and will complement OLEO’s work to review IIU investigations. Additionally, the data accumulated in the report will highlight aspects of Sheriff’s Office operations that generate complaints and will aid the Sheriff’s Office in determining where to allocate training and staffing resources.