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(1) In collaboration with the police auditor, the civilian review board shall establish policies, procedures and operating principles for the civilian review board.

(2) The civilian review board may review the completed investigation and adjudication of complaints filed against sworn police officers at the request of a complainant, upon the recommendation of the police auditor, or at its own discretion upon a majority vote of its members.

(a) The civilian review board shall develop criteria to decide whether to accept a case for review. However, the civilian review board may not accept a completed case that was previously reviewed as a community impact case as described in subsection (4) below.

(b) All materials concerning the completed investigations of cases the civilian review board has selected to review shall be made available to members for their confidential review.

(c) The civilian review board shall, at one of its regularly scheduled meetings, report on such case(s), which may include comments on the handling of the complaint, the fairness and thoroughness of the investigation, and the reasonableness of the adjudication.

(d) The comments and any related policy or procedural issues identified by the civilian review board in the course of its case review shall be provided to the police auditor for further consideration.

(3) The civilian review board may review a random selection of closed cases.

(4) Upon the adjudication of a complaint that the police auditor has identified and the civilian review board has accepted as a community impact case, members of the civilian review board shall be provided all materials concerning the case for their confidential review. Within 14 days of receiving the case, the civilian review board shall meet to discuss and present its determinations on the case. Within 30 days of receiving the case the civilian review board shall do one or more of the following:

(a) Concur with the case adjudication;

(b) Develop recommendations regarding the handling of the complaint and the investigation process, and/or identify other relevant policy or procedural issues for further consideration;

(c) Require the city to reopen the investigation if it finds either:

1. The investigation was incomplete or inadequate, and the civilian review board has reason to believe that additional investigation is likely to reveal facts that could change the case adjudication; or

2. The adjudication reached by the city is not supported by substantial evidence.

When the civilian review board has voted to re-open a community impact case, the police auditor shall inform the civilian review board of the subsequent investigation conducted and the final adjudication decision.

(5) The civilian review board shall notify complainant(s) and involved employee(s) of its decisions on whether to accept a case for review, and shall inform the complainant of its conclusions on the case.

(6) The civilian review board shall review trends and statistics of complaints against sworn police officers and civilian police employees and may develop recommendations to improve the complaint intake and handling process.

(7) The civilian review board shall evaluate the work of the auditor’s office. In that regard the civilian review board:

(a) Shall establish criteria by which to evaluate the work of the police auditor;

(b) Shall review, comment on, and assist in maintaining policies, procedures and operating principles for the auditor’s office and the civilian review board;

(c) Shall monitor status reports from the police auditor; and

(d) May conduct periodic evaluations of the complaint intake and handling system to identify process improvements and/or ensure complaints are being treated fairly and with due diligence.

(8) The civilian review board may provide a forum to gather community concerns about incident-specific police actions and may receive and forward complaint information to the auditor’s office for processing.

(Section 2.244 added by Ordinance No. 20374, enacted December 13, 2006, effective January 12, 2007.)