City of Morgan Hill Public Safety Master Plan

approve or revise the discipline. The concerned employee is then provided an opportunity to review the case and the intended discipline. The employee can respond to the Chief orally or in writing before implementation to attempt mitigation of the allegations and/or intended discipline. Administrative investigation and public complaint data are valuable as a risk management tool to identify training needs, performance deficiencies, or patterns of misconduct. As noted, MHPD retains files of past formal complaint and administrative investigations for management reference in the Chief’s office for the required retention periods. MHPD staff compiles formal complaint and investigation data in a manual database. Management records provided to CPSM indicate 14 administrative investigations were conducted over the last three years involving 16 employees. Findings as a result of the investigations included eight sustained, three not sustained, three exonerated, and two unfounded. Where appropriate, employees were disciplined according to department policy. The fact that the current tracking software is underutilized needs to be resolved, especially with MHPD’s focus on growth. Management reports regarding personnel complaints are produced by administrative staff upon request, but not on any scheduled basis. MHPD’s current staff size and investigation/complaint totals may be manageable now, but implementing a functional tracking system with an early warning component must be considered with the anticipated growth. CPSM recommends the establishment a Professional Standards Unit under the direction of a sergeant to manage department-wide essential support services, such as internal affairs, in order to maintain high standards of ethics and professionalism. See the Professional Standards section of this report for further discussion of this issue.  A comprehensive, reliable, and user-friendly administrative investigation and public complaint tracking system should be implemented to provide a valuable risk management tool.  The practice of the fact finder determining administrative investigation case findings should be examined and revised to balance investigative objectivity and staff development benefits.  MHPD policy in this area should be reviewed to ensure policy and practice is in line with the desired investigative process.  Administrative investigation and personnel complaint management reports should be provided to executive staff on a regular basis utilizing the current manual tracking method and any tracking software implemented in the future. Recommendations:  Department policy should be reviewed to ensure that policy and practice are in line.

Use of Force Enforcement of federal, state, and local laws is a core, though highly complex, duty of the Morgan Hill Police Department (MHPD). The necessary and appropriate use of force in carrying out these

Police Operations and Data Analysis Report, Morgan Hill, California

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