Julia Patterson and Bob Ferguson call for independent oversight of Sheriff's Office

Independent offices will review investigations into citizen complaints, recommend reforms

To help restore public trust in the operations of the King County Sheriff’s Office, King County Councilmembers Bob Ferguson and Julia Patterson outlined proposed legislation on January 11th to create two independent offices: one to review the Sheriff’s handling of citizen complaints, and one to recommend long-term policy reforms.

“King County citizens deserve an outside, independent review of citizen complaints,” said Councilmember Bob Ferguson, co-sponsor of the legislation. “Our proposal will provide adequate resources, independence, and transparency in how police misconduct complaints are investigated and resolved.”

“Our goal from this day forward is to have an independent, unbiased avenue open to citizens to issue a complaint involving police misconduct,” said Councilmember Julia Patterson, co-sponsor of the legislation. “King County can no longer apply the same standard of independence and transparency to complaints involving late buses as to those involving police misconduct. The current system is outdated and lags behind other major metropolitan police departments.”

Under the proposal, the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Oversight will receive, track and monitor all citizen complaints against the King County Sheriff’s Office and issue independent findings and disciplinary recommendations. The office will also receive whistle-blower notifications from Sheriff’s deputies. Under the current system, when a citizen issues a complaint involving a King County Sheriff’s deputy, that complaint is made directly to the Sheriff’s Office. The complaint is investigated by the Sheriff’s Office and the findings are issued by the Sheriff’s Office. There is no independent review, monitoring or findings issued.

Patterson and Ferguson at the news conference

Ferguson and Patterson also proposed establishing an Independent Auditor of Law Enforcement to periodically review the procedures and resources of the King County Sheriff’s internal affairs division, issue recommendations for reforms where appropriate and report directly to the King County Council.

The Independent Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (LEO) will consist of a board of three full-time county employees with a background in law enforcement, civil rights, and employment law. They will report directly to the Metropolitan King County Council. The LEO board will be a division of the King County Office of Citizen Complaints - Ombudsman, an office that exists under the King County Charter to investigate misconduct within county government. The Ombudsman’s office is an independent agency of the King County Council.

The LEO office will receive and track all citizen complaints involving the Sheriff's Office and forward them to the Sheriff's Internal Investigations Unit for investigation. LEO would monitor the status of all investigations and, where appropriate, participate in those investigations, and issue its own independent findings and disciplinary recommendations to the Sheriff. The LEO board may recommend policy changes and reforms to the Sheriff to improve internal investigations, policies, and procedures.

The Independent Auditor of Law Enforcement (ALE) will focus on long-term policy improvements for law enforcement in King County. The ALE will be an employee placed in the King County Auditor’s Office, another independent agency of the King County Council. The ALE will periodically review the procedures and resources of the Sheriff’s internal affairs division against national standards and issue recommendations for reforms where appropriate. The ALE will issue reports on police misconduct status and incident and result trends as illustrated through complaints and internal investigations. The ALE will report directly to the Council on a quarterly basis.

“The precious trust placed in law enforcement officials calls for a higher standard of independence and transparency in oversight matters,” said Patterson. “We must have a system in place to daylight the bad apples before they start to rot and erode the trust in our law enforcement system.”

Ferguson said the oversight model has worked elsewhere, in particular with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “Independent oversight of the Sheriff’s Office works in Los Angeles and other cities. A comprehensive approach that includes a transparent, independent citizen complaint process as well as a focus on long-term policy improvements is the necessary next step to improve the King County Sheriff’s Office.”

In Los Angeles County, an independent review office was created to monitor citizen complaints of the Sheriff’s Department in 2001 based on a proposal by the current Los Angeles County Sheriff. In addition, Los Angeles County created the position of Special Counsel to audit, investigate, and make long-term policy recommendations to the legislative branch. As a result, Los Angeles County has experienced:

• Damage payments cut in half, from $26.2 million in fiscal year 1991-92 to $11.6 million in fiscal year 1994-95.
• Reduction in the number of incidents involving use of force, from 3,214 in 1994 to 1,916 in 1997, even as the total number of arrests increased during that same period of time from 94,631 to 98,782.

The Patterson-Ferguson proposal is scheduled for introduction next week. Ferguson and Patterson have partnered before on good government legislation; last year they successfully proposed the Council’s independent management audit of King County Elections.

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