Q&A
Process and criteria for selecting cases and systemic issues to investigate
0:45:33
ยท
150 sec
Council Member Williams asks about the internal process for determining which cases to investigate. Commissioner Strauber explains that the selection process is organic and flexible, based on various factors and sources of information.
- The process involves discussions among team members to identify important issues
- They consider input from advocacy groups, city council members, and other inspectors general
- Selection criteria include systemic issues, trending topics, and areas where the OIG can have the most impact
Nantasha M. Williams
0:45:33
Thank you.
0:45:33
And you mentioned that you, gather different forms of sources to determine, like, which cases or, you know, how you would determine different investigations.
0:45:48
Like so once you gather that information, like, what is the internal process to determine, like, what to investigate?
Jocelyn Strauber
0:45:56
You know, I I I don't know how to describe it other than it's somewhat organic.
0:45:59
We have a lot of incoming, and I think we we literally sit together and we we discuss what are the most important issues that we should focus on right now.
0:46:11
That's how CRT emerged last year.
0:46:13
Obviously, social media, we were actually already tracking all of that, but getting speaker Adams' request made clear that we were gonna, you know, that we were gonna move quickly on that report at the time that we did.
0:46:26
So it's it's really a process, you know, relying on, IG Barrett's expertise, our knowledge historically of what the office has done.
0:46:35
We try to keep an eye on what other inspectors general, for police departments across the major cities in the US are doing.
0:46:43
You know, we have conversations, you know, with advocacy groups, members of the city council, and then we really sort of take that information and we think, okay, where where can we be most effective here?
0:46:53
So there's no formula.
0:46:54
Mhmm.
0:46:55
And we try to be flexible so that we can respond to what the areas of greatest need and impact.
Nantasha M. Williams
0:47:01
Mhmm.
0:47:01
So it seems like it's, like, based off of, like, maybe whether or not you see, like, a systematic issue and or whether or not it's, like, a trending issue.
0:47:08
Is that fair to say?
0:47:08
Well, certainly, what like, a trending issue.
0:47:11
Is that fair to say?
Jocelyn Strauber
0:47:12
Well, certainly, what we were talking about with complaints, you know, we may get a complaint about a certain type of officer misconduct, or we might see one complaint about a you know, the conduct of an entity suspected to be a community response team.
0:47:25
In that example, people didn't always know, you know, what what unit the officers were affiliated with.
0:47:30
We wouldn't generally start an investigation off one complaint.
0:47:34
But if we were seeing complaints, let's say, that come into our office through phone, email, etcetera, and we were speaking to advocacy groups and they were mentioning it and we're looking around online and we're seeing there's not a lot of information, all of those things would lead us to think this is a broader issue than just one complaint.
0:47:51
This is potentially a systemic problem, and that's what we're looking for.
0:47:56
And then among those, we try to think, you know, what what is it that we can really contribute here and move forward on that basis?