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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006 Community Police Board Annual ReportCommunity Police Board Report 2006 Below are the statistics on complaints and compliments about Ithaca City Police Officers actions received by the Ithaca City Police Board in 2006 The years from 2003 through 2005 are included for comparison. 10 o0, YEAR 0-) Carried fou&d FOUNDED S UNFOUNDED CONCILIATED S WITHDRAWN �1 TOTAL O.1 2006 6 4 6 1 3 14 2005 3 1 2 1 4 S 2004 1 2 5 5 4 16 2003 0 1 2 4 3 10 Fourteen cases were opened this past year. All occurred after the first few months, beginning in late April of 2006. The timing and content of complaints appears to be connected to the new and tougher reinforcement of policies about noise of ( mostly student) parties. Students had two types of complaints: 1. the fact that they were constrained in any way from carrying on the tradition of end of the year celebrations, and 2. the manner in which they were treated by officers when apprehended. Three compliments were received on our official form for three different incidents of officer helpfulness. The fact that policy calls for handcuffing anyone who is put in the police car affronted most student offenders. In addition, there were many complaints about the language and verbal abuse they claimed the officers used. As the end of summer approached, bringing the return of our many students, the partying complaints were fewer than usual, hopefully reflecting some adjustment to the new enforcements by police. The first column indicates cases that were opened the previous year and not completed until sometime the following year. Founded complaints were those that had investigations completed and by collecting information through meetings with witnesses, complainants and police, were deemed to be valid. Unfounded complaints are those where not enough evidence was collected or the police officer and the complainant disagreed about what happened during the incident. Some of these may have happened as the complainant stated, but there was no way to back that up, and some may have been vengefulness or resentment on the part of the complainant and exaggerated or untrue. Conciliated consists of those complainants who either spoke to someone in the IPD or received a report by our investigating Board member that resolved the complaint for them. Withdrawn includes all those who did not follow through in responding to our initial contacts, as the Board does not proceed with an investigation unless the complainant will meet with a commissioner. Other events that occurred during the year: A new 17 year old high school student was accepted in the Youth member position, and the Board remained at full capacity throughout the year. Outreach efforts included tabling with attractions for the children who bring their parents to the display table: at Juneteenth, GIAC, and the Apple Harvest Festival. It was decided by the Board to drop tabling at Ithaca Festival because of the enormous number of events and people and the difficulty of conforming to the Festival requirements for tabling. The Chili Cookout has proven too cold to sit for several hours, and so was recommended to be dropped from the tabling list. The Colleges on the Commons was not held this year, but will be included if it returns. In addition, the Chair was interviewed on WVBR and spoke about our operations, and the Vice Chair has written a column for the Ithaca Journal. Submitted by Nancy Falconer, Staff January 27, 2007