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January 20, 2005

Police chief reforming investigative procedures

Yawu Miller

Kathy O’Toole’s first year as police commissioner has been somewhat of a baptism by fire.

First, the department’s detectives came under scrutiny as a string of wrongful convictions came to light. Then came a July crime wave that brought what many heralded as the return of the sky-high murder rates of the ’90s.

The post World Series pepperball incident, during which a Northeastern University student was killed by a so-called non-lethal weapon, added to the difficulties for the department.

O’Toole, however, has earned high marks from community activists for her openness and willingness to discuss and confront the department’s apparent shortcomings.

“We all have to deal with the cards we’ve been dealt,” O’Toole said. “A lot of the wrongful convictions are based on work that was done in the ’80s. We’re still dealing with that.”

One high-profile officer, Detective Daniel Keeler, was transferred from his post as the head of the homicide squad. Keeler, who earned the nickname “Mr. Homicide,” reportedly for his ability to wrap up a high number of convictions in a relatively short time, came under fire earlier this year after several high profile convictions were overturned and, in a recent case, he was found to have falsified a police report.

In the mean time, O’Toole has instituted several key changes to police procedures that are widely seen as effective in preventing wrongful convictions. For one, detectives investigating a crime are no longer allowed to administer photo arrays or line-ups for witness identifications.

Now, the officer administering the identification tests have no idea who the suspect in a case is. And rather than spreading photos of potential suspects in an array, they are are shown to witnesses sequentially.

“We’ve completely overhauled the way we do witness identification,” O’Toole said.

O’Toole doesn’t take credit for the innovation. She notes that the blind administration of photo-arrays is a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Justice. While those recommendations are not new, O’Toole’s willingness to embrace the changes stands in contrast to the attitudes of past police commissioners who have steadfastly resisted change.

“Years ago we were expected to make so many arrests,” O’Toole said, referring to the informal quotas under which police operated.

O’Toole acknowledged that the changes may not be easy for the department.

“The price we pay is it’s not as easy for police officers to arrest suspects,” she said. “But it will avoid the tragedy of wrongful convictions. We’re doing everything possible in terms of putting processes together to ensure these things don’t happen again.”

City Councilor Chuck Turner, a frequent critic of the department, said the changes would be a positive step for the department, but said more should have been done.

“The issue [O’Toole] hasn’t retreated from is the fact that they won’t tape all interviews with suspects from beginning to end,” he said. “I’m not sure what their logic is, but my sense is that given what’s happened in the past, it’s important to eliminate any suspicions in people’s minds about what happens in the interrogation process.”

While working to reform the department, O’Toole has remained focused on maintaining public safety. When the relative calm of the early summer was ripped by several high-profile shootings, O’Toole launched Operation Neighborhood Shield.

After more than 400 arrests of what police officials refer to as “impact players” there were few if any complaints of abuse.

Compare that to the 1989 Charles Stewart incident, during which police officers terrorized young men in the Mission Main housing development while looking for a fictitious suspect in the murder of a young suburban woman whose husband hid his culpability in plain view.

“We’re not casting with a wide net,” O’Toole said. “We’re not harassing kids on street corners. We made over 400 arrests and confiscated all kinds of guns and drugs.

Throughout the entire operation, we did not get one citizen complaint.”

Although citizen complaints may be down, O’Toole says she plans to launch a civilian review board to investigate complaints about officers.

“I don’t want to come to any conclusions as to what this will look like,” she said. “The mayor has indicated that he is not inclined to support anything with subpeona power.”
Another challenge confronting O’Toole came about last year, when a court struck down the consent decree mandating that the police hire black and Latino officers until the department’s racial composition matches that of the city.

O’Toole says she is committed to a department that “matches the community we serve.” She is looking into scrapping the requirement that the department hire from the top of the civil service list.

“I used to teach in the academy,” she said. “I vividly remember students who did extremely well in the academy and struggled on the street.”

While that change may take time, O’Toole is looking into instituting a special program to hire officers who speak foreign languages — a dire need on a force which patrols in areas where Spanish, Cape Verdean creole and Vietnamese are commonly used.

“We certainly have a need,” she said.

 

 

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