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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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