The City of Long Beach is conducting an online survey in the weeks leading up to an evaluation of the Citizen Police Complaint Commission (CPCC) that will be presented online Dec. 14.
The results of the survey will be collected and handed over to an evaluation team, according to the City’s website.
The commission is made up of 11 members, nine of which are chosen by city council members and two of which are at-large commissioners.
The commission reviews hundreds of complaints each year. They’re presented with evidence from investigators and deliberate behind closed doors in accordance with Section 832.7 of the California Penal Code, which guarantees the confidentiality of police personnel records.
Due to the privacy of police personnel files, commissioners are limited in what information they can receive for their deliberations. While they do receive body-worn camera video and police reports, they can’t look at an officer’s overall personnel file.
The CPCC came under increased scrutiny during the civil unrest over police brutality that followed the murder of George Floyd last year.
During a protest in Long Beach on June 5, 2020, Porter Gilberg, a member of the Long Beach CPCC, told the crowd that the commission has no power to hold LBPD officers accountable for misconduct.
“The commission is a farce,” Gilberg said. “I have been on this commission for a year, I have been taking very detailed notes for a day like today so I can tell you what a farce and what a joke it is. There is no accountability for the police in Long Beach.”
Gilberg alleged that the CPCC is not an oversight body, and is only able to make recommendations on the cases of police violence and police brutality presented to them.
He alleged that the commission has no power to enforce their recommendations and are allegedly never told the outcomes of individual cases.
Gilberg also alleged that evidence is often withheld from commissioners and commissioners often dismiss cases, in open session, that they have not reviewed.
Although the CPCC is required by the City bylaws to give an annual report of its activities to the mayor and City Council, it neglected to do so from 2015 to 2019.
“This commission cannot continue to be a box to check while reviewing complaints,” then-Councilmember Dee Andrews said at a June 9, 2020 council meeting. “If we are being completely honest, I have never heard from a single commissioner or this commission more than once. I have never had a briefing from them like other commissions made it a point to do so.”
CPCC Manager Patrick Weithers told the Signal Tribune in 2020 that their inability to produce a yearly report was due to a staffing shortage.
“Over the past two years, we haven’t had a lot of staffing,” Weithers told the Signal Tribune in 2020. “There was even one point where, before I took this current role, when I was still an investigator with the CPCC, I was literally the only investigator for quite a few months.”
According to the City’s website, once someone submits a complaint against a member of the Long Beach Police Department it is sent to the department’s Internal Affairs Division.
The person who filed the complaint will be sent a letter confirming that LBPD has received their complaint.
Once the investigation is complete, the case will be sent to the Deputy Chiefs and/or Chief of Police who will decide the disposition and what action should be taken.
After LBPD is finished with its investigation, the CPCC reviews the case.
According to Charter Sections 1150-1155, the CPCC is able to make recommendations on allegations of police misconduct to the city manager, who has final disciplinary authority.
The complainant will then be sent another letter informing them that the investigation is complete and that both reviews have been finished.
According to a July 2020 report by the City, the city manager agreed with the CPCC on 83% of complaints.
The same report said that the CPCC has sustained 224 complaints while the city manager has only sustained 31.
The city manager has also declared 553 complaints to be unfounded, while the CPCC ruled that 447 were unfounded.
Questions on the survey include “What are the pros and cons of having both LBPD Internal Affairs (IA) and CPCC conduct parallel investigations into the same complaint?” and “What are potential benefits to the City Manager receiving investigation files and finding recommendations from both CPCC and IA and what are potential downsides?”
Community members can take the survey and register to join the Zoom presentation of the CPCC evaluation by visiting the City’s website.
Residents can view the Dec. 14 presentation from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. via Zoom.
