RIPDs Failing to Post Complaint Forms + Procedures, Violating Law
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Ten years after Rhode Island law began to require police departments to post their police complaint forms and procedures online, some departments are still not in compliance.
According to a recently released report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, some police departments throughout the state are still not in compliance with some of the law’s most basic requirements.
"I think that what the report demonstrates is some law enforcement agencies are not as transparent as they need to be," said Hillary Davis, who wrote the report. "We hope that the report will enable police departments to work toward changing their practices."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe requirement, contained in the Racial Profiling Prevention Act of 2004, was designed to make it easier for victims of police misconduct to file complaints with departments. Over the years, some police officials have cited the rarity of complaints they receive to minimize claims about the prevalence of racial profiling or other misconduct.
Report Results
The ACLU of RI report reviewed the websites of all municipal police departments and the State Police to determine if the departments had posted online their police complaint forms and procedures, a requirement of the 2004 law.
The report is an update to the ACLU’s similar 2007 review of online complaint forms that found almost half of the police departments in the state had failed to post online their police complaint forms or procedures. While some departments have improved their practices, the latest report said the results “remain disheartening.”
The report found:
• Five police departments – Barrington (with a broken link), East Greenwich, Little Compton, New Shoreham and Tiverton - post no complaint forms or procedures online, despite their posting of other forms and information on city or town websites.
• Three police departments - Coventry, Hopkinton and Richmond - post only complaint forms or procedures but not, as the law requires, both.
• Nineteen of the departments that post their procedures online nonetheless fail to explicitly indicate that they accept complaints in all the manners required (by mail, fax, and in person).
• At least two departments - Coventry and Warren - require a complainant’s social security number, and at least one (South Kingstown) requires the complaint to be notarized. The report notes that such information is unnecessary to the complaint process and may dissuade individuals to file complaints.
• At least eleven departments make selective cautionary statements or require complainants to sign disclaimers that suggest that the complainants may find themselves under investigation. These include warnings that complainants may be prosecuted criminally or civilly if they are determined to have made false statements, even though similar warnings do not appear on other documents submitted to the police. Such warnings, the report notes, “likely discourage those who fear retribution or harassment from filing complaints.”
• Several departments give only a perfunctory explanation of their complaint process, barely adhering to the law and providing virtually no guidance to complainants.
The report concluded that “if police departments are serious about their desire to receive feedback from the community, and to aggressively address issues of police misconduct and racial profiling, adjusting their complaint procedures and forms is a small, relatively simple step toward facilitating the filing of complaints.”
Related Slideshow: Providence’s Most Violent Neighborhoods
Each week, the Providence Police Department releases its "Weekly Crime Comparison Report" on its website. The breakdown covers how many crimes have occured in the past week, past month, and year to date in each Police District and comparing them with the same time interval from the year prior, reflecting changes in crime rates. GoLocal has distilled the key data points from this weeks report to reflect YTD crime data grouped by general category- violent, property, other, and total. For the full report as filed by the PPD, click here.
Related Articles
- NEW: Cranston Police Union Attorney Blasts Fung Proposal
- NEW: Speaker Fox’s State House Office Raided by FBI, State Police
- URI Plans to Arm Campus Police by January 2015
- NEW: Law Enforcement Group Criticizes Lack of Minorities for Cranston Police Chief Search
- NEW: Cranston Police Chief Palumbo Retires
- Cranston Police Source of Intimidation, Say Critics
- RI Police: New Cars Can’t Beat The Crown Victoria
- NEW: ACLU Calls for Investigation of Cranston Police Dept. Practices
- LISTEN: Unpaid Providence Police Detail Up 50% to Nearly $2 Million
- INVESTIGATION: John Hope Settlement House Under Investigation by State Police
- The Scoop: Block Critiques Raimondo Over Lack of Transparency
- NEW: RI Gets D+ Grade For Government Spending Transparency
- NEW: Morgan and Central Coventry Task Force Request Document Transparency
- NEW: Rhode Island Gets a “D-” in Government Transparency Ranking
- REPORT: Rhode Island Government’s Transparency “Lagging”
- NEW: Providence Receives a “D+” for Spending Transparency
- Sanchez Asks for Greater Transparency in Providence Government
- Donna Perry: Campaign Trail Transparency
- Dan Lawlor: Transparency & Insiders
- State House Report: Sales Tax, Transparency & Good Time Laws
- NEW: House Passes Edwards Transparency Bill for Political Parties, PACs
- NEW: ACLU—State Police ‘Attack on Transparency’
- RI Rated Among Worst in Country for Government Transparency
- Pawtucket Mayor Pushing More Transparency in 2013
- NEW: Smiley Calls for All Providence Police to Carry Naloxone
- Providence Police Union Slams City Over New Festival Permits
- Block Calls on Fung to Explain His Role in Cranston Police Scandals
- NEW: Prov. Police Union to Picket Taveras at Gubernatorial Debate
- East Bay Center Event To Honor Dr. Michael Fine and Barrington Police Chief
- Unpaid Providence Police Detail Up 50% to Nearly $2 Million
- Organizations Past Due on Police Detail: See Who Owes the Most
- Providence Police Union Slams Taveras on Unpaid Festival Police Details
- NEW: Taveras Endorsed by Brotherhood of Police Officers, Government Employees
- NEW: Sen. Jabour Urges RI Police to Carry Narcan to Halt Drug ODs
- Leonardo Angiulo: Citizens Recording Official Police Business
- LISTEN: Providence Police Union Slams Taveras on Unpaid Festival Police Details
- RI Groups Urge Police to Support Public’s Right to Record Police Activity