Report 2021-105 Recommendation 25 Responses

Report 2021-105: Law Enforcement Departments Have Not Adequately Guarded Against Biased Conduct (Release Date: April 2022)

Recommendation #25 To: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Los Angeles Sheriff should ensure it has implemented
policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that misconduct investigations formally analyze whether an officer has acted in a biased manner whenever a complainant alleges bias, the facts of the incident indicate bias might have influenced an officer's behavior, or investigators recognize potential indications of bias during other reviews, such as use-of-force reviews.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2023

The Department has developed a documented process specifically to address Senate Bill 2. The Bill has identified several criteria including "Demonstrating Bias" as one of the allegations to be considered for ineligibility or revocation of POST certification.

The Department has developed SMART, Senate Bill 2 Misconduct Allegation Reporting Tracking System, to report all allegations of misconduct.

Any allegations of this and other serious misconduct are reported to POST within 10 days for investigation. In addition, any completed Department investigations of serious misconduct are reported to POST as well.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

LA Sheriff provided a policy and procedures for complying with statutory requirements for reporting allegations of serious misconduct, including biased conduct, to POST. The department also provided its policy on bias free policing, which requires department personnel to report incidents of biased policing and requires supervisors to respond to the scene if a person alleges racial bias. The policies do not require that misconduct allegations formally analyze whether an officer has acted in a biased manner outside of specific allegations of biased conduct. For example, when the facts of the incident indicate bias might have influenced an officer's behavior, or investigators recognize potential indications of bias during other reviews, such as use-of-force reviews.

1-Year Agency Response

The Peace Officer's Standards and Training (POST) provide certification to all peace officer's employed by law enforcement agencies in the state of California.

Senate Bill 2 establishes a process to suspend or revoke a peace officer's POST certification. The Bill has identified several criteria including "Demonstrating Bias" as one of the allegations to be considered for ineligibility or revocation of POST certification.

As of January 1, 2023, any allegations of this and other serious misconduct must be reported to POST within 10 days for investigation. In addition, any completed Department investigations of serious misconduct must be reported to POST as well. Currently the LASD Risk Management Bureau has implemented a separate Team to monitor the requirements of Senate Bill 2.

Additionally, the allegation of bias triggers a supervisory inquiry and/or complaint review in which information is collected and analyzed for an administrative review, if necessary.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

Los Angeles Sheriff has not provided a policy or procedure requiring that it investigate allegations of bias as it describes in its response. Additionally, the recommendation includes that the department should formally analyze whether an officer acted in a bias manner not only when a complainant alleges bias, but also when the facts of the incident indicate bias might have influenced an officer's behavior, or investigators recognize potential indications of bias during other reviews, such as use-of-force reviews.

6-Month Agency Response

There is no change to the status of this recommendation from the previous response.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The Department does recognize the value of examining Bias behavior in policing. However, to date, a clear and exhaustive definition of actions or behavior considered to be bias have not been identified by the state or any other governmental entity. Therefore, independently modifying or establishing realistic policies would be difficult at best at this time.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Los Angeles Sheriff raises the same objection to this recommendation as it did to our recommendation 24. We disagree that the present lack of a statewide definition of bias prevents it from improving its investigations into biased conduct consistent with our recommendations. We summarize the reasons for our disagreement in our assessment of Los Angeles Sheriff's response to recommendation 24, and describe them more fully in the text of the report.

All Recommendations in 2021-105

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.