San Bernardino executive allegedly told police staff to avoid 'use of force' in reports

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 1, 2008

By CHRIS RICHARD
The Press-Enterprise

A senior San Bernardino police executive sought to have officers avoid the term "use of force" in their reports, substituting instead an "innocuous phrase," minutes from a July meeting show.

"Officers will be encouraged to use a term other than 'use of force' in their reports," state the minutes from the July 2 Patrol Command Staff meeting. "They can refer to it as 'an incident' or another innocuous phrase."

Department policy requires officers to report every contact with the public in which they use force, from striking a blow to firing a weapon. Supervisors must document what happened in writing.

The minutes of the July 2 meeting attribute the directive to avoid the term "use of force" to Lt. Richard Taack, acting patrol captain at the time.

In an interview Wednesday, Assistant Police Chief Walt Goggin said Taack never meant to obscure the reporting process. He said support staff prepared the minutes.

Taack would not be available for comment, Goggin said.

"Lt. Taack's sole purpose in that entry was to pass on to the subordinate officers that when they do crime reports (and) a use of force is part of that report, that they should describe in detail what happened and not refer to it only as a use of force," Goggin said.

He said he doesn't know whether Taack reviewed the July 2 document before it became public Tuesday. Patrol executives have met several times since July, but those meetings do not include formal review and approval of minutes from previous meetings, Goggin said.

He said executives met again Wednesday to correct any inconsistency and to stress the importance of documenting all uses of force in detail.

Police union President Rich Lawhead rejected Goggin's explanation.

"They have a civilian who's been taking notes in their meetings for 20-plus years," Lawhead said. "Now they're blaming this on her? This is some of the kind of stuff we've been complaining about."

Last month, union members overwhelmingly approved a resolution of no confidence against Police Chief Mike Billdt. One reason for the vote, union leaders say, is the chief's failure to distinguish routine record-keeping for the appropriate use of force from the sort of detailed investigation required when officers are accused of using force improperly or illegally.

"If they've got nothing to hide and these use-of-force forms are just for statistical data, why all this cloak-and-dagger, hiding behind the curtain kind of thing?" Lawhead said.

City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack questioned why police executives didn't address concerns about the meeting minutes sooner. She said she first discussed Taack's directive with Billdt in early September.

"If nobody reviewed the notes of that meeting until (Tuesday afternoon), then we've got some leadership problems," she said. "Either they got it very, very wrong and no one held that person accountable for their note-taking, or someone's telling some stories. It's got to be one or the other."

Billdt said any such conversation with McCammack would have taken place during a closed council meeting, and state law bars him from disclosing details of such confidential discussions.

Councilwoman Esther Estrada said Goggin's account is "symbolic of the kind of problems we have in the department."

"Personally, I don't believe it. I don't believe that this was an error committed by a subordinate," she said. "I believe that (the account in the minutes) is what happened, and I believe it calls for a full and detailed investigation and a report to the mayor and the City Council."

Such a probe, she said, should be done by an agency separate from the Police Department.

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com