Report 2021-105 Recommendations

To communicate to both the public and its officers its commitment to performing its duties in a fair and impartial manner, CDCR should formalize a policy that aligns with best practices by, at minimum, declaring that biased conduct is prohibited, describing in detail what constitutes biased conduct, and outlining key compliance mechanisms.

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of the State, by April 2023 CDCR should develop and begin implementing a documented strategy
aligned with best practices for recruiting officers who reflect the diversity of the State.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 CDCR should begin conducting standardized interviews of officer applicants that include questions designed to assess their experience working with diverse communities and their ability to do so effectively.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 CDCR should proactively seek and attempt to contact secondary references to obtain more candid information about applicants, such as information about past biased conduct or affiliation with hate groups.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 CDCR should begin using documented procedures that adhere to best practices to identify and review applicants' public social media profiles for content indicative of disqualifying biases, such as hate group affiliation.

To proactively identify signs that officers may need additional training or supports to address possible biased behavior, CDCR should, by April 2023, adopt a policy and implement procedures that align with best practices for an effective early intervention system. The system should do the following:
- Track and incorporate data at the officer level related to complaints, uses of force, and other indicators as appropriate, and use these data to identify officers who could benefit from early intervention.
- Specify a range of early intervention options—such as trainings, mentoring or other supervisory approaches, mental health services, or reassignment—with guidance about how to apply them to the particular circumstances of each officer's conduct. The system should require prompt interventions that address the identified issues with or patterns in the officers' conduct, including conduct related to bias.
- Require monitoring of the officers who receive intervention to evaluate whether their performance improves or whether additional interventions are needed.

To ensure that it adequately responds to potentially biased conduct, CDCR should continue to carry out its planned reforms of its misconduct investigation process. In doing so, it should adopt a clear and comprehensive definition of biased conduct, specify criteria for determining whether conduct meets that definition, document formal analysis of officers' conduct using the criteria, and provide training about how to perform these assessments.

CDCR should specify options for corrective actions beyond punitive discipline that are designed to change officer behaviors associated with biased conduct and require that, when appropriate, these corrective actions—such as training and education—be part of the discipline that officers receive when they are found to have engaged in biased conduct.

To improve its ability to effectively investigate allegations of officer misconduct, by April 2023, CDCR should establish a time frame for equipping its remaining facilities with body-worn cameras and begin implementing that plan.

To enhance CDCR's identification of correctional officer applicants who possess the ability to work with diverse individuals and do not have detectable disqualifying biases, by October 2023, the Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and Training should establish standards for the selection of correctional officers that incorporate the best practices that we describe in this report.

To better align existing expectations in state law with best practices for addressing bias during the hiring of peace officers, the Legislature should do the following:
- Require that POST, in the course of its regular audits of local law enforcement departments' hiring processes, determine whether the departments conduct the following activities:
o Oral interviews that incorporate assessments of officer applicants' ability to interact with a diverse community.
o Interviews of secondary references to obtain information about officer applicants' characters
- Require POST to develop guidance for local law enforcement departments on performing effective Internet and social media screenings of officer applicants. This guidance should include, at minimum, strategies for identifying applicant social media profiles and for searching for and identifying content indicative of potential biases, such as affiliation with hate groups.

To provide law enforcement departments hiring peace officers the ability to effectively screen for bias in applicants, the Legislature should amend state law to specify that law enforcement departments can request that officer applicants identify their public social media accounts so departments are aware of the accounts and can review them to identify content indicative of potential biases, such as affiliation with hate groups.

To ensure that peace officers are properly trained about bias and its effects, the Legislature should amend state law to require that officers—including those at CDCR—receive training on the following topics at least every other year, and should require POST to monitor to ensure that local departments comply with this requirement:
- Explanations of implicit and explicit bias, including how bias can influence behavior
- Community engagement strategies, including the benefits of effective community engagement and the means to achieve
that engagement.
- Cultural awareness and sensitivity, including regarding the various cultures within the communities they serve.
- Reporting obligations, including how officers should respond after observing biased behavior by peers.

To aid law enforcement departments in effectively leveraging data on officers' stops as part of their early intervention systems, the Legislature should require the RIPA Board to develop and disseminate technical guidance for how best to analyze stops data to reveal potential indications of bias at the officer level.

To ensure that law enforcement departments properly identify and respond to possibly biased conduct by their officers, the Legislature should amend state law to do the following:
- Create a definition of biased conduct that law enforcement departments must use when investigating any bias-related complaint or any incident that involves possible indications of officer bias. At a minimum, the definition should specify that biased conduct can include conduct resulting from implicit as well as explicit biases; that conduct is biased if a reasonable person would conclude so using the facts at hand; that an officer need not admit biased or prejudiced intent for conduct to reasonably appear biased; and that biased conduct may occur in an encounter with the public, with other officers, or online, such as conduct on social media.
- Require law enforcement departments that analyze officer conduct based on this definition to reach one of the existing formal determinations in state law about whether an allegation is true, and to document a rationale for reaching the determination.
- Require DOJ to develop standard investigative protocols that law enforcement departments must follow when evaluating whether an officer has engaged in biased conduct.
- Require POST, in consultation with DOJ, to develop training on how to properly conduct investigations of biased conduct. State law should require officers who handle complaints or other misconduct investigations to attend the training at least once every two years.

To increase the adoption of best practices for addressing officer bias in law enforcement departments statewide, the Legislature should require the RIPA Board to outline specific best practices for addressing bias within law enforcement in at least the areas of recruiting, hiring, training, community engagement, early intervention systems and related monitoring, and misconduct investigations. The Legislature should require local law enforcement departments to report to the RIPA Board the extent to which they have implemented those best practices, and should further require that departments provide the board with copies of any of the policies, procedures, or plans that they attest align with the best practices if the RIPA Board requests they do so. Finally, the Legislature should require the RIPA Board to publish annually through a scorecard, interactive dashboard, or similar means each department's progress.

To increase the adoption of best practices for addressing officer bias in law enforcement departments statewide, the Legislature should establish a required frequency with which DOJ must complete best practice reviews of law enforcement departments to assess their efforts to combat bias. Local departments should be required to cooperate with DOJ, and DOJ should issue public reports about the results of those reviews. The Legislature should further establish the minimum required areas that DOJ should evaluate during these reviews, including the best practices described in this report, and require DOJ to establish criteria for selecting the law enforcement departments it reviews.

To increase the adoption of best practices for addressing officer bias in law enforcement departments statewide, the Legislature should require that DOJ establish guidelines for local independent review of law enforcement departments' misconduct investigations, such as specifying that an effective independent review entity should have full access to the relevant records and should review all of the department's bias-related investigations. For any law enforcement department that does not have a process for independent review that aligns with DOJ's guidelines, the Legislature should require DOJ to conduct periodic audits of the department's misconduct investigations to identify whether it has appropriately handled investigations of possible biased conduct.

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of its communities, by October 2022, Los Angeles Sheriff should have a process for regularly monitoring data on the diversity of its current personnel, its new hires, and to the extent possible, its applicant pool. It should use these data to evaluate the success of its recruitment efforts and identify needed areas of improvement.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 Los Angeles Sheriff should begin conducting standardized interviews of officer applicants that include questions designed to assess their experience working with diverse communities and their ability to do so effectively.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 Los Angeles Sheriff should proactively seek and attempt to contact secondary references to obtain more candid information about applicants, such as information about past biased conduct or affiliation with hate groups.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 Los Angeles Sheriff should begin using documented procedures that adhere to best practices to identify and review applicants' public social media profiles for content indicative of disqualifying biases, such as hate group affiliation.

To strengthen its relationships with its community and mitigate the effects of bias on its officers, Los Angeles Sheriff should develop and begin implementing a documented
strategy to do all of the following by April 2023:
- Collaborate with its communities to establish or leverage community advisory boards consisting of representatives of diverse groups. The strategy should specify how it will partner with the boards in the areas of recruitment, hiring, training, and community engagement, as well as how it will leverage the boards to obtain feedback on how it can better serve its community.
- Ensure that officers at all levels regularly participate in community engagement activities.
- Periodically survey its community to assess the effectiveness of its community engagement efforts and solicit feedback on how to improve its operations.

To proactively identify signs that officers may need additional training or supports to address possible biased behavior, Los Angeles Sheriff should, by April 2023, adopt a policy and implement procedures that align with best practices for an effective early intervention system. The system should do the following:
- Track and incorporate data at the officer level related to complaints, uses of force, and other indicators as appropriate, and use these data to identify officers who could benefit from early intervention. The system should include analysis of stops data that identifies officers based on indications of possible biased conduct.
- Specify a range of early intervention options—such as trainings, mentoring or other supervisory approaches, mental health services, or reassignment—with guidance about how to apply them to the particular circumstances of each officer's conduct. The system should require prompt interventions that address the identified issues with or patterns in the officers' conduct, including conduct related to bias.

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.

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 the investigations apply a definition of bias that incorporates the following: biased conduct can include conduct
resulting from implicit as well as explicit biases; conduct is biased if a reasonable person would conclude so using the facts at hand; an officer need not admit biased or prejudiced intent for conduct to reasonably appear biased; and biased conduct may occur in an encounter with the public, with other officers, or online, such as
conduct on social media.

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 the individuals handling bias-related investigations follow detailed investigative guidelines for identifying biased
conduct and be specifically trained in how to perform these assessments.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Los Angeles Sheriff should ensure that by January 2023 it has formalized policies - such as through discipline matrices or broader discipline guidelines - specifying options for corrective actions beyond punitive discipline that are designed to change officer behaviors associated with biased conduct. The department should require that, when appropriate, these corrective actions—such as training and education—be part of the discipline that officers receive when they are found to have engaged in biased conduct.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Los Angeles Sheriff's policies should require that investigations include a formal determination that makes clear whether biased conduct occurred or not, as well as the rationale for reaching the determination.

To ensure that it accurately reports information about all complaints as required by state law, Los Angeles Sheriff should ensure that it reports to DOJ about all public complaints related to racial or identity profiling, including those that initially appear to be unfounded, and the disposition of those complaints.

To improve its ability to effectively investigate allegations of officer misconduct, by April 2023, Los Angeles Sheriff should finish its planned partial implementation of body-worn cameras, and should establish and begin implementing a time frame for equipping officers in each of its custody settings with body-worn cameras.

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of its communities, by October 2022, San Bernardino Police should have a process for regularly monitoring data on the diversity of its current personnel, its new hires, and to the extent possible, its applicant pool. It should use these data to evaluate the success of its recruitment efforts and identify needed areas of improvement

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of its community, by April 2023, San Bernardino Police should develop and begin implementing a documented strategy aligned with best practices for recruiting officers who reflect the diversity of its community.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 San Bernardino Police should begin conducting standardized interviews of officer applicants that include questions designed to assess their experience working with diverse communities and their ability to do so effectively.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 San Bernardino Police should begin using documented procedures that adhere to best practices to identify and review applicants' public social media profiles for content indicative of disqualifying biases, such as hate group affiliation.

To strengthen its relationships with its community and mitigate the effects of bias on its officers, San Bernardino Police should develop and begin implementing a documented strategy to do all of the following by April 2023:
- Collaborate with its communities to establish or leverage community advisory boards consisting of representatives of diverse groups. The strategy should specify how it will partner with the boards in the areas of recruitment, hiring, training, and community engagement, as well as how it will leverage the boards to obtain feedback on how it can better serve its community.
- Ensure that officers at all levels regularly participate in community engagement activities.
- Periodically survey its community to assess the effectiveness of its community engagement efforts and solicit feedback on how to improve its operations.

To proactively identify signs that officers may need additional training or supports to address possible biased behavior, San Bernardino Police should, by April 2023, adopt a policy and implement procedures that align with best practices for an effective early intervention system. The system should do the following:
- Track and incorporate data at the officer level related to complaints, uses of force, and other indicators as appropriate, and use these data to identify officers who could benefit from early intervention. The system should include analysis of stops data that identifies officers based on indications of possible biased conduct.
- Specify a range of early intervention options—such as trainings, mentoring or other supervisory approaches, mental health services, or reassignment—with guidance about how to apply them to the particular circumstances of each officer's conduct. The system should require prompt interventions that address the identified issues with or patterns in the officers' conduct, including conduct related to bias.
- Require monitoring of the officers who receive intervention to evaluate whether their performance improves or whether additional interventions are needed.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San Bernardino Police 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.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San Bernardino Police should ensure it has implemented policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that the investigations apply a definition of bias that incorporates the following: biased conduct can include conduct resulting from implicit as well as explicit biases; conduct is biased if a reasonable person would conclude so using the facts at hand; an officer need not admit biased or prejudiced intent for conduct to reasonably appear biased; and biased conduct may occur in an encounter with the public, with other officers, or online, such as conduct on social media.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San Bernardino Police should ensure it has implemented policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that the individuals handling bias-related investigations follow detailed investigative guidelines for identifying biased conduct and be specifically trained in how to perform these assessments.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San Bernardino Police should ensure that by January 2023 it has formalized policies - such as through discipline matrices or broader discipline guidelines - specifying options for corrective actions beyond punitive discipline that are designed to change officer behaviors associated with biased conduct. The department should require that, when appropriate, these corrective actions—such as training and education—be part of the discipline that officers receive when they are found to have engaged in biased conduct.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San Bernardino Police's policies should require that investigations include a formal determination that makes clear whether biased conduct occurred or not, as well as the rationale for reaching the determination.

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of its communities, by October 2022, San José Police should have a process for regularly monitoring data on the diversity of its current personnel, its new hires, and to the extent possible, its applicant pool. It should use these data to evaluate the success of its recruitment efforts and identify needed areas of improvement.

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of its community, by April 2023, San José Police should develop and begin implementing a documented strategy aligned with best practices for recruiting officers who reflect the diversity of its community.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 San José Police should proactively seek and attempt to contact secondary references to obtain more candid information about applicants, such as information about past biased conduct or affiliation with hate groups.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 San José Police should begin using documented procedures that adhere to best practices to identify and review applicants' public social media profiles for content indicative of disqualifying biases, such as hate group affiliation.

To strengthen its relationships with its community and mitigate the effects of bias on its officers, San José Police should develop and begin implementing a documented strategy to do all of the following by April 2023:
- Collaborate with its communities to establish or leverage community advisory boards consisting of representatives of diverse groups. The strategy should specify how it will partner with the boards in the areas of recruitment, hiring, training, and community engagement, as well as how it will leverage the boards to obtain feedback on how it can better serve its community.
- Ensure that officers at all levels regularly participate in community engagement activities.
- Periodically survey its community to assess the effectiveness of its community engagement efforts and solicit feedback on how to improve its operations.

To proactively identify signs that officers may need additional training or supports to address possible biased behavior, San José Police should, by April 2023, adopt a policy and implement procedures that align with best practices for an effective early intervention system. The system should do the following:
- Track and incorporate data at the officer level related to complaints, uses of force, and other indicators as appropriate, and use these data to identify officers who could benefit from early intervention. The system should include analysis of stops data that identifies officers based on indications of possible biased conduct.
- Specify a range of early intervention options—such as trainings, mentoring or other supervisory approaches, mental health services, or reassignment—with guidance about how to apply them to the particular circumstances of each officer's conduct. The system should require prompt interventions that address the identified issues with or patterns in the officers' conduct, including conduct related to bias.
- Require monitoring of the officers who receive intervention to evaluate whether their performance improves or whether additional interventions are needed.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San José Police 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.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San José Police should ensure it has implemented policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that the investigations apply a definition of bias that incorporates the following: biased conduct can include conduct resulting from implicit as well as explicit biases; conduct is biased if a reasonable person would conclude so using the facts at hand; an officer need not admit biased or prejudiced intent for conduct to reasonably appear biased; and biased conduct may occur in an encounter with the public, with other officers, or online, such as conduct on social media.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San José Police should ensure it has implemented policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that the individuals handling bias-related investigations follow detailed investigative guidelines for identifying biased conduct and be specifically trained in how to perform these assessments.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, San José Police should ensure that by January 2023 it has formalized policies - such as through discipline matrices or broader discipline guidelines - specifying options for corrective actions beyond punitive discipline that are designed to change officer behaviors associated with biased conduct. The department should require that, when appropriate, these corrective actions—such as training and education—be part of the discipline that officers receive when they are found to have engaged in biased conduct.

To communicate to both the public and its officers its commitment to performing its duties in a fair and impartial manner, Stockton Police should formalize a policy that
aligns with best practices by, at minimum, declaring that biased conduct is prohibited, describing in detail what constitutes biased conduct, and outlining key compliance mechanisms.

To improve its ability to recruit qualified applicants who reflect the diversity of its communities, by October 2022, Stockton Police should have a process for regularly monitoring data on the diversity of its current personnel, its new hires, and to the extent possible, its applicant pool. It should use these data to evaluate the success of its recruitment efforts and identify needed areas of improvement.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 Stockton Police should begin conducting standardized interviews of officer applicants that include questions designed to assess their experience working with diverse communities and their ability to do so effectively.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 Stockton Police should proactively seek and attempt to contact secondary references to obtain more candid information about applicants, such as information about past biased conduct or affiliation with hate groups.

To better assess whether peace officer applicants have the ability to work with diverse members of their communities and whether they possess detectable disqualifying biases, by no later than October 2022 Stockton Police should should begin using documented procedures that adhere to best practices to identify and review applicants' public social media profiles for content indicative of disqualifying biases, such as hate group affiliation.

To strengthen its relationships with its community and mitigate the effects of bias on its officers, Stockton Police should develop and begin implementing a documented
strategy to do all of the following by April 2023:
- Collaborate with its communities to establish or leverage community advisory boards consisting of representatives of diverse groups. The strategy should specify how it will partner with the boards in the areas of recruitment, hiring, training, and community engagement, as well as how it will leverage the boards to obtain feedback on how it can better serve its community.
- Ensure that officers at all levels regularly participate in community engagement activities.
- Periodically survey its community to assess the effectiveness of its community engagement efforts and solicit feedback on how to improve its operations.

To proactively identify signs that officers may need additional training or supports to address possible biased behavior, Stockton Police should, by April 2023, adopt a policy and implement procedures that align with best practices for an effective early intervention system. The system should do the following:
- Track and incorporate data at the officer level related to complaints, uses of force, and other indicators as appropriate, and use these data to identify officers who could benefit from early intervention. The system should include analysis of stops data that identifies officers based on indications of possible biased conduct.
- Specify a range of early intervention options—such as trainings, mentoring or other supervisory approaches, mental health services, or reassignment—with guidance about how to apply them to the particular circumstances of each officer's conduct. The system should require prompt interventions that address the identified issues with or patterns in the officers' conduct, including conduct related to bias.
- Require monitoring of the officers who receive intervention to evaluate whether their performance improves or whether additional interventions are needed.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Stockton Police 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.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Stockton Police should ensure it has implemented policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that the investigations apply a definition of bias that incorporates the following: biased conduct can include conduct resulting from implicit as well as explicit biases; conduct is biased if a reasonable person would conclude so using the facts at hand; an officer need not admit biased or prejudiced intent for conduct to reasonably appear biased; and biased conduct may occur in an encounter with the public, with other officers, or online, such as conduct on social media.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Stockton Police should ensure it has implemented policies or procedures by January 2023 that require that the individuals handling bias-related investigations follow detailed investigative guidelines for identifying biased conduct and be specifically trained in how to perform these assessments.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Stockton Police should ensure that by January 2023 it has formalized policies - such as through discipline matrices or broader discipline guidelines - specifying options for corrective actions beyond punitive discipline that are designed to change officer behaviors associated with biased conduct. The department should require that, when appropriate, these corrective actions—such as training and education—be part of the discipline that officers receive when they are found to have engaged in biased conduct.

To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Stockton Police's policies should require that investigations
include a formal determination that makes clear whether biased conduct occurred or not, as well as the rationale for reaching the determination.

To ensure that it accurately reports information about all complaints as required by state law, Stockton Police should ensure that it reports to DOJ about all public complaints related to racial or identity profiling, including those that initially appear to be unfounded, and the disposition of those complaints.