Police Score Higher on Watchdog Group Audit

Editor's note: This article is part of the Daily Cal's Semester in Review series for the month of November.

Public access to the records of the Berkeley police department and many other agencies in the East Bay has markedly improved since last year, according to a recent audit by a nonprofit watchdog group.

The Berkeley Police Department received a “B-” in legal compliance and an “A+” in customer service, according to the report by Sacramento-based Californiana Aware, up from an “F-” in the group’s December 2006 audit. But the raised score may reflect a different survey methodology in addition to policy changes within the department.

To conduct the audits, the group had volunteers from news agencies and journalism schools request information from law enforcement agencies across the state and docked an agency’s score every time it failed to comply with laws requiring open govenment records.

From Oct. 4 through Nov. 4, 61 trained volunteers reaudited about half of the 216 law enforcement agencies investigated by the group last year. The 17 East Bay law enforcement agencies that were reaudited showed significant improvement over last year’s results, according to the report.

Last year, the audit indicated that the Berkeley department did not provide adequate information when requested by an anonymous auditor, resulting in a failing grade.

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress but we still have more to do,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “It has been a long-term problem.”

But the raised grades may also be a result of the investigations's changed methodology, said Emily Francke, executive director of Californians Aware.

In the most recent audit, volunteers asked for fewer documents, sent written requests to the agencies ahead of time and divided the grading scale into legal compliance and customer service.

“The grading scale is a lot more forgiving this time,” she said. “Last time, when everyone was getting an ‘F’, it was hard for agencies to look at other agencies and make a comparison.”

The Berkeley department received an 80 percent in legal compliance, and was marked down for requesting identification and requiring written requests rather than responding to verbal requests.

Until an agency receives a perfect score, they are still breaking the law in some way, Francke said.

“Those agencies getting a 90 percent this time should be proud but should realize that there is room for improvement,” she said.

Last year, requested information wasn’t housed in the police department, so confused staff members redirected the auditors to other departments, said Berkeley police Capt. William Pittman.

To improve, the department changed its policies and created a centralized location where requests can be received and forwarded to the correct department.

“We knew how to get the information, it was just how we were informing that person to receive it,” Pittman said. “No longer will people be referred somewhere else.”

The policy improvements were a direct result of the attention the first audit brought to the public disclosure of information, Francke said.

“This is our government and it is our job to keep our eyes on the ins and outs of their business,” Francke said.

Although Californians Aware audits a different government sector each year, it plans to develop a program to touch base with agencies they’ve audited in the past, Francke said.

“We want to get as close to the actual picture of what the public is experiencing as possible,” she said.

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