An independent audit of the Pasadena Police Department’s Detective Bureau criticizes its management and training and says that on several occasions, detectives have come close to crossing “the line of legality.”
Police Chief Phillip Sanchez and Mayor Bill Bogaard in 2013 commissioned the independent audit, which was conducted by Veritas Assurance Group, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. The audit focused on homicide investigations between 2005 and 2009.
“Some officers were allowed to operate extremely close to the line of legality with little or no visible oversight from supervisors who either knew or clearly should have been aware of their subordinates actions,” states the audit, the Tribune reported. “These supervisors had a responsibility to the department, their subordinates and the people of Pasadena to correct theses deficiencies, but they did not. Equally important, their managers did not hold them accountable.”
The audit was prompted by the dismissal in February 2013 of a 2007 homicide case after a judge ruled detectives had failed to produce exculpatory evidence, the Tribune reported in an article based on documents it obtained.
“We also found a serious lack of formal training for those detectives, weak policies regulating the way in which criminal investigations are conducted, very little visible supervisory oversight of day-to-day operations and serious flaws in the records and case management systems,” the audit said
The auditors said many changes have been made over the past few years, according to the Tribune.
—City News Service