Office of the District Attomey July 15, 2016 Brian Addington Chief of Police Pittsburg Police Department 65 Civic Drive Pittsburg, CA 94565, Re: Audit of 2015 PPD “Suspicious Circumstances” Reports Dear Chief Addington: In May of this year, you made a request of the District Attorney's Office to conduct an examination of all Pittsburg police reports that had been classified as “Suspicious Circumstances" during the 2015 calendar year. You asked that we provide you with an opinion as to whether or not these reports had been properly classified. We agreed to conduct the audit in partnership with the Sheriff's Office. Specifically, you sought our opinion as to whether or not the classification of the reports was consistent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program guidelines. As you're aware, the UCR Program has been in existence since the 1930's and tracks certain crimes throughout the United States. Annually, the FBI publishes a “Crime in the United States” report based on the data provided by local law enforcement agencies. The UCR divides crimes into two classifications; eight of the most serious offenses are Part I crimes (murder and non- negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny- theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson). Certain other crimes are tracked as Part II offenses. | assigned Lieutenant of Inspectors Craig Ojala from my staff to conduct the examination and Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston assigned Lieutenant Melissa Klawuhn from his staff to participate in the audit. Lieutenant Craig Ojala has 36 years of experience in law enforcement. He previously worked at the Alameda Police Department starting as a police officer, and promoting through the ranks until ultimately he was the interim Chief of Police for an extended period. He is well versed in the UCR reporting requirements.Sheriff's Lieutenant Melissa Klawuhn has 13 years of experience in law enforcement including the past 3 years in the Office of the Sheriff's Internal Affairs Unit. She also is very knowledgeable regarding Uniform Crime Reporting. You determined through your record management system that there had been 209 incidents classified as “suspicious circumstances” during 2015. Of those 209 incidents, 5 report numbers had been “issued in error’, resulting in a total number of 204 actual “Suspicious Circumstances” reports being generated. You provided each of these reports in full to our offices for the purpose of this examination. The Lieutenants initially examined each of the 204 police reports separately; a process which took several days to complete. Upon completion of the initial examination, the Lieutenants met to discuss their findings and realized that without actually discussing the reports with each other, they were in agreement on 198 of the 204 reports as to how those reports should have been classified Over the next three days, the Lieutenants thoroughly reviewed together each of the 204 police reports. They determined that 103 of the reports should not have been classified as “Suspicious Circumstances," instead; they should have been documented as crimes. Of these 103 incorrectly classified police reports, 40 should have been reported as Part I crimes, while 63 should have been reported as Part Il crimes. Interestingly, on 101 of the 103 police reports, the correct type of crime was listed as a “Possible” crime on the face sheet of the reports under the category “Classification.” However, under the category of "Code Section” also contained on the face sheet of the police reports, the words "Suspicious Circumstances” were listed. (Attachment A is an example of this practice.) Although the police reports listed the applicable crime, apparently your department did not report the 103 incidents as crimes to the FBI. The Lieutenants agreed that some of the 103 crime reports may have ultimately ended up with a disposition of "unfounded"; however, the details outlined in those reports clearly provided the elements of criminal offenses and should have been initially reported as crimes to comply with proper UCR procedures. (You indicated that your department later determined that 25 of the 103 crimes reported were in fact unfounded.) Prior to finalizing this report, the Lieutenants discussed their examination with a recognized Public Safety Records Compliance organization. That organization reviewed each of the 103 reports identified as being incorrectly classified. Their findings were consistent with those of the Lieutenants. Your department has informed us that of the 103 police reports, the crimes described in 69 of those reports are currently under further investigation by your department.It should be noted that during the 2015 calendar year, the Pittsburg Police Department wrote 9,975 police reports. Thus, the 103 police reports we have discussed are only 1% of all the police reports written that year. With 7,729 police reports submitted as UCR statistics for 2015, the addition of 103 reports results in the following changes: Crime Rate with Originally Reported Statistics: Part i: 2,655 39.4 per 1,000 Part Il: 5,074 75.0 per 1,000 Crime Rate after 103 Unreported Crimes are Included: Part I: 2,695 39.9 per 1,000 Part Il: 5,137 76.0 per 1,000 This chart shows that had the 103 Suspicious Circumstances cases been correctly classified as crimes and reported to the FBI, there would have been a minimal impact on the city’s crime rate. This fact clearly undermines the allegation that the police department deliberately falsified or misclassified crimes. The fact that nearly all of the face sheets of the reports actually listed the correct crimes also undermines the allegation of intentional deception. It should be noted that these crime rates are very low for a city the size of Pittsburg. Our recommendation would be to provide updated UCR training to your personnel, and to construct new report writing policies and procedures that reflect current industry standards. Very truly yours, Mark A Peterson David Livingston District Attorney SheriffPITTSBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT Domes Vslenco PITTSBURG, CALIFORNIA ose No, KX] inioniscoteneous 15.6584 Misdemeanor INCIDENT REPORT ‘incident No. oa + Fetony Somes JventeIvotved = “Code Section | Gime Classification ‘Beat Suspicious Circumstance = Possible PC 211 3 Date end Tato Occured Day ate and Tie Foiled] Taealen oF Ocsreres 8/23/2015 - 0240 hrs — Sunday | 8/23/2015 ~ 0251 hrs IFO 2201 Oak Hills Circle, Pittsburg ‘Vas Nome Ti Fas) esos dross esiarce Prone eee ees “Business Phone , ee [oy Sree Rae WA “Ox LE inconnaten nanos a ae COLE Py Cate Reser RI Tesdarce Pane Seaton SCR | RT| TI Basan rane Tene Las Fst ioe COL Coie esas RATS esterase “ “A ‘Secupation Race Gex [Aas pga of Bh | Business Adress (Schoo Javea) Business Phone cae oe _ Dabs CFRCGnSIGS Tenses BT roa Te } Residential ] Commercial Vehicle j oO ‘Sidewalk x] Parking Lot [ Other: _scrbe biely haw ofense was committed On the above date and time, the victim was in front of fk Hills Apartments waiting for an unknown female to respond to his vehicle. He doesn’t know the name and was hesitant to explain why he was meeting her in the parking lot. While he was in the parking I ete ‘suspect approached him with a firearm and demanded his money. The victim provided the suspBct,$300 cash and fled the scene and called the police. The unknown suspect fled in an unknown direction. srrative for further details. ‘Weapon Pris oy None Firearm [X Knife HandesFoat [—] Other: O, Physical Evidence [Y" aiid Los VloTeet of 7 Victim: None Suspect Venice - License No, -1D No ear Make Model - Color (elher Weniiving cherecterstesy: 7, Unknown : ‘Suspect No. 1 (Last, First, Middle) Race - Sex | Age | Height | Weight | Hair | Eyes | IDNo. or DOB") Arrested: Unknown w-M_ [| of Le | wl yes [X]N Fates, ing of OT Gang ars o chara < Wearing Black shirt, black jacket, and black. ajama pants: AY. ‘Suspect No. 2 (Last, Firsty Middle) Race -Sex | Age | Height | Weight | Hair | Eyes | 1D No. or DOB ‘Arrested / Unknown... I yes [x] No ‘Bebrets Sabino Oa SORT TO TACTICS LT eae rr incontnton ire gang Oo Tats OG Rae Dajoand Tine ee lis ¢ xfeo Tie comments Passer A 6 BOG oilgned:[__] Patel Trattic | Copies Bator im. Ser DALE] Other: Se Tiosed twos Law Lt Pies, [Tce WET Ines, Review TY RNS 0