| Mediation in Fiscal Year 2008
In fiscal year 2008, OPC, through its mediation service, the Community Dispute Resolution Center (CDRC), mediated 36 complaints, bringing the grand total to 208 complaints mediated since the inception of the agency mediation program in 2001. During fiscal year 2008, the parties reached an agreement in 29 of the 36 mediation sessions, or 80.5%, and these agreements accounted for 8.1% of the 357 complaints resolved by OPC through conviction, adjudication, dismissal, or successful mediation. Experts in the field have used these three measures – “the total number of complaints referred for mediation, the percentage of those cases that were successfully mediated, and the percentage of all complaints that were successfully mediated” – to survey and compare the operation of mediation programs used by different police oversight agencies. With 8.1% of its complaints resolved through mediation in fiscal year 2008, a figure that was not exceeded by any other agency, OPC’s performance continues to place it at the top when compared to other mediation programs in the United States.
Since the program began in 2001, 208 cases have been referred for mediation and, of those, 156 mediation sessions, or 75%, have been successful and resulted in an agreement between the parties that resolved the complaint. The remaining 52 mediation sessions, or 25%, did not result in an agreement and the underlying complaints were referred back to the executive director for appropriate action. To date, mediators have helped resolve complaints that allege harassment, the use of language or conduct that is insulting, demeaning, or humiliating, discrimination, the use of unnecessary or excessive force not resulting in injury, failure to provide identification, retaliation, or a combination of the six.
In addition to the statistical success rate, a survey of individuals who participated in mediation during fiscal year 2008 indicated that 97.6% of complainants and subject officers who responded found the mediator to be helpful or very helpful, 88.6% found the mediation session to be satisfactory or very satisfactory, and 96.1% found the resulting agreement to be fair or very fair. With the aim of the program being to enhance community-police relations, it is important that such a high proportion of participants come away with a positive view of the mediator and the process, as well as the agreement that both sides worked toward reaching. For fiscal year 2008, 49.7% of the respondents left their mediation session with more positive feelings about the other party, while only 9% had more negative feelings, and 41.3% indicated no change in their feelings. Finally, OPC is proactively taking steps to protect the integrity of the mediation process by dismissing complaints and pursuing discipline of officers when one of the parties fails to appear for mediation or refuses to participate in the mediation process in good faith.
OPC is pleased that it has achieved and maintained an increased number of complaints referred to mediation, a significant percentage of successful mediations, and a noteworthy percentage of all cases resolved through mediation agreements.
The following examples illustrate the types of complaints that OPC referred to mediation in fiscal year 2008:
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