Shooting Report Author: Happy to Continue Discussions with Pasadena Police

Long-awaited and — even with last week’s court order to lessen redactions — never fully available for the public to read in its entirety, the independent consultant’s report of Kendrec McDade’s shooting death at the hands of Pasadena Police in 2012 has been the focal point of many activists who say the Department needs civilian oversight.

The so-called OIR report was co-authored by Michael Gennaco and Robert Miller of the OIR group, a consulting firm which specializes in working with communities and law enforcement agencies on critical incident review and analysis.

During their nearly 15-year history they’ve worked on hundreds of officer-involved shootings and other critical incidents across the country, including police departments’ use of force, in-custody deaths and juvenile detention issues.

“Mike alone has done 600, I’ve probably looked at 350 officer-involved shootings and other critical incidents.” said Miller after Monday night’s public hearing at Pasadena City Hall. Miller worked as a prosecutor for 15 years for Los Angeles County.

The McDade shooting OIR report is critical of numerous actions by the Pasadena Police during the incident and the investigation and administrative actions taken thereafter.

Miller and Gennaco made a total of 26 recommendations for the Pasadena Police Department to improve its performance and service to the community. The Department agreed with 19 of the recommendations.

In a written response to the report, Police Chief Phillip Sanchez says the department has policies in place to address those recommendations. The Chief asked for more time to discuss the balance of the OIR Group’s recommendations.

“Some of them are complicated … my partner and I would be happy to continue discussing interpretation and implementation. I don’t think the Chief Sanchez’s answers closed the door,” Miller said Monday.

Before the McDade case, the City of Pasadena had hired OIR in 2009 following the shooting death of Leroy Barnes, Jr. Miller worked on both reports.

“The city and the department were very receptive to the recommendations at that time,” says Miller. “I think it would be irresponsible of me to say things have gotten better or worse. These two shooting and our evaluation of the department’s investigations and internal reviews are very limited windows into everything that’s been going on since 2007.”

During public comment some in the audience questioned why the report did not specifically examine the racial component of a shooting that left an unarmed black young man shot dead by two white police officers.

“Race is certainly a prominent issue in policing across America today. It’s something people are discussing. I have in my years … even in the recent past … watched the discussion about race evolve very rapidly and I think that’s a reason for encouragement. It’s not an all-or-nothing discussion anymore, there’s lots of complexity in the way people are willing to
embrace the question, and put it on the table, not flee from it — and that’s good.”

Miller says sometimes there is a place for race in these types of reports and they have prepared those types of reports for other clients.

In the case of the McDade Report city leaders asked the OIR Group to review department policies and their criminal investigation. They were not asked to evaluate anything in regard to race.

“If tasked with evaluating the possibility of bias-based policing in a police department I’d want to see a lot of material and a lot of incidents and step
back and look for a whole course of conduct, not just look through the keyhole of a single case.”

Despite the OIR Report’s criticism of the Pasadena Police Department, Miller says it’s not all bad news.

“The department keeps moving forward. I think that’s one of this department’s good qualities.”