Council to Consider Extending Independent Police Auditor Contract For Six Months

As part of Monday’s consent calendar, the City Council will consider extending Independent Police Auditor (IPA) Richard Rosenthal’s contract by $90,000 for an additional six months.

Rosenthal announced he was resigning last month and agreed to stay for six months if his contract was extended.

Last May 9, 2022, the City Council voted to authorize the City Attorney to enter into a one-year $150,000 contract with Rosenthal for IPA services.

He replaced Brian Maxey who resigned last year.

“To ensure the City is not without an IPA for any significant period of time, staff will begin the RFP process this summer for a new IPA,” according to a City staff report.

In 2020, the City Council adopted an ordinance creating a Community Police Oversight Commission (CPOC), and an IPA. The ordinance requires that the City Attorney “retain and administer” an IPA who reports to the City Council.

The IPA’s duties include, among other things, serving as a best-practices advisor to the Commission, reviewing categorical uses of force by Pasadena Police Department (PPD) officers, reviewing investigations of personnel complaints of bias-based policing, and recommending changes to PPD policies, procedures, or officer training.

Dr. Rosenthal started his career in police oversight as a public corruption prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office where he was involved in uncovering the LAPD Rampart Scandal, which ultimately resulted in the imposition of a federal Consent Decree on the Los Angeles Police Department.

He also served as the first Police Auditor in Portland, Oregon and the first Police Monitor in the city and county of Denver.

In 2012, he was hired by the Province of British Columbia to serve as the first Chief Civilian Director of its Independent Investigations Office, with the responsibility to conduct criminal investigations of police uses of deadly force.

He received a Ph.D. in Criminology in 2021, with an emphasis on the study of police oversight and accountability.

Over the past two years, Dr. Rosenthal has formed excellent working relationships with the Community Police Oversight Commission, the Pasadena Police Dept., and City staff. Dr. Rosenthal recently released a report related to the personnel complaint handling process, and the Police Department and CPOC have worked together with him to create an online implementation tracker of all recommendations made by him and via other independent reports.

Rosenthal is currently working with the CPOC on a comprehensive evaluation of pretext stops in Pasadena, which was a recommendation made by the OIR Group as part of the independent review of the Anthony McClain officer-involved shooting.