(The Center Square) – The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections will soon implement new internal affairs policies following the first completed reports of the Citizen Law Enforcement Advisory and Review Commission.
The group reviews all police-involved shootings, all investigations of cases involving racial discrimination or other biases, and a sampling of use of force cases.
Gov. Josh Shapiro instituted the CLEAR Commission, as it’s often called, within the Office of the State Inspector General by executive order last year with the mandate to improve policing practices across state agencies in the interest of “transparency, fairness, and accountability.”
“The CLEAR Commission will help ensure Pennsylvanians can have the utmost faith in the law enforcement officers serving and protecting them every day,” said Shapiro when signing the order.
The commission’s first bias-based policing report centered around the state’s Parole Field Services, which had previously conducted their own investigation of a harassment complaint from the loved one of a reentrant, or parolee, about an agent.
“This commission has worked tirelessly to review complex investigations and develop thoughtful, thorough reports that will help guide meaningful change,” said Chair Christa Caceres.
While CLEAR’s review revealed no evidence of bias cited in the investigation and found that the complaint had been dealt with swiftly, it also found that no formal process for documentation or classification was used.
According to the report, the department informed CLEAR there was “no specific manual or policy for internal affairs or administrative investigations regarding parole field agents, and the current process that was in place resulted from the merger of DOC and Parole Field Services.”
The merger occurred in 2017 under the direction of former Gov. Tom Wolf to eliminate redundancies across departments. Parole Field Services employs about 700 agents who oversee more than 32,000 reentrants.
In light of these gaps, the commission recommended that the department create a consistent structure for reentrants and their families to pursue complaints against field agents.
The group believes that standardized reporting templates, agreed-upon definitions of terms and classifications, investigative and reporting requirements, and defined outcomes can help the department better identify and address issues like bias internally.
“As a leader in the field of corrections, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is committed to transparency and continuous improvement,” said department Secretary Dr. Laurel R. Harry. “We appreciate the commission’s work and welcome feedback from the communities we serve as we review and update policies and processes that guide our department.”
The commission also released final reports on a critical incident and a use of force case in which a defendant was killed by state troopers following a lengthy standoff. In both cases, the Pennsylvania State Police declined to implement CLEAR’s recommendations.
The agencies’ responses are publicly available along with documentation of each case through the Office of the State Inspector General.
