The Long Beach Police Department will not pay an influential police organization to finish an analysis of the department’s operations after a series of delays caused the report to be more than a year behind schedule.
The LBPD announced Monday that it and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) had mutually agreed to cancel the project, meaning, “no final report will be issued, and no further payments will be made.”
Long Beach has already paid the IACP $48,000, and the city and was scheduled to pay another $48,000 after the report was complete.
The city hired the IACP in May 2017 to perform the broad analysis of the department’s management and operations. Police agencies across the country have hired the IACP to author reports assessing their overall performance and pointing out areas where they can improve.
The study in Long Beach was supposed to be finished within six months, but it never completely came to fruition.
In December, the Long Beach City Attorney’s office sent official notice to the IACP that they were exercising a clause in the contract to cancel the deal, Monica Kilaita, deputy city attorney, said.
Police said the report’s lag-time was caused by “unforeseen delays during the data collection process.” Because of that, the report “lost its applicability,” the department said in a statement.
IACP representatives did not return messages left Monday. In October, the organization declined to talk about the report, instead directing questions back to the LBPD. The program manager who was set to be the lead author of the report no longer works at the IACP.
Police officials did not provide any more details on the delays or what if any draft reports the IACP did provide the department.
Two law enforcement sources familiar with the report said the LBPD had provided all the information the IACP asked for but the department was nevertheless left in limbo for months. The sources asked for their names to be withheld because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the topic.
The IACP is one of the largest and oldest law enforcement organizations, claiming 30,000 members in 150 countries.
Many police agencies partner with them for help searching for new executive leaders or large-scale analyses.
As part of its contract with Long Beach, the IACP conducted scores of interviews, surveyed LBPD employees and the public, and held two public meetings where they asked for community feedback, according to the department.
The planned report produced from that feedback and other internal data was supposed to be made public when it was complete. It’s unclear now what if any documents will be released.