At the outset of the Ocr. 9, 3:30 p.m. meeting (carried LIVE on LBREPORT.com), Committee chair Price stated and re-stated that the Committee's discussion would be limited to matters "within the scope as defined by the agenda item" whose text was "[R]eceive an overview of the use of Tiger Connect for messaging and communication; the issue presented currently with the use of the application; present status of its use by the Police Department, and proposed future efforts to determine whether the use of such technologies was consistent with criminal discovery obligations on pending and closed criminal cases." Committee chair Price said the discussion would be limited to that scope "in light of the current process that the City is undertaking in regards to the subject matter."

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, on September 18 the Beachcomber (reporting by Steve Downing) amplified by Al Jazeera) revealed LBPD's use of the message-deleting application, citing sources within LBPD who requested anonymity in describing less-than- benign uses for the application. The ACLU (which worked with Mr. Downing and Al Jazeera on their stories) has signaled its view that LBPD's use of the application may affect current and past criminal cases and raise issues under Public Records Act.

Chair Price, and members of the Committee, variously indicated they are awaiting the results of a now-ongoing City Attorney-hired independent review (via outside counsel), a report of which officials indicated is now expected by early December. In view of the ongoing independent review, Councilwoman Price (an OC Deputy District Att'y/experienced career prosecutor) avoided confrontational cross-examination-style questions that challenged or pressed for details, instead posing questions that mainly invited LBPD to describe, explain or clarify its actions.

Councilwoman Price went on to describe her experience as a career prosecutor working various police agencies, in which she said police agencies don't routinely retain all physical notes made by officers of a reportable police incident. She noted that the state discovery statute requires officers to include information in their official reports that defense counsel may seek during criminal trial discovery but in her experience some notes made by officers are routinely destroyed because it's impractical to retain every note on every case.

Councilwoman Price stressed several times that she's consistently supported in the past, and continues to support now, the use of body-cams by all LBPD officers which would provide an undeniable record of what occurred...and pointedly added that she believes the Council should prioritize budget sums to enable this.

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The closest to a confrontational question came from Councilman Daryl Supernaw, who politely asked whether LBPD could use another app that doesn't erase messages. Deputy Chief Richard Conant replied that the forthcoming "independent review" would address that question. .

The TigerConnect self-deleting message application is currently marketed for use in the health care industry to lawfully protect the privacy of patient-related communications, but its use by LBPD has uncorked an array of potential issues.

Members of LB's Democratic Socialists of America spoke at the Committee meeting, including attorney Stefan Borst-Censullo who said notwithstanding its stated intended use, LBPD's decision to use an app that automatically deletes messages created the potential for misuse that could affect previous criminal convictions and lead to possible civil suits seeking monetary damages against the City.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Committee chair Price politely thanked members of the public for sharing their views on the issue.

The independent investigation, sought by the City Attorney's office, is being conducted by an attorney/of-counsel to a law firm (Best, Best and Krieger) that the City most recently used to challenge verbiage in ballot arguments by opponents of two of four Mayor/Council sought-sought Charter Amendments (AAA and DDD) (resulted in a settlement that revised the arguments' text.) A report of the investigation investigation is now expected by early December, officials said at the Committee meeting.

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