Burbank considers oversight attorney

Flad said the community, the council and city management want additional oversight of the Police Department. Gennaco could become a long-term solution in the event of future uses of deadly force, Flad said.

“The common thought is the Police Commission should oversee any use of force, and maybe there is a citizen component to it,” Flad said. “But maybe the citizen looks at what Gennaco does — so we get an independent outside assessment, and then that’s what’s reviewed by the Police Commission.”

Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse said Gennaco would review the manner in which the department has investigated the two officer-involved shooting and the jail suicide.

Officers last month responded to a cell and found the body of John Alfred Flores, of Burbank, strangled by the metal cord of a pay phone. Authorities said every cell has a pay phone and that the cords meet state standards.

Flores was booked on felony charges of inflicting injury on a spouse and was scheduled to be arraigned.

LaChasse is in the process of instituting a series of reforms, updating the department’s policy manual to reflect new laws and recent court rulings and reviewing all uses of force to determine whether additional training is needed.

“These incidents don’t happen that often here,” LaChasse said. “Unless this stuff is happening on a frequent basis, then it’s really easy to be noncompliant even with your own policies because you’re investigating so infrequently.”