The Office of the Independent Monitor was created in April 2002 to "review and report on MPD's implementation of, and assist with MPD's compliance with" the Memorandum of Agreement ("MOA") entered into by the District of Columbia, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Department of Justice. The scope of the Independent Monitor's activities is broad. The MOA spells out specific activities that are required of the monitor, but the monitor's responsibilities extend beyond these specific activities to the overall oversight and assessment of MPD's compliance with the MOA.
At the same time, the Independent Monitor's role is limited by the terms of the MOA. The MOA explicitly provides that the Independent Monitor "shall only have the duties, responsibilities and authority conferred" by the MOA. Moreover, the discharge of the Independent Monitor's assigned responsibilities must be carried out in an institutional context occupied by MPD, MPD's Office of Professional Responsibility ("OPR"), the Office of Citizen Complaint Review ("OCCR"), the Mayor's Office, and the Office of Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia (the "City Counsel"). None of the parties involved in negotiating the MOA contemplated the Independent Monitor as a substitute for any of these other institutions. Instead, the parties to the MOA sought to create an entity that would work with them and review the roles of MPD and the City in implementing the specific provisions of the MOA.
In short, the MOA contemplated the appointment of an Independent Monitor who would balance both the specific requirements established by the MOA and the general responsibilities for overseeing the implementation of those requirements with the need to respect the limits built into the Independent Monitor's role.
Following a lengthy procurement process, the District of Columbia, MPD, and DOJ collectively selected a monitoring team led by Michael R. Bromwich, a partner with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP ("Fried Frank"). In addition to Mr. Bromwich and his colleagues, the monitoring team includes the international accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and several extraordinarily experienced and knowledgeable veterans of local policing. A brief summary of the key members of the monitoring team follows:
Mr. Bromwich is a partner at Fried Frank where he chairs the firm's Internal Investigations, Compliance, and Monitoring practice group. Prior to joining Fried Frank, he served as the Inspector General for the Department of Justice from 1994 through 1999, where he oversaw the activities of several federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the DEA, and the INS. Prior to that Mr. Bromwich served as associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel for Iran Contra and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Beaudreau is Fried Frank attorney practicing with the firm's Internal Investigations, Compliance, and Monitoring and Litigation groups. Mr. Beaudreau first joined the firm in 1997, and rejoined the firm in 2001 after a yearlong clerkship with the Honorable Jerome B. Friedman, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Ms. Wollenberg is a Fried Frank attorney practicing with the firm’s Litigation Department. She joined the firm in 2004. Ms. Wollenberg received her JD in 2004 from Cornell Law School and her BA (history/political science) from Bethany College.
Dr. Pollner is a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers and has practiced as a professional statistician in Washington, D.C. since 1980. Dr. Pollner's areas of expertise include, but are not limited to, the analysis of complex datasets using statistical modeling and computational techniques, sample design and evaluation, risk analysis, and time series analysis.
Mr. Brown is the retired Police Chief of Raleigh, North Carolina. He has twenty-nine years of law enforcement experience, including seven years as chief. Mr. Brown has served on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum.
Mr. Davis is a captain with the Oakland Police Department. He has served as SWAT Team leader, Criminal Investigations Commander, Area Commander, and Police Academy Director. His areas of expertise include racial profiling, use of force and police tactics, and training. Mr. Davis has developed national training programs in the area of police accountability, which have been presented in over fourteen states. He is also Senior Advisor to the Independent Monitor of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
Ms. Doherty was a superintendent in the Boston Police Department from 1992 to 2003, and completed a total of twenty-five years with the Department. Her roles over time included Superintendent of the Office of the Police Commissioner, Superintendent of the Bureau of Professional Development, Superintendent of the Bureau of Internal Investigations, and Deputy Superintendent of the Operations Division. A key contribution during Ms. Doherty’s tenure with the Boston Police Department was her development of an early warning system for detection of at-risk police officers. She received her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in 1979.
Mr. Nowicki is a senior law-enforcement professional whose career spans over thirty-five years of public service. Retiring as Chief of Police for Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina in 1999, Mr. Nowicki has also served as Chief of Police for Joliet, Illinois, Executive Director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, and twenty-six years with the Chicago Police Department, attaining the rank of Deputy Superintendent. Since retiring from Charlotte-Mecklenburg, he has concentrated his work on assisting police departments and DOJ in matters relating to managing police use of force.
While each member of the Independent Monitor's team plays a substantive role in monitoring the City's and MPD's compliance with the MOA, Mr. Bromwich personally bears the primary responsibility for carrying out the monitoring functions set forth in the MOA.