After reviewing statements of those involved, a group of Salt Lake City citizens known as the Civilian Review Board thought the officer had misled them about whether he stopped a woman with a broken tail light and then told her to undress in the back of his squad car - perhaps ordering her to zip her pants before another officer arrived to see what was happening.

It's unclear whether the officer was disciplined following the board's 2005 decision. Then-Police Chief Rick Dinse overruled some of their findings, as Salt Lake City police chiefs did in about one-fifth of all discipline charges from 2003 through 2006, according to board statistics.

Former board members say watching some misbehaving police officers go with little or no punishment was one reason for a revolt that ground the board to a standstill last year. This week, the review board met for the first time in 11 months and is trying to reconstitute with new members and a new investigator.

Mayor Ralph Becker, who called the board a guardian for the Bill of Rights and public confidence in the police, must still appoint five of the board's 14 seats. Police Chief Chris Burbank is left to deal with a key concern cited by former board members: that their findings were dismissed without sufficient explanation.

Former board members said a lack of information from the chiefs and the department led them to believe discipline was applied unequally.

"In many cases we felt like the punishment did not fit the crimes," said former member Nafitalai Unga Kioa.

Former member Dan Levin acknowledged officers were disciplined. The problem, he said: "It's that some people are getting less disciplined than they should be."

Burbank and Dinse said Friday they agreed with the board most of the time and even punished some officers when the board did not recommend it. But they also said they overruled the board's recommendations in some cases because there was not enough evidence.

The review board "gave due consideration," Dinse said. "I don't say that they were lacking in doing their task, but I think they did not always perceive from the eyes of people out at the scene."

Burbank said in recent years the board operated without enough information because its investigator was not providing it with all of the police reports and witness statements. The chief said at Wednesday's meeting the board is "vitally important to how this [police] department does business." Burbank told them he relies on the board's judgement and will give it full access to police materials.

The Salt Lake Tribune this month obtained three case files where Dinse overruled the board. Complainants, witnesses, and accused officers were not named in the documents. Dinse's rulings in the police officer accused of having a woman strip in the back of his car was one case that created widespread dissatisfaction among the review board, former members said this week.

The case began in the early hours of Aug. 27, 2005, when an officer with two years of experience pulled over a car with a broken taillight without reporting the stop over his radio. The officer patted down the woman, then wanted to ensure she was not hiding anything in her bra, according to the woman's statements later. The woman pulled her bra away from her body and shook her chest.

Then, the woman told investigators, the officer said: "You can hide stuff pretty good in there. Do you mind if I check?"

The officer felt inside her bra, the woman said, but did not find any weapons or contraband. A computer query revealed the woman had outstanding warrants for her arrest and a suspended license. The woman said the officer then claimed he could smell alcohol on her and that gave him the right to search her.

"Can you get in my back seat and show me that you don't have anything hiding inside of you?" the officer reportedly asked. The woman later told investigators she was afraid disputing with the officer would give him reason to take her to jail. The officer had her enter his squad car and pull down her pants and underwear, she said. The officer shined his flashlight inside the car and watched.

When a passing police officer stopped to check on his colleague, the first officer told the woman to zip up, she told investigators. The officers let the woman leave without any citations, but when she arrived home she phoned the police department to report what happened.

When questioned by investigators, the officer claimed he only lightly frisked the woman to search for weapons. In the backseat of the car, the officer described, the woman with no prompting unbuttoned her pants and reached inside her waistband to show that she was not hiding anything.

The review board issued a finding that the officer committed four conduct violations: not reporting his status to the police radio dispatcher, violated policy on searching prisoners by not requesting a female officer for the search, conducted a search which violated the driver's Fourth Amendment rights and being less than truthful with investigators.

Dinse dismissed the finding of untruthfulness, saying the perceptions of what occurred might differ. He also dismissed the finding of an unlawful search, saying civil rights complaints were not in the board's purview.

Dinse originally wrote to the board saying he was upholding the findings of failure to report status and violating the search policy and was imposing a 20-hour suspension without pay. But in a follow-up letter two weeks later, Dinse said the time period to impose discipline had expired and he could not take action against the officer. It's not clear from the documents if the officer served the 20-hour suspension.

To the review board, it seemed the officer had gotten away with fondling a woman then making her strip in his car, said former board member Antje F. Curry.

"We were...stunned," Curry said.

Dinse, who retired in early 2006 and was succeeded by Burbank, on Friday maintained there was not enough evidence to determine the officer was untruthful and there were inconsistencies in the woman's story.

"I took it very seriously," Dinse said of the case.

Dinse overruled the board recommendation on another untruthfulness allegation from 2005. In that case, an officer was accused of lying about how she disposed of a marijuana pipe. He let stand other allegations against the officer. Also in 2005, Dinse disagreed with the board on whether an officer used excessive force when he grabbed a woman by the arm at a house party.

Both Dinse and Burbank said, in general, they overruled the board only when he felt the facts did not support the charge.

Curry said the board continued to be overruled when Burbank became chief in 2006 and it became a standing concern with board members. There also was a feeling Burbank, too, was not thoroughly explaining his decisions, she said.

Burbank on Friday agreed he did not always explain his decisions in his correspondence with the board, but said he always was prepared to meet and discuss those decisions in person. The board did not know that, Burbank said, because its investigator, Ty McCartney, did not relay that to the members.

Burbank said he thinks Salt Lake City's review board works well but there will be disagreements.

"I would worry if every single time the board and I agree," Burbank said.

McCartney, a former Sandy police officer and state legislator, also drew the ire of Salt Lake City's police union for what it felt was a bias against police officers. Levin and Curry have defended McCartney and said they had enough information to issue their findings.

Conflict between the board and the city peaked this April when someone disclosed to The Tribune that the board had sustained an allegation of excessive force used against a Korean War veteran. The information would have been announced publicly a few days later, but the city investigated who leaked the news early.

The source of the leak was never uncovered, but the suspicion angered board members and spurred enough resignations, including those of Levin, Curry and Kioa to prevent a quorum.

Some replacements have been found and the board met again Wednesday for the first time in 11 months. Board Vice Chair Claudia Hope O'Grady said she hoped Burbank's commitment to giving the board access to all the police material would allow the board and Burbank to more often agree on discipline.

Dinse said he understood the principal of having civilian oversight of the police department, but on serious cases he relied on his own determination of the facts.

"Reasonable people are going to disagree," Dinse said.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

Oversight force

Civilian review boards have been installed in Salt Lake City and other cities across the country as a way of maintaining oversight of police forces.

In Salt Lake City, the board takes complaints from citizens as well as from police officers themselves and investigate allegations of excessive force and serious misconduct. Its decisions have always been nonbinding with higher authority resting with the chief of police.