In Montgomery County, the DA took a case to the grand jury, accusing the sheriff of failing to forward a case to the DA in time for a grand jury to investigate a peace officer's alleged misconduct. The grand jury decided that the sheriff (and I guess any police chief) has no obligation to inform the DA of a case:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1709968

How does your county get the police to timely notify the DA of criminal cases when there isn't an arrest?

The only problem I see is where an officer uses the information about a crime to secure a bribe or is otherwise improperly influenced not to report the results of the investigation. I suppose most departments have the requirement that a second person review the evidence, and the decision not to act upon it, to try to ameliorate the problem. If the evidence is not considered sufficient by the investigating officer to warrant further action, is there really any reason to believe a prosecutor could convince a jury to the contrary? I see enough offense reports without having to chase down any missing ones. You could try to impose multi-layered review of each case, but I still think you are relying primarily on trust. Evidence is just too easily lost or covered up if that is what the officer wants-- whether you call it a discretionary decision or something sinister/criminal. What is your solution to hearing about the case, other than the gossip line?

And y'all thought the civil drones never looked at the criminal forum.

I believe the issue is one of recognition that principles of gravity apply to organizations, including law enforcement agencies. Put another way, in the words of a vivid old cliche, "a fish rots from the head down." If the upper echelons of the agency are playing on the same page as you are, then informal discussions about rectifying the reporting problem may be sufficient. On the other hand, sometimes the problem is institutional, rather than individual. Dealing with that brand of trouble implicates a decidedly difficult political cost-benefit analysis. Not that I have any first-hand knowledge of any such problems ....

I have explained to my police chiefs and Sheriff that failure to forward allegations of police misconduct to my office for posssible grand jury review will affect the credibility of their office and all law enforcement agencies in the county. They welcome an outside "decision maker" since it takes the burden off of them.

I agree with Martin on this. If you can't trust your different agencies, you've got a problem from the get-go. One thing though, if you've got crim. inv.s that work close with the SO and Police Dept.s then that information should be known to you through your own officers.
Hawk