Proposed 2020 Measure Addresses SDPD's Oversight Problem
Activists with San Diegans for Justice are hopeful a ballot measure letting voters weigh in on the issue of police oversight will make it through a Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee hearing on Wednesday.
A new Commission on Police Practices is what’s being proposed, replacing the city’s existing Community Review Board on Police Practices. At stake is the level of authority and independence granted to inquiries about police misconduct.
The language on the measure under consideration was crafted by San Diego’s Women Occupy, and is similar to a 2018 ballot proposal that died because of procedural hurdles.
This is just the latest chapter in an ongoing struggle at the ballot box, dating back to 1988 when voters were asked to choose between two plans for police oversight boards. The current review board model won out over creation of an independent investigative agency.
The police union, which often acts as a surrogate for management in such matters, campaigned against the independent agency proposal, and got what they wanted by about 800 votes.
I would argue that what the SDPD wanted was as little outside interference as possible. The insular perspective of many law enforcement officers about how they do their jobs creates a breeding ground for mistrust-- cops don’t trust outsiders, and segments of the populace most often interacting with police don’t trust them in return.
The fact is that SDPD officers work for us. There are real issues with racism and misogyny that get in the way of those city employees doing their job of enforcing the law in a fair and impartial manner. We’re not talking about a few ‘bad apples;’ there are institutional problems with a historical basis.
After years of neglect and inadequate funding, voters in 2016 (by an 83% margin) gave the City Council a role in oversight of the agency. Measure G called for renaming the Citizens’ Review Board on Police Practices by changing the word “citizens” to “community,” and mandating reviews of all officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.
Measure G was a watered down version of what Women Occupy and other groups had been asking for.
From a December 2018 article in the Union-Tribune:
The San Diego County Grand Jury has also taken a close look at the Community Review Board. In May, the group made several suggestions, including urging the city consider endowing the board with power to conduct its own investigations.
The Grand Jury said in its report that the community does not see the board as independent from the police.
City authorities disagreed, saying the Police Department does not have the “authority or the power to intervene in the activities of the board.”
The ballot measure currently under consideration would shutter the existing review board. What we have now could best be described as a collaborative effort, with the existing board solely dependent on the cooperation of the agency they are supposed to be providing oversight on.
The newly created independent Commission on Police Practices (CPP) would have its own legal counsel and subpoena power to conduct unconstrained investigations, which the current board does not.
Its duties would include collecting, reviewing and evaluating all complaints made against officers of the SDPD, along with reviewing conclusions of internal investigations of police misconduct. The scope of its oversight would extend to allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct, physical assault, or domestic violence by city police officers.
Additionally, the CPP would be tasked with evaluating the SDPD’s compliance with federal, state, and local reporting laws and requirements. The group would submit quarterly reports to the Mayor and City Council regarding its activities, while not disclosing any information required to be kept confidential by federal or state law.
The good news about this latest proposal is that it’s going before a committee chaired by Councilwoman Monica Montgomery, who campaigned on the need for an oversight body capable of conducting its own investigations, rather than relying on SDPD’s internal affairs.
The bad news is that, once again, the police union stands opposed.
From Voice of San Diego:
“Over the past few years, we’ve worked with the advocates of this ballot measure on practical ways we could bring more transparency and accountability to police oversight in San Diego,” said Jack Schaeffer, president of the SDPOA. “Unfortunately, these reforms were rejected and they have put forth a measure that is poorly written, overly vague and ineffective at achieving its underlying goal of greater accountability. We believe this measure will ultimately provide reduced police oversight at far greater cost to the city.”
The union doesn’t oppose [City Attorney Mara] Elliott’s proposal to give the review board its own legal counsel.
Eva Posner, a spokeswoman for the Committee of San Diegans for Justice, a group supporting the more expansive reform measure, said both proposals seek to increase community trust in law enforcement, but that only one ballot measure should go forward.
“Conflicting measures would run counter to this goal, so I am confident the City Council will reconcile the measures by ensuring the city attorney’s desire for an independent counsel are represented well in the community’s proposal to form a new Commission on Police Practices,” she wrote in a statement. “We are looking forward to seeing a ballot measure that will be both fair and balanced.”
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The ballot measure to create a new Commission on Police Practices, submitted by Women Occupy San Diego, will be heard at Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee on September 18th.
When: Wednesday, September 18, 2019 at 9:00a
Where: City Hall, 202 W C St, San Diego on the 12th floor
For More Information: San Diegans for Justice
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THIS:
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1173987961781837829?s=20
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RIP Cokie Roberts. You made the world a little more understandable.
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