Sacramento created a position to oversee police. Dwight White explains why he took the job
Last summer, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg expressed his desire for the city to start a position that would oversee the Sacramento Police Department’s use-of-force incidents resulting in serious injury or death.
Last week, Steinberg’s office announced the hiring of Dwight White as the city’s newly created inspector general.
The job — created in the wake of racial unrest last summer after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd — is intended to bring greater transparency to a local police department that has faced its own reckoning in the years following the high-profile killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed Black man.
White will assume the position of an independent investigator where he will review allegations of police misconduct in use-of-force and sexual assault cases.
Prior to accepting the position in Sacramento, White worked as an investigator in Chicago for the city’s independent Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which reviews police shootings and other misconduct cases. The agency has recently entered the national spotlight, as it currently investigates the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. COPA released videos and other materials from the shooting on Thursday. (This interview was conducted prior to the release of footage.)
White, who was also a member of the Chicago Police Department’s Police Cadet Program for more than three years, spoke with The Sacramento Bee to discuss his background and outlook on the job. He also explained how his time in Chicago has prepared him for the work he’ll do in Sacramento.
Note: The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Who is Dwight White? Tell us about yourself.
A: I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. I did my undergraduate and then law school there. I wanted to help people, that’s the original reason I wanted to go to law school. I practiced law for a few years when Chicago had its own really big police involved shooting. It was Laquan McDonald, that happened in 2014 but the world didn’t know about it until 2015. Around that time, Chicago wanted to review police matters. They wanted to take it out of the police department and they wanted their own civilian independent police oversight board to actually investigate the police-involved shootings, violations, domestic violence cases and things of that nature. So they created the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Q: The inspector general is ostensibly supposed to be impartial — meaning, not a representative of the police department. Can you talk about what transparency would mean for you in the new role?
A: Sure. I’m not a member of the police department. I’ve never been a member of any police department. To me transparency is a big deal and it’s the reason why I took this job. I’ll have to take my investigations back to court and the findings will be made public to the people, made public to the (police) commissioner, and to the city manager. The city of Sacramento can comment, view it, ask questions, and grill me on why I ruled the way I ruled, what the conclusions were, and the entire investigative process. The city manager will still have the sole power to fire an officer or suspend an officer.
Q: Your hiring announcement comes just days after a police officer killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, near Minneapolis. The police officer there has now been charged with second-degree manslaughter. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing protests against police brutality that are calling for and driving social justice reform?
A: I think those movements are important. I think a lot of times they bring issues to the table. I’m not too much of a political figure. My job is to be impartial. My job is to make my decision based on the facts available. As the inspector general, I do want to at least talk to or sit down and meet with some of the Black Lives Matter leaders in this area and also a lot of the civil rights leaders in this area to get their historical perspective of what’s going on and see if they have any issues that they see in their community. I’m also in connection with the Office of Public Safety and Accountability.
Q: What type of things did you hear about Sacramento, prior to accepting the position?
A: As far as police accountability, I’m an outsider. I think that outsiders are good, it gives me an outsider’s perspective. I have to be honest with you, I haven’t heard too much about it outside of the Stephon Clark situation. So trying to understand the nuances of the community and the police is definitely one of the reasons why I’m doing these interviews and want to go out and reach out to community members and get their perspective. Because I am an outsider and I don’t know too much, that’s why I want to assess the layout and do my own interviews with people and get their voice.
Q: What can the city of Sacramento expect from you as the new inspector general and what’s your message to Sacramentans?
A: You can expect an extremely detailed and extremely thorough investigation into these matters. I promise to be impartial. I promise to look at all the facts and issues. I think my report will be just that, extremely detailed. I base my findings on the evidence and my analysis will be based in law and the facts of the case.
Thank you for your time, Mr. White, and congratulations on your new position.
