California’s Black police chiefs want lawmakers to help speed process for firing bad cops
More than a dozen California Black law enforcement leaders gathered Friday at the state Capitol in Sacramento to discuss the role law enforcement plays in historical racial inequality and offered suggestions for better policing in the wake of George Floyd’s killing — calling on state lawmakers to change laws so they can immediately fire officers for egregious behavior, with appeals only after the fact.
Peaceful protests throughout the country have displayed a sheer anger and sadness over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Four police officers have been arrested and charged in Floyd’s death.
The protests have produced a growing number of calls to overhaul police training and tactics to reduce excessive uses of force. There’s also a movement to defund police departments nationally; including a Sacramento effort geared toward reallocating police money to “support an inclusive economic and youth-centered agenda.”
Eight chiefs from cities including San Francisco, as well as several assistant chiefs, told reporters while they support officers’ rights to due process lawmakers needed to act — California has some of the nation’s toughest police disciplinary rules and, until last year, had the nation’s most secretive police privacy law.
Police training changes
Piedmont Police Chief Jeremy Bowers said Floyd’s killing at the hands of four officers stands as a call to action. He said it requires law enforcement to acknowledge the killing, “not just as a singular event, but as the latest example of a historical pattern of misuse of justice and larger issues of inequity in our country.”
The 13 police chiefs stood together inside the Capitol building, speaking as one group offering their suggestions for long lasting change in police work.
The Piedmont chief listed those suggestions, while emphasizing that policies and training are the framework for police work but police culture is the foundation. And he said a culture devoid of an understanding of the impact of bias will keep up police in “a negative feedback loop.”
The group said the training needed for police officers is:
▪ Explicit and implicit bias and its impacts on policing.
▪ De-escalation and duty to do no further harm after officer arrives at scene.
▪ Historical implications of race and policing.
▪ Contemporary, relational and equity issues of race, society and policing.
“We are calling for increased training from the academy through the rest of a law enforcement officer’s career,” Bowers said. “Not just a one-and-done, check-the-box training.”
As African American chiefs, Bowers said, “we understand the significance of this moment and the need for more than mere words but experiential change.”
Historical roots of racial division
Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said there are well over 330 municipal police chiefs in California, and 16 of them are Black men and women with more than 250 years of combined law enforcement experience. He said it had not gone unnoticed that Friday’s news conference was held on Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
“We are standing before you today are proof that we have come a long way since 1865, and unrest in our country is proof that we have a long way to go,” Hahn said.
Hahn said this group of police chiefs fully recognize the role law enforcement has played in the historical roots of racial division in the United States, roots of division that go back to the country’s inception.
The Sacramento police chief said law enforcement has often been used to enforce injustices, and police have the responsibility to help heal communities due to the “immense power” law enforcement officials possess: the power to take someone’s freedom or life.
“Let me also state that we are unequivocally dedicated to real change that will ensure that all segments of our community feel value, respected and treated fairly by law enforcement and society in general,” Hahn said. “The roots of what ails us were formed long ago and linger to this day.”
National database for fired cops
Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen said the group believes every peace officer has due process rights. But some California cops enjoy extraordinary due process rights as a result of collective bargaining and meet and confer agreements.
“Uncommon rights and lengthy arbitration and appeals make it extremely difficult to terminate an employee who exhibits abhorrent behavior,” Pridgen said. “Police chiefs should be provided the latitude and statute to summarily terminate an officer for an egregious use of excessive force that violates policy or meets the elements of a criminal statute.”
The Seaside police chief said officers would be afforded due process through a formal appeal and full evidentiary hearing after discipline. He said transparency fosters trust, but that trust is underminded when police agencies are prohibited from sharing disciplinary results with the public.
Senate Bill 1421, a police transparency law, went into effect last year and requires law enforcement agencies to release records involving cases of dishonesty, sexual assault or uses of force that killed or seriously injured citizens.
Pridgen said SB 1421 only allows for a release of discipline related to four narrow outcomes.
“At a minimum, to buoy trust, departments should be empowered to divulge all discipline resulting in termination once administrative appeals have been exhausted,” Pridgen said. “A national database listing names of terminated officers would greatly benefit our profession.”
Defunding police is ‘dangerous’
Napa Police Chief Robert Plummer said Floyd’s death is inexcusable, but defunding police departments is not the answer. He said cities need to look at reallocating municipal funds to support agencies to handle issues that are usually not police-related, such as calls to address homelessness, drug abuse or mental health problems, which go to police first.
“Defunding police departments will have dangerous consequences and will harm communities that need police services,” Plummer said.
The Napa police chief said they need to ensure officers do a better job of policing equitably in minority communities by building trust. By ensuring officers spend more time in these communities, he said the community has more control in keeping their neighborhoods safe.
“We must be quick to listen and slow to speak,” Plummer said. “And really pay attention to a deeper level of what is occurring in those communities.”
Assemblyman wants ‘smart change’
Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, a former Sacramento County Sheriff’s captain, hosted Friday’s news conference, which included chiefs from Piedmont, Guadalupe (Santa Barbara), Tracy and Hayward and ranking officers from Oakland, Fremont and Alameda County. He said this is a timely and important issue that is also a turning point as the call for change increases and more people want to be involved.
“And I believe this group of men and women are uniquely qualified to address this issue,” Cooper said. “First of all, they’re law enforcement leaders, and they’re also Black men and women.”
Cooper said these police chiefs have the firsthand experience to help provide long-lasting change.
“And there’s a need for change, we want change. But we want to have smart change,” Cooper said.
The assemblyman also seemed to criticize other lawmakers and businesses who recently have called for police reform or donated money to causes that promote racial equality.
He said he welcomes this new support, but he wondered why the waited until now to help impoverished communities dealing with underperforming schools, no banks, no supermarkets, no sports programs or arts programs for kids.
“But for those underserved neighborhoods, the money has never been there, ever,” Cooper said. “So, you’re going to put a drop in the bucket now? Are you really going to commit and put that money in for those kids?”
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 4:34 PM.
