State report recommends more changes for Sacramento police following Stephon Clark shooting
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Wednesday released a slew of new recommendations for the Sacramento Police Department to adopt following the 2018 police killing of Stephon Clark.
Becerra hopes the recommendations are also adopted by police departments across the state to reduce use-of-force cases, especially those in communities of color, he said.
“This is about being accountable and meeting the call for change,” Becerra said during a virtual press conference Wednesday before releasing the 104-page document.
The report includes the following recommendations for the Sacramento Police Department:
▪ Conduct a prompt and detailed inquiry and after-action assessment of officer conduct in response to the protests over the death of George Floyd and other incidents involving police violence against African-Americans, and report the results of these assessments to the community.
The department has not yet released how many officers are being investigated for use of force or whether any officers were suspended as a result of protests. Officers used batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, bean bag guns and other less-lethal weapons during the protests in late May and early June, resulting in at least one lawsuit.
▪ Prohibit officers from using a Taser on a fleeing suspect; limit Taser use to three, standard five-second cycles; and prohibit using the Taser in “drive stun” mode as a pain compliance technique.
▪ Make de-escalation an affirmative duty, and emphasize de-escalation techniques in all use-of-force training.
▪ Conduct a comprehensive study examining the racial disparities involving its stops, arrests and uses of force to identify causes of these disparities, and explore strategies for reducing disparities.
▪ Seek community input on the recruitment and hiring process in order to ensure that the department reflects the community’s values and policing priorities.
▪ Mandate that officers complete and submit statements detailing the facts and circumstances of each use of force to ensure that supervisors have all of the critical data necessary to analyze the incident, identify where improvement is needed and ensure accountability.
The report contains some stark racial findings in Sacramento police data.
For example, Black residents were involved in 43 percent of Sacramento police use-of-force cases in 2013 through 2018, although they made up 13 percent of Sacramento’s population in that period, Becerra said.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg raised concerns with that finding and others.
“There are still significant racial disparities in the use of force and who gets pulled over,” Steinberg said in a statement after the report was released. “Our policies requiring de-escalation before force is even considered must be articulated more clearly. And our diversity hiring goals and processes much be continually strengthened.”
In multiple incidents reviewed by the AG’s office, officers used force on subjects who failed to comply with orders but did not otherwise pose any discernible danger to responding officers or others, the report said.
Becerra and Steinberg praised Police Chief Daniel Hahn for asking the AG to investigate the department – a move he made shortly after he was named Sacramento’s first Black police chief.
“The Sacramento Police Department is always looking for ways to improve training and policies to ensure the safety of our community, officers, and professional staff,” Hahn said in a statement. “As these new recommendations are reviewed and implemented, our department is committed to transparency, just as we were with the Phase I recommendations.”
In January 2019, following Clark’s killing, the AG released Phase I of the report, a 97-page document containing recommendations for the department. The department has fully implemented all but six of them, it said Wednesday.
‘Find and bite’
The 2019 report recommended the department change its canine strategy to “find and bark” from “find and bite.” The new report Wednesday included that recommended change again. Becerra named it during the press conference as one of the most important recommendations.
“We should not be using our dogs as weapons when it’s not necessary,” Becerra said.
“Find and bite” means that nearly every successful apprehension of a suspect involving Sacramento police canines will end in the dog biting the subject, the report said. Between 2013 and 2018, the bites required medical attention nearly as often as Taser use.
However, whether police are going to implement that change is unclear. In a written response to the 2019 recommendations, the department wrote Wednesday that it had researched and considered the recommendation without implementation.
Ron Davis, partner at 21st Century Policing Solutions, said that while that recommendation is important to reduce bites, it is expensive and time-consuming because when the dogs cannot be retrained, they need to be replaced for $7,000 to $10,000 each.
The 2019 report also said the department should establish a multidisciplinary team to conduct both the criminal and administrative investigations of Level 3 Reportable Force Incidents. The department has not done that. In its response Wednesday, it said it would research implementing this recommendation but only for Level 1 investigations.
The release of the new recommendations comes amid national protests against police brutality sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. However, it was always part of the plan for the second report to be published, Becerra said.
In Sacramento, protests have been occurring since late May and are still ongoing. Many activists mention Stephon Clark, the unarmed Black man who police fatally shot in his grandmother’s backyard, when demanding that local officials reduce police funding and adopt major reforms. Like Becerra, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert did not charge the two officers who killed Clark, Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet. They remain on active duty.
Following the shooting, the city adopted new body camera release requirements and a new foot patrol policy, among other changes. Last week, the council voted to hire an inspector general for police oversight and took a step toward an overhaul of the 911 system that would end police response to some noncriminal calls over two years.
Activists have said those changes do not go far enough. Becerra urged them to keep peacefully protesting and demanding change.
“This is not a report meant to be printed and put on a shelf,” Becerra said.
The City Council, currently on summer recess, will discuss the report at a meeting in August or September, Steinberg said.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 12:06 PM.
