Sacramento must fix broken trust between police and community — or replace leaders

Many Sacramento residents don’t trust the police department — and most Sacramento police officers don’t trust the community. These revelations, courtesy of the Sacramento Police Department’s 2019 Community and Officer Surveys, reveal deep divisions and distrust between our police and the communities they are sworn to serve.

The surveys reveal that less than half of Sacramento’s adults fully — or even mostly — trust Sacramento police. Even more alarming, however, is that the police officers surveyed reported drastically low levels of trust in the public. Some 83% of officers reported having “some,” “not much” or “hardly any trust” in residents living in the areas they patrol.

Not a single one of the 665 Sacramento police officers surveyed said they had complete trust in residents in their area.

This extreme level of reciprocal distrust between law enforcement and the community reveals deep-seated dysfunction in Sacramento’s police department that requires urgent reform. If trust is critical to effective policing, as the US Department of Justice says it is, how can Sacramento’s police department possibly be effective?

Only 50% of Sacramento residents who responded to the survey said they approve of the work being done by the police department, while nearly 20% disapprove and another 30% are undecided. Whether you approve or disapprove of the police appears to depend on the color of your skin.

The surveys reveal a stark racial divide in the community. Seven in 10 Black residents say police use more force than necessary while more than six in 10 white residents believe police use only necessary amounts of force.

The worst outcomes of the survey are centered in District 2, which is largely lower income neighborhoods of color.

Police who work in District 2 neighborhoods like Del Paso Heights and Strawberry Manor reported the lowest levels of job satisfaction and trust in the community, as well as the highest levels of concern for their own physical safety. Perhaps not surprisingly, District 2 residents reported some of the lowest levels of trust in police officers.

The Sacramento police surveys paid close attention to the “Ferguson effect” — the theory that high-profile officer-involved fatalities negatively affect citizen trust and cooperation with police.

In District 2, for example, a majority of Black and Latino residents say people in their neighborhoods avoid calling the Sacramento police out of fear that a responding officer might cause harm.

A Sacramento police spokesperson declined to comment on the findings in District 2, saying only that it plans to conduct the surveys annually to track its “progress in meeting the needs of the community.”

The two recent surveys were conducted after the Sacramento police killing of Stephon Clark in March of 2018. After a summer of mass protests and unrest following the police killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and other persons of color, it will come as no surprise if the next survey finds abysmally lower levels of trust in and willingness to cooperate with police.

Mervin Brookins, the co-founder of Brother to Brother, a Del Paso Heights-based non-profit mentorship program that partners ex-gang members and formerly incarcerated people with high-risk youth, has higher hopes for the next survey.

“We’ve been working to build community and we’ve been successful at doing so,” Brookins said. “I believe if the survey were taken today, that would be echoed.”

It’s a nice sentiment, but it will take more than hope to fix the broken trust between Sacramento’s communities and its police department. Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn, City Manager Howard Chan and the entire City Council must act with urgency to address the issue.

The City Council took an important first step by approving Councilman Jay Schenirer’s resolution to redefine public safety in Sacramento using input from over 20 community-based organizations. Now, Sacramento’s leaders must go further and seek to fundamentally transform how our police interact with our communities.

A slate of new voices on the Sacramento City Council can help push the issue. This year, Sacramento voters ousted two incumbents for the first time in a decade, which will put newcomers Katie Valenzuela and Sean Loloee on the City Council.

Mai Vang — an outspoken progressive — will also join the council after beating Les Simmons in the campaign to replace District 8 Councilman Larry Carr, who just retired.

All three ran as agents of change, and the Sacramento Police Department is a good place for them to dig in. Loloee, who represents District 2, has a special responsibility to address the issue, since his constituents appear to be getting the worst deal from Sacramento police.

Darrell Roberts, leader of the Del Paso Heights-based Roberts Family Development Center, said Loloee is stepping into a complex situation.

“That’s going to be the challenge — to be the leader that picks up the phone, calls and introduces himself to those who supported him and those who didn’t support him,” Roberts said of Loloee. “I look forward to working with him.”

But the real responsibility falls on City Manager Howard Chan and Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn. They must lay out a strategy to build trust and repair the relationships between Sacramento police and communities of color.

If these men can’t figure out a way to address the problem, Sacramento’s new councilmembers should spearhead a campaign to replace them with leaders who can.

This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 5:00 AM.