7/6/09
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As Ive been investigating the different models of civilian oversight, I ended up following the movement to get civilian oversigtht of the BART police. That effort is facing some of the same opposition as those who want good civilian ovesight of the Oakland Police Department--resistant police union, unenthusiastic public officials who tend to side with the police. Arguably, its more contentious that the OPD situation, because it was BART police that killed Oscar Grant, and they have no civilian oversight at all right now.
So I produced a report for KALW's Crosscurrents about the BART police oversight issue, you can hear it by clicking here.
Posted by Andrew Stelzer on 07/06/09 6/29/09
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In case you missed it our reporter Andrew produced a shorter piece for the East Bay Express. It is tangential to the main article he is doing for Spot.Us - but obviously related. The EB Express chipped in $50 towards our greater goal to help out!!! Thanks EB Express!!!!!
Here's the article
Posted by Spot. Us on 06/29/09 6/19/09
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You can listen to the full interview here:
As an important Public Safety Committee is coming next Tuesday, I wrote an article for the East Bay Express about the potential fate of Oakland's Civilian Police Review Board. You can check in out here:
One person who's planning to be at the June 23rd meeting, is Marcel Diallo, who I recently interviewed for my Spot artiicle. He was handcuffed and put in a police cruiser for an hour in the middle of the night on Memorial Day, for what he says was no reason. The incident got him upset, and so now hes joined the fight to try and get an effective civilian review board of the OPD. I Interviewed him recently--click here for a segment of that interview where he describes what happened.
Posted by Andrew Stelzer on 06/19/09 6/17/09
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Being on this beat, I ended up on June 15th at a meeting of the BART Police department sobcommittee, who are talking about developing a citizens review committee for BART police. Its a really important process, and it's in direct reaction to the killing of Oscar Grant.
Audio of the entire 3 hour meeting can be found here: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/17/18602165.php
Here are some really basic notes.
BART Police Department (BPD) Review Sub-committee Meeting on Civilian Oversight
June 15, 2009.
Here's a basic summary of the meeting, broken down by committee member. By reading them all, you should get an idea of what happened:
The members of the subcommittee are: Reginald Lyles, consultant with the BPD Review Committee, 20-year Berkeley police officer, and Deacon at Allen Temple Baptist; Donald Casimere, Confidential Investigative and Appeals Officer with the Richmond Police Commission and former Richmond police officer; BART Board Director Tom Radulovich, BPD Review Committee member; BART Board Director Lynette Sweet, BPD Review Committee member; Reverend Daniel Buford, AllenTemple Baptist; Jesse Sekhon, President BART Police Officers' Association; Gregg Savage, President BART Police Managers' Association;(was not physically present but listening in on conference call) and Minister Keith Mohammad, Nation of Islam, who was not present for this meeting.
Lyles--said the key result of this process has to be inspiring confidence in the people who the BART police serve. With this in mind, he submitted to the committee a ‘hybrid’ model—something of a compromise between the 2 options that were being considered at the previous meeting.
Sekhon-- questioned why discipline was becoming central to the discussion. He said he thought that that point of having civilian oversight was to make the department transparent and find out the truth, not to have civilians involved in the discipline process.
Lyles--responded that the police union would have to give up something. This committee was not meeting in a vacuum, but because of ‘an incident’ (referring the killing of Oscar Grant).
Casimere—said he believes the BART police chief should be kept out of the discipline process. He said he thinks that the committee needed to hear from the police chief before coming to a decision on what form of oversight to create.
Dugger--objected to part of the hybrid proposal that allowed up to one year for an investigation and resolution to conclude. (Under California state law, discipline must be handed out within 1 year).
BART Police Chief Gary Gee was then asked for his input; he said he had a problem with all the plans being considered today, because he questions citizens’ ability to judge an officers intentions.
Then BART Board of Directors member Joel Keller, who is not a member of this committee, came up and presented his own proposal, building on the hybrid model being discussed. (See attachment with headline ‘REVISED DISCIPLINARY PROCESS’ also embeded at bottom of this post).
The basic complaint process would be as follows:
1. Police auditor investigates complaints filed by citizens.
2. Auditors findings, including recommendations for action, or dismissal, submitted to Citizen Board for review. If Citizens Board agrees, report is submitted to Chief of police who will carry out recommended action.
3. If chief disagrees with recommendation, he can appeal to BART General Manager
4. If Citizens Board disagrees with Auditors findings, they try to reach a consensus with auditor. If they can’t reach agreement, they appeal to Chief of police. Chief decides.
5. If Citizens Board disagrees with Chief’s decision, they appeal to the BART general manager. GM then decides and Chief carries out decision.
6. If Citizens board disagrees with General manager with a 2/3 super majority, they appeal to BART Board of Directors. BART Board of directors requires a 2/3 super majority for approval. Boards decision is final and will be carried out by chief.
Quinton Mecke from State Legislator Tom Ammiano’s office, commented that requiring a supermajority of BART Board members to approve a discipline recommendation was too much. Significant discussion followed on the 2/3rds supermajority issue.
It was pointed out by Keller and Sekhon that under California state law, public safety officers have a property right to their job, and so a high standard must be met to fire them. They wanted the 2/3rds supermajority.
Sweet and Radulovich were the only 2 committee members that seemed resistant to the supermajority, and Sweet soon agreed to it. In the end, the committee took a straw poll, and voted 6-1 to go ahead with the proposal submitted by Keller, with a few minor changes. Radulovich voted no, and Casimere had already left by the time of the vote.
Sweet-started discussing possible make up of the citizens oversight committee. She suggested 1 member would be appointed by each BART Board member, 1 would be appointed by the Police Department, and 1 would be appointed by the BPD review sub-committee.
Keller’s proposal called for only 120 days for the auditor and/or citizen’s board to conclude their process, or else it would be turned over to the chief. The committee thought this was too short, and changed it to 180 days. There were a few other minor changes to Keller’s proposal, but the committee as a whole supported it.
The committee will be meeting Wednesday June 17th at 10AM. At that meeting, they will discuss several issues, including:
--When to schedule a public meeting to get feedback on the proposal for civilian oversight.
--Who will hire the independent auditor who will do the investigations of citizens’ complaints? What role will the oversight committee have in that hiring process?
--Who will choose the committee?
--What is the role of the citizens committee in hiring and disciplining the BART police chief, since he himself is one of the potential levels of appeal?
Posted by Andrew Stelzer on 06/17/09 5/29/09
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The story of Marcel Diallo who was....
"arrested and detained with unnecessary force right in front of my house at 924 Pine Street by a Sargent D. Ming, badge number 10825 for about an hour. He called four additional squad cars to back him up."
This is an interesting anecdote and the comments that follow it up are also revealing.
Posted by Spot. Us on 05/29/09 5/26/09
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i went to the "Confronting the Police State and Imagining Alterntives. A Bay Area Strategy DIscussion" meeting in Oakland on Friday night. Just some brief notes:
-This meeting turned out not to be directly related to the story Im working on, but it was good to be there and hear some of the regional people working on police issues. Most of the discussion centered around how to reduce the amount of police presence in our communities. It was pretty much a given amongst the panelists that police brutality is rampant and can only be stopped when communities develop alternative means to settle disputes and police their own neighborhoods, instead of relying on officers. Many of them are working on Copwatch programs, and neighborhod patrols--pretty much all projects outside the government systems.
Several commented that until capitalism is smashed, or until class inequality is eliminated, police abuse will continue.
At the end of the presentation, I asked the panelists what they thought about civilian review processes and bodies. A few people responded. In general they thought that while the idea is good and a worthwhile step, in practice, the effectiveness of these bodies is limited, and that the massive amount of community organizing and energy needed to get a civilian review board could be better used doing grassroots work outside the system.
I'll try to post audio soon, so you can listen to the panel yourselves.
Posted by Andrew Stelzer on 05/26/09 5/26/09
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The city of Oakland Public Safety Commitee (PSC) will be meeting tonight (Tuesday, 5/26) at 5:30pm. The last item on their agenda is to discuss a CPRB proposal to 'civilianize' the Oakland Police Department's Internal Affairs department. Having this civilianization happen is the focus right now of those pushing for an effective CPRB, because it would give the citizens much fuller responsibility of investigating complaints about police.
Last week, I interviewed Rashidah Grinage, the director of PUEBLO (People United for a Better Oakland), a group thats been working on police accontability in Oakland for more than a decade. She made it clear that getting the PSC to approve this proposal, and then getting the city counci to properly fund it, are crucial, and they both have to happen before the end of June, when the 2009-2011 city budget is passed.
You can stream the May 26th PSC meeting here:
http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/streaming-video/city-council-new.cfm
Or watch the video later here:
http://clerkwebsvr1.oaklandnet.com/calendar/search.aspx
As I said, its the last item on the agenda. The meeting is scheduled to go from 5:30-7pm but actual timing can be unpredictable.
Posted by Andrew Stelzer on 05/26/09 5/26/09
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Did anyone attend this meeting? What was discussed? How did it go?
"CONFRONTING THE POLICE STATE AND IMAGINING ALTERNATIVES
A BAY AREA STRATEGY DISCUSSION
http://friendlyfirecollective.info
Friday May 22nd
7pm
AK Press Warehouse
674-A 23rd St., Oakland
Join the Friendly Fire Collective for an open strategy discussion on organizing against police power in the Bay Area.This event will feature a panel discussion of organizers from police accountability groups around the Bay, including San Francisco, the East Bay, San Jose, Sonoma County, and Watsonville. There will be an open discussion of current campaigns, examining strategies for fighting police violence and enhancing response capacity, and ultimately building community self-determination.
What are the specific issues involving law enforcement that we see affecting our communities? What steps have we taken to address these? What is working and what isn’t? After an incident of police violence has occurred, what can we do collectively to respond to this type of assault? How do we take the power away from law enforcement and reconcentrate it in the hands of community members? And how can we look beyond state policing to a new type of community policing based on accountability to ourselves and our peers, not corrupt and draconian laws? It is hoped that from open and honest conversations around these topics networks can be built and effective strategy developed."
Posted by Kara Andrade on 05/26/09 5/22/09
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http://friendlyfirecollective.info/
Heres a meeting Ill be going to Friday night to hear some local and regional ideas about police accountability.
CONFRONTING THE POLICE STATE AND IMAGINING ALTERNATIVES
A BAY AREA STRATEGY DISCUSSION
Friday May 22nd
7pm
AK Press Warehouse
674-A 23rd St., Oakland
Join the Friendly Fire Collective for an open strategy discussion on organizing against police power in the Bay Area.This event will feature a panel discussion of organizers from police accountability groups around the Bay, including San Francisco, the East Bay, San Jose, Sonoma County, and Watsonville. There will be an open discussion of current campaigns, examining strategies for fighting police violence and enhancing response capacity, and ultimately building community self-determination.
What are the specific issues involving law enforcement that we see affecting our communities? What steps have we taken to address these? What is working and what isn’t? After an incident of police violence has occurred, what can we do collectively to respond to this type of assault? How do we take the power away from law enforcement and reconcentrate it in the hands of community members? And how can we look beyond state policing to a new type of community policing based on accountability to ourselves and our peers, not corrupt and draconian laws? It is hoped that from open and honest conversations around these topics networks can be built and effective strategy developed.
Posted by Andrew Stelzer on 05/22/09 5/12/09
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So much happens behind the scenes at Spot.us that we only think of blogging about it AFTER the fact and many times only if we get to it, which has been quite difficult in the past few weeks. So, in the spirit of blogging things as they happen, I am hoping that if folks are interested in our most recent story,”
Civilian Oversight of Police in Oakland, ” in particular if you want to learn more about this review board process go to this meeting:
Citizens’ Police Review Board
Thursday May 14, 2009
6:15 pm – 7:15 pm
(This event repeats every month on the second Thursday.)
Location: City Hall Council Chambers or Hearing Room 1
Notes:
The Citizens Police Review Board reviews citizen complaints against Oakland Police Department personnel. They meet at City Hall, either in the council chambers (when they meet as a full board), or in hearing room 1 (when they meet as 3 member panel). To confirm dates, check whether the full board or the 3 member panel is meeting, or review the agenda, go to http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/citizens/homepage.html.
Posted by Spot. Us on 05/12/09
