PAPD analyzed

RACIAL JUSTICE: REFORM in the papd

CITY COUNCIL, POLICE RESPOND TO PROTESTS

Text by MYRA XU and ANTONIA MOU Photo by MYRA XU

“SAY HIS NAME! George Floyd! Say her name! Breonna Taylor!” Over 10,000 protestors chant in unison, holding painted signs and marching side by side as they fill the streets of downtown Palo Alto on June 6, 2020.

Local residents joined millions across the nation to demand justice for the Black community and call for a reevaluation of police departments following several high-profile police brutality cases, including the murders of Floyd and Taylor. As a result, Palo Alto was forced to confront its own history of racial injustice. The Palo Alto City Council adopted a resolution in support of the Black Lives

Matter movement and created an initial framework for addressing issues of race and equity reform through five actionable areas approved at the June 15, 2020 council meeting. One year later, the Palo Alto City Council and Palo Alto Police Department’s actions in response to concerns over racial equity, police brutality and police accountability demonstrate the impacts of last summer’s protests.

Police transparency

In 2019, resident Julio Arevalo was violently arrested by the PAPD, and consequently won a lawsuit alleging excessive force last year. Following the lawsuit, Human Relations Committee Chair Kaloma Smith said he only found out about the case after it was released through public media.

According to Smith, one way to improve transparency in the PAPD is to expand the role of Palo Alto’s Independent Police Auditor, a third-party contractor who conducts audits on internal and citizen-generated police complaints.

“I want them [IPA] to get the case files as soon as they come,” Smith said. “I need investigations to go a lot quicker and I need their results to be released when they are released, not in six months or one year timeframes.”

According to IPA Stephen Connolly, who works alongside his partner Mike Gennaco, the IPA releases a report of findings to the public semi-annually, but not immediately after concluding a case audit. While Connolly is satisfied with the current system, he is also aware that changes to the timeline may be necessary.

“I think that the dynamic is definitely shifting and the expectation on the city council’s part and the City’s part is that we’re going to be more regularly engaged in reporting out to the public, especially through the council meetings and other opportunities,” Connolly said.

Former Santa Clara County deputy public defender and community activist Aram James said the issue of transparency

has been further amplified by PAPD’s decision to fully encrypt its primary dispatch channel without notice in January. The encryption is the result of an October 2020 CA Department of Justice memo, which states that transmission of certain Criminal Justice Information and Personally Identifiable Information must be encrypted and limited to authorized personnel.

“We went with the path of least resistance and the easiest path, which was just fully encrypting the radio,” councilmember Greer Stone said. “I think full encryption is an overreach and I think questionably unconstitutional as well.”

In response to council member inquiries at an April 5 city council meeting, PAPD Captain April Wagner said the City does not currently have enough dispatch center and field officer personnel to manage both an unencrypted and encrypted police channel.

Police accountability

Although the audit process varies case by case, Connolly said his team will usually become aware of an investigation into an incident early on in the process. The IPA then consults with the PAPD about their findings and recommends disciplinary actions for the police officer in question. Once the officer has the chance to respond, the IPA reviews all the completed investigation files to summarize and make recommendations for each case.

However, James said he wants the IPA to have the power to discipline and prosecute officers because the current model does not guarantee follow-through on the IPA’s recommendations.

“The Independent Police Auditor lacks teeth,” James said. “He [Independent Police Auditor Mike Gennaco] should have the ability to subpoena witnesses, cross-examine the cops who are accused of misconduct, have an investigator to reinvestigate what the police say happened … and the absolute ability after a full investigation to fire bad-acting cops.”

Connolly said he understands the public skepticism and concern surrounding the idea that police have some control throughout the process, but thinks the system has many strengths.

“It’s obviously very easy for people to become suspicious and discouraged,” Connolly said. “So for us to have the opportunity to influence the process while still giving the police a lot of responsibility and ownership of it, we think that’s a model that is actually pretty effective.”

In an effort to improve police accountability, the council voted to expand the Independent Police Auditor’s scope to all incidents involving police use-of-force in November 2020 — including disarges of a baton, gun, taser or K-9 unit — regardless of whether a complaint was filed or not.

In April, the Policy & Services Committee recommended an extension of the IPA’s powers to include internal department complaints, a reversal of a 2019 decision to narrow the IPA’s scope to only external public complaints against the PAPD.

Moving forward

As the year progresses, community activists, city council members and the PAPD are looking towards new and improved policies to address racial equity.

According to PAPD Chief Robert Jonsen, PAPD hopes to launch a new Psychological Emergency Response Team in partnership with the County Behavioral Health Services Department, which will dispatch a licensed mental health clinician paired with a law enforcement officer to respond to behavioral health crises. The police department is also working to implement the 2015 Racial and Identity Profiling Act, which requires CA law enforcement agencies to collect police stop data and report the information to the DOJ. The goal of the act is to identify racial and identity biases in police departments, eliminate discriminatory profiling and improve diversity and sensitivity in law enforcement.

“If they’re stopping people for speeding? Great, ... but if they’re stopping people for expired registration, I’m interested in understanding why and how often, and thinking about if that’s what we really want them spending their time on,” councilmember Alison Cormack said.

Smith says there needs to be a cultural shift in the department’s approach to transparency and accountability to continue the progression of better policing in Palo Alto.

“Policing your neighborhood is not just about protecting you, it’s also about how people feel in your neighborhood and how you treat people in your neighborhood,” Smith said. “The police are there to serve, and we, as a community, need to ask the hard questions on a regular basis.” v

SILENCE IS COMPLIANCE — A police officer leads protestors down Bryant Street during a June 2020 Black Lives Matter protest. “I think that the job of any police department is to be responsive to the expectations of its community and the changing standards,” Independent Police Auditor Stephen Connolly said. “I hope that happens in Palo Alto.”

“The police are there to serve, and we, as a community, need to ask the hard questions on a regular basis.” — KALOMA SMITH, Human Relations Commission Chair