Editorials

Amend PAPD policies

ENCRYPTION, PRESS POLICIES MUST CHANGE

IN JANUARY 2021, the Palo Alto Police Department encrypted police scanner broadcasts and closed its doors to all real-time media inquiries. We urge the PAPD to reopen public access to its police scanners and increase press communication for the sake of police transparency and accountability in our community.

The PAPD encrypting radio transmissions was in response to an October 2020 California Department of Justice memo instructing local police departments statewide to withhold “personally identifiable information” such as birth dates or driver’s license numbers from public transmissions. Despite the memo’s clear guideline that departments could do this without fully encrypting, the PAPD revoked public access to police activity tracking with no advance notice three months later.

The PAPD recently released its “Police Calls for Service Interactive Map,” an interactive and 24/7 map with yellow dots indicating the general areas where calls were placed to the district. Clicking on each dot offers more information.

While we commend this action and believe it is a well-intentioned step toward sharing once-broadcasted information, the map’s yellow dots — which often overlap and are thus difficult to click — are still limited in their efforts to inform. The “call type” category accompanying each yellow dot is vague, such as “medical information” or “suspicious circumstance,” with no further elaboration.

We urge the PAPD to instead adopt partial encryption of police scanners that omits personally identifiable information while maintaining public access to the transmissions. This is not only acceptable by the CDOJ memo’s standards, but has been accounted for — the San Francisco Police Department planned for partial encryption in the months following the state-issued memo.

We recognize the PAPD’s other ongoing efforts to maintain transparency such as the decade-long employment of independent police auditors like Michael Gennaco. Gennaco brings external accountability to the police department by handling civilian complaints and performing internal investigations for the OIR Group’s biannual public reports.

Police accountability is more crucial than ever given racial injustice movements in

recent years. These demonstrations exposed local police departments’ lack of transparency as a factor in racially-biased policing. The PAPD can do more, starting with implementing this partial encryption and reformulating department policy toward media inquiries. Currently, members of the press searching for PAPD comment must sub“It [the current press policy] sends a message that the police are absolutely unmit questions through an online form. Reporters are promised a response in up to five business days, willing to share things, though responses period.” are described to be “more timely” — DIANA DIAMOND, Palo Alto Online for cases involving danger to public safety. “It [the current press policy] sends a message to me that the police are absolutely unwilling to share things, period,” Palo Alto Online columnist Diana Diamond said. “They [the PAPD] have said, ‘Okay, we will have our press releases. We will issue press releases to you from time to time.’ Well, that doesn’t work because they choose what they want to release. … Many things go undiscovered by the press.” Delayed form responses and the police call map’s limited information are major obstacles in local journalists’ efforts to cover breaking news about police activity in a timely manner. Regaining access to 24/7 police scanner broadcasts — with necessary privacy measures — would fix this issue and serve as an important accountability measure for on-the-job officers. We urge the PAPD to pick up the phone. Realtime reporter interviews and media coverage hold government agencies accountable, and eliminating such communication violates the public’s right to transparency. v

Safe-sex products needed

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED infections among high schoolers are on the rise, while condom usage among these students is declining, according to a recent study published by the United States Library of Medicine. To combat this problem, we urge Palo Alto High School’s Wellness Center to offer condoms and related safe sex products to students free of charge.

In 2019, Verde published an editorial proposing this change in response to concerns that sexually active Paly students not using contraception were putting themselves and their partners at risk for STIs and unwanted pregnancies. The staff believed that Paly should be conscious of the sexual safety and health of students and offer these products.

However, nothing has changed since the publishing of the editorial. Paly still does not offer any safe-sex products and recent data shows that those past concerns are still warranted. According to a 2022 anonymous, opt-in survey conducted by Verde of 237 Paly students from January 26 to January 31, 2022, 40.4% of students

who engaged in sexual activities did so without protection. Stigma and cost are two major factors that deter students from using protection, both of which could be solved by making condoms available in the Wellness Center. For students 40.4% of students embarrassed about purchasing condoms who engaged in sexual at a drugstore, a simactivities did so withple trip to the office would allow them to out protection. obtain contraception discreetly. More importantly, condom availability programs (CAPs) reduce the financial burden of these products. Such programs have empirically worked, which is why we strongly urge their implementation at Paly. A study by Springer Link found that schools with CAPs see more students engaging in safe sex practices without more sexual activity. Paly’s current policy regarding student sexual health is insufficient. While we appreciate Paly teaching students how to safely use condoms, it is irrelevant if they cannot access them in the first place. The availability of condoms, coupled with comprehensive sex education, would provide students with both the tools and knowledge necessary to safely engage in sexual activities.

“CAPs … recognize that … students who choose to engage in sexual behavior … should be able to make informed decisions and do so safely,” Paly Wellness Outreach Officer Whitney Aquino said. “I see it as a harm-reduction model [that] reduces barriers to healthcare.”

Detractors counter that CAPs will lead to an increase in sexual activity — as students who currently are not sexually active will become so if given contraceptives. However, numerous studies disprove this and contend that those who want to be sexually active already are, which is why CAPs have not led to an increase in sexual activity.

The availability of condoms would help to curb the rising number of student STIs and promote safer sexual practices here at Paly. We urge Paly to become a part of the solution and offer safe-sex products to students. v

Staff, parents keep schools functioning

WE COMMEND the organizers of the “1 Palo Alto” program and the parent volunteers who have stepped up through the program to fill support staff positions to help keep Palo Alto Unified School District schools running while the district was severely short-staffed due to COVID-19 absences.

In less than 36 hours, PAUSD staff initiated a districtwide effort to shore up the widespread absences that threatened the operations of schools. In a video request released on social media on Sunday, Jan. 9, Superintendent Don Austin debriefed the program and urged parents to volunteer, gathering over 800 signups by 5 p.m. the following Wednesday.

Parents can sign up to volunteer for tasks including assistance with COVID-19 testing clinics, food services, light custodial work, office assistance and classroom support. Interested vaccinated parents register on the PAUSD website and are contacted by their specific school site PTA leadership when volunteer opportunities become available.

Organizing this large-scale initiative on an extremely short timeline is no easy task. We are deeply appreciative of the district coordinators for facilitating volunteer signups and managing the logistics of a monumental effort, in addition to parents who continue to dedicate their time and energy to supporting our schools in a time of crisis. The unprecedented support the “1 Palo Alto” program has received is a testament to the admirable culture of community service present in many Palo Alto families. v