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Rethinking Public Safety As Protests Continue

Chelsea Kurnick and Will Carruthers

Jun 17, 2020

Rethinking Public Safety As Protests Continue

Over the past three weeks, conversations around policing in America have shifted drastically. Suddenly, defunding law enforcement has become a regular part of the public conversation, just ahead of meetings in which many governing bodies will review proposed budgets for the fiscal year, which runs July 1 to June 30 throughout California.

The issue came to prominence following widespread protests against police brutality and racism that started in Minneapolis after videos of a police officer killing George Floyd, a middle-aged Black man, went viral online. Since then, those conversations have become local in cities throughout the country.

While there aren’t yet answers regarding what reforms or structural changes will be enacted in the weeks and months to come, it’s worth giving some context to the current conversation.

Reform vs. Defund vs. Abolition

The logic behind reforming and defunding is very different. Reform means that the larger system is left largely unchanged, while defunding—or abolition—means that the money goes elsewhere, potentially leading to increased funding for social services.

On Wednesday, June 10, mayors and law enforcement officials from nine Sonoma County cities announced a range of planned actions in response to the widespread Black Lives Matter protests. The local officials, in line with many other elected officials across the country, presented a range of reforms.

Rubin Scott, director of Santa Rosa’s NAACP chapter, spoke at the press conference. On June 11, he shared a letter he had sent Mayor Schwedhelm on June 6, which called on Santa Rosa to invest in #8toAbolition rather than #8CantWait.

8 Can’t Wait is a project that pushes police to adopt eight policy reforms to reduce police brutality. Launched in response to the killing of George Floyd, 8 Can’t Wait is a project of Campaign Zero, an organization that has been pushing for police reforms since 2015. Campaign Zero claims that these reforms would reduce police killings by 72 percent.

In response to 8 Can’t Wait, a group of police- and prison-abolitionists formed 8 to Abolition, listing eight strategies that seek to replace police and prisons with communities that are “equipped to provide for their own safety and wellbeing.”

Proponents of 8 to Abolition say that Campaign Zero’s claim of a 72-percent reduction in police killing is neither accurate nor enough. In a statement by Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN) and Black Lives Matter LA, they write, “#8CantWait offers a relatively easy way for police departments and government officials to appear to embrace the idea of reform without actually changing the structure of policing and without confronting powerful political interests like law and order advocates and police unions.”

Scott’s letter notes, “when we use the terms ‘dismantle and defund’ in no way are we saying there should not be law enforcement or policing agencies or we should not fund these institutions. We are saying that the current legal system as well as other systems governing Black Americans, that are funded by those same Black Americans being denied their civil liberties, need to be dismantled and reinvented.”

Scott calls for many changes, including a stronger community oversight committee which would be active in credentialing law enforcement officers every two years, community housing development for 18-to-24-year-olds, an increase in Parks and Recreation centers, and vocational training for high school students not interested in college.

Oakland-based abolitionist organization Critical Resistance says that more than 50 years of organizing for stronger civilian oversight committees has not resulted in any committees that are actually empowered to make decisions about police actions, and ultimately such committees “entrench policing as a legitimate, reformable system with a ‘community’ mandate.”

Local Reform Efforts

After a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy shot and killed Andy Lopez in southwest Santa Rosa in 2013, activists put pressure on the county and city of Santa Rosa to enact reforms and establish oversight.

In 2015, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors established the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO), a body meant to review complaints against the Sheriff’s Office among other tasks. IOLERO, which was one of many reforms recommended by the Community And Local Law Enforcement Task Force, a group formed by the county after Lopez’s death, has never been as strong or well-funded as local advocates hoped it would be.

More recently, those advocates, including IOLERO’s former director Jerry Threet, have been pushing to add a ballot measure to the November 2020 ballot that would empower IOLERO to subpoena records from the Sheriff’s Office and lock in IOLERO’s budget at one percent of the Sheriff’s total budget.

Over the past four years, even with IOLERO in place, reform of any kind has been painfully slow, according to activists.

The use of the carotid hold, a procedure in which an officer places a subject’s neck in the crook of their elbow, is one example of the relationship between the Sheriff’s Office and IOLERO. Despite a recommendation from IOLERO Community Advisory Council (CAC), a group of volunteers who spend time researching policies and interacting with the community, the Sheriff’s Office resisted giving up the technique until two weeks ago.

If performed properly, the hold restricts blood flow to the head and the subject passes out. If done incorrectly, the subject can be killed or seriously injured due to a prolonged lack of blood flow or airflow if the officer’s arm slips into an “arm bar” position.

The CAC spent over a year crafting numerous proposed changes to the Sheriff’s use-of-force policies. They formally submitted the policy recommendations last November, just two weeks before a Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to use the hold—along with a Taser and blunt force—on David Ward, a Sonoma County resident.

Ward was pronounced dead at the Petaluma Valley Hospital shortly afterwards. An autopsy released in May concluded that his death was a homicide primarily caused by “Cardiorespiratory Collapse, Blunt Impact Injuries, Neck Restraint and Application of Conducted Energy Device.”

In its response to the CAC’s recommendations last December, the Sheriff’s Office dismissed the need to stop using the hold pending more research.

“In order to truly consider this recommendation, we would need to see data that supports the assumption the carotid restraint and maximum restraint are unreasonably dangerous when applied appropriately,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote of the carotid-hold recommendation.

Then, on the afternoon of Friday, June 5, a note appeared on the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office’s website. “Effective June 5, 2020 the carotid hold is no longer authorized. Policies and training are being updated accordingly,” a line at the top of the Sheriff’s Policies and Training web page stated.

The Sheriff’s announcement came the same day that Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s law enforcement training body to stop teaching officers to use the carotid hold.

Oversight efforts in Santa Rosa have run into their own problems. In early 2016, the city hired Bob Aaronson, a Palo Alto attorney, to audit the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Then, in late 2018, after a public disagreement with Aaronson about the scope of his work, the city and Aaronson parted ways. To date, the city has yet to hire another police auditor.

Public Safety Beyond Law Enforcement

Police are often called upon as first responders in non-criminal situations including mental-health crises. Many calls to defund the police look to free up funds to instead support alternative methods of crisis intervention. Some reformists propose strengthened partnerships between police and specialized professionals such as trauma-informed social workers.

San Francisco recently announced that their police department will stop responding to non-criminal calls and will be replaced by trained, unarmed professionals. This concept is not novel—White Bird Clinic in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon have operated Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets (CAHOOTS) since 1989. This non-police, 24-hour mobile crisis intervention service operates through a dispatcher and sends a team of one medic and one crisis worker to provide immediate stabilization to people in need.

Since 2012, Sonoma County has had a Mobile Support Team (MST) whose job is to “provide field-based support to requesting law enforcement officers responding to a behavioral health crisis.” Staff at MST are described as “licensed mental health clinicians, certified substance abuse specialists, post-graduate registered interns, mental health consumers and family members.”

In 2019, MST expanded their police partnerships to reach some areas of West Sonoma County. Their service does not extend north of Windsor.

Unlike CAHOOTS, Sonoma County’s MST operates in close partnership with local police departments. A civilian in need cannot call to request that the MST be dispatched; the police themselves make the assessment that MST’s services would be of use.

During the Healdsburg City Council meeting of June 15, 2020, Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke presented ideas to the community for experimental police reforms that grew out of a recent conversation he had with the Criminology Department at Sonoma State University. Among his proposals, he pushed for hiring a licensed clinical social worker (LSCW) who would work for the Healdsburg Police Department.

While Chief Burke stressed the value that a social worker’s training could add to community policing, he said that he believes such change must happen from within the police department, rather than outside of it.

UPDATED: Two Mayors Face Constituents’ Ire After Statements Responding to Protests

Chelsea Kurnick

Jun 15, 2020

UPDATED: Two Mayors Face Constituents’ Ire After Statements Responding to Protests

On June 1, in the early days of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, both Mill Valley and Healdsburg held City Council meetings streamed online. At each meeting, the towns’ mayors were asked questions inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and recent protests against police brutality.

Mill Valley Mayor Sashi McEntee and Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold’s answers disappointed and angered residents of both towns, prompting online recall petitions, letters from constituents and protests.

Tonight, in response to the criticisms, both towns’ governing councils are scheduled to discuss racism and possible police reforms.

Healdsburg’s City Council meeting begins tonight at 6pm. Information about how to view the meeting is available on page 6 of the meeting agenda. Healdsburg’s Police Chief will give a presentation about the department’s use-of-force policies towards the end of the meeting.

[NOTE: On Tuesday, June 16, Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold announced that she will resign from the Healdsburg City Council, effective June 30. Gold’s letter explaining her decision is available here.]

Mill Valley’s City Council meeting starts at 5:30pm online. The council will devote the entire meeting to a “Community Discussion Regarding Black Lives Matter and Development of a City Action Plan to Address Racial Injustice and Inequities in Mill Valley.” Public comment must be received by 4pm.

In Mill Valley, the controversy began when Mayor Sashi McEntee dismissed a question submitted by a constituent wondering, “What is Mill Valley doing to show that Black lives matter?”

Mayor Sashi McEntee replied, “Okay, thank you very much … . It is a Council policy that we do not take action on issues that are not of immediate local importance, but I do appreciate hearing everyone’s comments.”

The policy she referred to is California’s Ralph M. Brown Act, which guarantees the public’s right to comment at meetings of local legislative bodies and somewhat limits the council’s responses to the public.

On the same night in Healdsburg, Councilmember Joe Naujokas asked his fellow council members to schedule a discussion about police use of force in Healdsburg and how the elected leaders of city government can lead their community in having difficult conversations about the town’s relationship to police.

Mayor Leah Gold replied to Naujokas, “My reaction to that is we don’t have that particular problem in Healdsburg, because we have a very good police chief who is on top of these issues and trains his staff in appropriate conflict-resolution methods. To me … it’s a solution looking for a problem …”

After further conversation, the Healdsburg City Council failed to add the topic to an upcoming agenda and moved on.

Naujokas said he was “absolutely surprised” by fellow councilmembers’ reactions. During the meeting, he told the Council, “I think, if anything, it would be a way for us to highlight the fantastic work that our [Police Department] is doing and to quell any concerns from our public.”

Many Mill Valley and Healdsburg residents were shocked by their respective mayor’s responses, hearing both as assertions that their towns don’t have problems with racism.

In the weeks since the June 1 meetings, criticism of their original statements has continued, despite attempts by both mayors to address the issue at public protests. At the time this article was published, a petition calling for Mayor Gold’s resignation had 1,845 signatures and a petition calling for Mayor McEntee’s resignation had 8,694 signatures.

Both towns are similar in size and majority white—Mill Valley’s population is approximately 83 percent white and Healdsburg’s is approximately 62 percent white. In Healdsburg, more than one-third of the population is Latinx. In Mill Valley, less than eight percent of the population is Latinx. Both towns have fewer than one percent Black residents.

Studies show that while populations of color in the North Bay are growing, economic inequalities persist.

Between 2010 and 2014, Sonoma County’s total population grew seven percent; however, its population of people of color grew by 46 percent. During the same period, Marin County’s total population grew 4 percent, while the number of people of color grew by 34 percent.

In 2014, National Equity Atlas created an Equity Profile that looked at economic disparity along racial lines in the Bay Area’s nine counties. This study found that, with racial equity, Latinx Bay Area residents would see their average annual income increase by 131 percent and Black residents would see a 102-percent increase.

In a speech at a June 4 protest in Mill Valley, McEntee acknowledged that she had used a “poor choice of words,” but reiterated that “we do have a council policy that we don’t take up national issues.”

In an impassioned speech in response to McEntee’s comments caught on video by Lorenzo Morotti of Marin Independent Journal, Mill Valley resident Monica Morant said, “If we continued to follow rules and laws, I would still be sitting at the back of the bus.”

During Morant’s speech, someone in the crowd called for McEntee to step down. Morant replied, “I’m not calling for resignation, I want action … I want all of us to work on this, [to] look at each other.”

At a June 11 protest in Healdsburg, a crowd of about 250 people gathered by 6:30pm. Chants of “Mayor Gold resign now” reverberated loudly as various Healdsburg residents of color spoke to Gold and the council. Gold said that the people who voted for her were not at the protest and that they still support her.

In preparation for the event, two Latinx Healdsburg residents, Lupe Lopez and Cristal Perez, invited Black and Indigenous people of color living in Healdsburg to share their experiences of racism in writing. Over 90 of these stories of racism were then displayed on notecards in Healdsburg Plaza’s gazebo for the public to read before and during the June 11 protest.

While 36 of the stories centered around school and childhood experiences, at least 50 of the notecards described experiences that took place outside of school. These experiences ranged from stories of workplace discrimination to discriminatory service at restaurants to housing and healthcare experiences. Eight stories described police encounters in which residents say they were racially profiled by officers and/or the people who called the police on them.

Gold told the Bohemian, “It makes me feel very sad to read about their experiences, of course. They’re all talking about hurtful things and I think mainly most of them seem to have written about things that happened growing up and as young people in school.”

Lopez and Perez said that, while they don’t know of any recent cases of police use-of-force in Healdsburg, the local police department should be speaking out about this nationwide issue and be taking action to make sure that there’s justice for the lives of all Black people, Indigenous people and other people of color taken at the hands of police.

“We have to remember that it’s not only about justice for the lives lost, but a fight for change and reform of a system that protects those in uniform rather than those without one,” they said.