Gary Gilbert shares his analysis of Antioch’s proposed Police Oversight Commission. See PDF and his notes. Antioch city council meets December 8 to discuss.
City of Antioch (CA) Proposal for Police Oversight Commission
I have carefully read the proposal in its entirety and would like to offer a few observations:
1. Statistics have shown that communities who utilize Civilian Police Oversight commission have a extensive history of police misconduct which warrants regular intervention by state and federal authorities. Clearly, the Antioch Police Department clearly does not fit this criteria. In addition, history dictates that a vast majority of police misconduct complaints are filed by individuals who are involved in and/or arrested for criminal activity. This is precisely the case of the section 8 participants currently suing our city in federal court and it applies to the Deer Valley students who caused the Gas City incident. Law abiding citizens who make a mistake but take responsibility for their actions and behavior DO NOT file police misconduct complaints.
2. The CPOC proposal states the oversight committe will be a elected position. How does the Antioch City Council propose to pay for the election itself and the full-time salaries and benefits of the individuals elected to serve a four year term on the commission given the current state of Antioch’s financial difficulties?
3. The language of Section 3 of the proposal indicates that the CPOC will assume complete control of the Antioch Police Department and in doing so, position itself as the supervising authority in ALL police and personnel matters. If this occurs, there is no doubt that our police department will be decimated by individual(s) who may have a personal or political agenda or vendetta against our police department.
4. According to our California constitution cities such as Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and several others are designated as charter cities which gives residents more freedom to make changes to their city government such as creating a police oversight committee. However, Antioch is a general law city governed by state law and when you read the legal definition of a what a general law city can and cannot do, the Antioch City Council does not have the legal authority to create a Civilian Police Oversight Commission.
Please note: City Attorney Lynn Nerland is currently researching this matter and hopefully she will report that the Antioch City Council does not have the power to create a police oversight committee.
5. For reasons that defy logic, if the Antioch City Council is successful in finding a loophole to circumvent state law and moves forward to create a oversight committe, as the governing body of Civilian Police Oversight Commission its imperative that we stand together and put pressure on the city council to ensure that the final draft of the ordinance reads as follows, “all individuals desiring to serve on the civilian police oversight commission must provide the council with verification of advanced professional training and experience conducting internal investigations of law enforcement agencies such as the Antioch Police Department and this verification must be presented to the council prior to their name being placed on the ballot.” If the residents of Antioch are forced to accept this madness, we should have a say so in the qualifications of the individuals elected to the commission.
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Friends,
I don’t know if you’ve seen this, yet, but if not, here’s a PDF copy of the proposed Police Oversight Commission, thanks to Gary Gilbert. Below is his analysis of it, as well, with which I agree.
If you’ll note in Section 1, it starts off “The citizens of Antioch, CA enact this ordinance…”
Are they expecting the Council to put this to a vote of the people?
Then in Section 3, (e) & (f) the commission will have the authority to spend money on investigators, polygraphers, etc. – Right, with what budget?
We need as many people as possible to show up at the Council meeting and explain to our elected (and appointed) representatives that this is not what our city needs. It’s not the way to go about dealing with citizen concerns of the police department. If you can’t show up, then please email the councilmembers.
Finally, in the commentary, the author mentions the Innocence Project and wrongfully convicted individuals. What does that have to do with alleged police misconduct in Antioch, which is the supposed basis of this entire proposal? Do we have a history of wrongfully convicting people in our city? I seriously doubt it.
The bottom line is we already have an elected body to deal with this. It’s called the City Council. Either certain councilmembers don’t want that responsibility or don’t think they can handle it.