By Teresa Geimer
This year’s Picnic Days went smoothly except for one incident between under-cover Davis Police and a group of people in the street. The police were in plain clothes and came in an unmarked van.
The witnesses’ accounts and the police report are very different. Perhaps a third party could investigate to learn what factually happened and to find a better way to handle such an incident in the future.
The City of Davis has a Police Auditor, and the Auditor could be the one to investigate.
Our Chief of Police has every confidence in him and his thoroughness. It is troubling that the Auditor has not as yet been allowed to investigate.
An impartial Police Auditor is good for the Davis Police Department and the community. The Auditor should be allowed to do his job.
Bob Aaronson, the Police Auditor, should conduct the investigation. He is independent, has experience and would not cost the city of Davis any additional money since he is on contract through the end of June. At a time when more attention needs to be paid to city finances it seems prudent to have Police Auditor Bob Aaronson conduct a thorough investigation. I hope Mayor Davis and the city council make this happen so the Community at large, including the DPD, can get some answers.
The auditor would seem to me to be the most logical choice to head this investigation prior to his departure. I am wondering if there is some legitimate/logistical or legal reason for a delay given that he will be leaving in approximately six weeks.
There may be the possibility, if CC agrees, to do what I envision as a “task” extension… done as to the other tasks as of end of June, but extension for this one item only. Might work for both the auditor/ombudsman and the City. Just a thought. Main advantage is ‘history’ with Davis, particularly the PD.
To date, I’ve not seen any reason to doubt his analytic ability, nor his independence/impartiality.
I agree with this letter. No one wants to pre-judge what happened, least of all me. But when there are conflicting reports, especially with conflicting video/pictures, we need the independent auditor to conduct an investigation to try to determine what happened. Only when we know what happened can we take steps to make sure that this does not happen again.
There is not a lot of time between now and the end of June though it may be useful to collect source documents and statements.
Agreed… see also my slightly earlier post…