By Gloria Partida and Lucas Frerichs
As we reflect on the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Stephon Clark and so many other black lives at the hands of police brutality, Americans are struggling to find answers to stop the graphic visions of black men and women needlessly dying throughout our country. In these times we yearn for solutions, and Davis’ residents, along with many others nationwide have marched, and expressed their sadness, anger, and frustration over these most recent instances of police brutality. We too feel sadness, anger and frustration with the systemic oppression these recent events expose. We have also marched for justice, and we are committed to listening and to deep reflection on how we can best affect change as leaders in the Davis community.
Two ideas have risen to the forefront of the calls for change: “8cantwait” and “defund the police”. Research shows that more restrictive use of force policies can reduce killings by police and save lives. “8cantwait” is a list of eight policies that cities can enact. With the recent announcement by Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel to ban the carotid hold, the city of Davis meets the items on this list. This is not surprising as we have an engaged citizenry, a willing Police Chief and Department, and recent City Councils that have done much work to improve our community’s police policies. Some examples of this include:
An extensive police oversight effort in 2017-2018, involving various stakeholders (including disenfranchised groups), which resulted in the City Council creating a citizen-led Police Accountability Commission (PAC) and enhancement of the role of the city’s Independent Police Auditor, Michael Gennaco.
The Davis Police Department, in conjunction with the city Human Relations Commission and other community members, developed an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, using restorative justice practices, as an option for individuals with complaints about the police.
We also recently enacted a forward-looking surveillance technology ordinance, instituted body worn cameras and video release policies, and embraced mandatory training for officers in procedural justice, principled policing, guardian mindset, de-escalation, crisis intervention for mental illness, restorative justice, racial profiling (explicit bias), and unconscious (implicit) bias training.
Are these measures enough? For many, the answer is no. We are now hearing increased calls nationwide, and from some in Davis to “defund the police”. When people call for defunding the police, what exactly
are they asking for?
While some may want a stripping of the police department’s budget, the defunding movement is primarily about scaling police budgets back and reinvesting those resources in other community needs, such as mental health services, community engagement, or enhanced youth programming.
Investment in community services results in a reduced need to call police in instances when other skill sets are required, such as when a person is dealing with a mental health crisis. When people get the specific help they need earlier, they are less likely to end up in situations requiring law enforcement.
We believe in the need for continued improvement, and that there is always more to be done. The opportunity to show we are listening and want to be part of a solution must not be missed. We also believe that this opportunity should be more than a gesture. It should come from a deep understanding of our community’s needs. The needs of Davis are not those of other cities. While Davis is not as ethnically diverse as other communities, issues of racial discrimination and poverty absolutely exist here, and we feel a duty to facilitate dialogue and provide solutions to these vexing issues.
We also have a duty to consider what the consequences of our response will be. A proposed solution that reaches no one in our community is an empty solution, no matter how dynamic it may be in another city. Reductions in police spending may lead to hiring of personnel that are poor fits for our City as well as leading to understaffed and over-stressed officers. The City of Davis is challenged in filling vacancies for the Police Department. This is in part due to a reduction in people entering law enforcement as a career, as well as Davis’ reputation as a city that holds our police accountable and a conscious effort to hire diverse and progressive thinking officers. This is a tall order, but one we are committed to undertaking as well as the smart choice of targeted spending for homeless outreach and mental health.
The Davis City Council has already been strategically reinvesting the Police Department’s budget over the past several years. Some of the ways we have moved away from hiring additional sworn officers to hiring additional (non-sworn) community specialists include:
In FY 17/18 we allocated funds to hire a Homeless Outreach Coordinator (non-sworn) within the Police Department to address the needs of unsheltered individuals in Davis and to assist in managing the homeless respite center.
In FY 19/20 we allocated funds for a new Police Services Specialist position (non-sworn), to provide even further support for homeless outreach and services based on the large success of the first position.
In FY 19/20 we added one-time funding for recruitment efforts and to continue the expansion of diversity in the Department.
In FY 20/21 there is a budget proposal to fund $60,000 for mental health crisis intervention services. The City will contract with Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency to provide trained clinical staff when law enforcement responds to a situation involving a person in mental health crisis and to provide on-going support to those in crisis.
These increases to the City’s police budget are meant to assist in reducing negative police interactions in our community and aid in the City continuing to find ways to reach out to our marginalized communities.
As a city, we have many tools that determine the shape of our police culture. Our community voices, the Police Accountability Commission, the connectivity maintained by our senior center, the visibility of minority voices through our Civic Arts and Human Relations Commissions; ensuring the balance of funding between these vital programs and our policing is indeed something we must all keep an eye on. We must not lose sight that we all have a place in the march for reform, a say in our budget priorities, and a responsibility to speak up and insist that we continue to do better.
Your chance to use your voice around policing will be available again throughout the coming year. The Davis Police Department will be initiating a renewal of their 3-year Strategic Plan. Chief Pytel is developing a plan for broad community engagement involving the general public, students, city commissions, and more, and we urge you to participate in that process.
Budgets are a statement of values, and arguably the City budget is the most important policy we decide on a yearly basis. It is the choices we make during our budget process that help move us forward as a community. It is the actions we invest in between community protests that help bring about measurable change. We remain committed to listening to our community, gathering data and best practices, and working to make adjustments and changes that will benefit us all now, and in the years ahead.
Gloria Partida is the incoming Mayor of Davis. Lucas Frerichs is the incoming Vice-Mayor of Davis.
Well, that was easy! On to the next issue . . .
So in other words, “some in Davis” . . . that would be a big, fat “NO!”.
I would venture to say that the “some in Davis”. . . that would be a big, fat “NO!” would be an overwhelming majority.
Can I get the English version of that comment…
Mais no, certainment pas…
That was a puzzler . . . a ‘coherent’ version of that comment, in any language.
Unfortunate choice in acronym for Police Accountability Commission… PAC… rhymes with the acronym for Political Action Committee… love ironies, tho’…
Ou, en francais, ‘que sera, sera’…
Thank you Gloria and Lucas for acknowledging the tidal change in thinking regarding what jobs we ask our police to do. With 25% our County jail population being black people, in a county 3% black we must ask you how does the Davis Police Department contribute to that inequity? Please ask the police department to release and post their traffic stop, arrests and use of force statistics by race and ethnicity. We need to rethink our prevention and crisis response systems. Deploying mental health workers instead of armed officers to those in crisis is needed…but why place that responsibility in municipal police departments? We must imagine, research and establish other structures of community safety.
We shall see what happens with this in Davis and the County.
and
are odd terms.
Less so is
though of course it’s arguably more accurate to describe it as the brutality of political leadership and corporate-led society, expressed through the police.
Good catch. What we need are the sensible deaths of those needing to die.
Well no. Research does NOT show that. Not at all. That is the basic problem with defund the police and this weird nonsensical idea that we can eliminate the tools of law enforcement to get to peaceful utopia. Let’s keep this up and then look at the data two and three years from now. I expect more black deaths from crime will occur. Research ACTUALLY supports that expectation. But BLM and their left-side-of-reason media pals will likely just keep doubling down on the lie that cops are a source of the problems in the black urban community. Because a video of a cop-vs-black suspect is the stuff that can be used to advance their political and money-making agenda… the black on black violence… not so much.
How can the nation of logical/practical people get behind this black lives matter movement when the movement ignores the primary source of violent death of blacks and only focuses on what are a few sensationalized law enforcement incidents? BLM and the media are raking in hundreds of millions from these incidents. What is being done with the money to actually help improve the lives of the very people they claim to be advocating for?
Emotive and symbolic responses are like recreational drug use… it makes people feel good for a while but overuse results in a growing list of unresolved problems including more death.
“Well no. Research does NOT show that. Not at all. ”
Suggest you read the research from PERF on use of force
Do you have specific cites of studies that prove that more restrictive use of force policies can reduce killings and save lives?
Nothing I can find supports your claim, but I see a lot that supports the concern that violent crime is a very big social problem that cops are called on to stop.
I think if you and others pushing this cops are racist and the cause of so many black urban community negative outcomes would just come clean that you are fine with more crime and more black death from crime as a cost of muzzling the cops, you would have a lot more credibility. This idea that if only cops would stop being so mean and deadly that everyone would behave better is without evidence and without merit. It is unicorns and rainbows thinking.
There is a common thread here with the apparent brain wiring of your political/ideological cohort. It is notable in the COVID-19 responses. We could separate out the problem demographic to optimize the outcomes, but this feels way too unfair and oppressive of certain groups. So instead we will force a misery loves company situation. That is what I see in the left demands for the cops to stand down. I think you and others on that bandwagon continue to deflect… and are being intellectually dishonest… because you KNOW that crime will increase by defunding and muzzling the cops… just like it was in the 1980s before Bill Clinton ran on the platform of halting the increase in crime. This will impact everyone. But you are okay with that, because in your view, it sends a better message of love and care to the black community.
We live in a media time and it seems that all we American can focus on is that which has the current news cycle narrative that gets us all wee weed up. We have lost the ability to think rationally and pragmatically solve our big problems. We are stuck in a loop of symbolism over substance. I think some of these police reforms are needed and useful, but many of them are just stupid and will result in more human harm. But maybe we will feel like things are more fair as more crime moves into the white communities like Davis.
I thought of the following quote today:
Remember when we hear that someone broke the Internet.
I think the Internet broke the people.
I think the media has broken our ability to think rationally and solve problems. We are like robots to the collective… all jumping in line to do “the right thing” when the right thing is what the social media-powered mob tells you is the right thing… while they rake in cash.
“How can the nation of logical/practical people get behind this black lives matter movement when the movement ignores the primary source of violent death of blacks and only focuses on what are a few sensationalized law enforcement incidents?”
The problem with this argument is that nobody is saying that murder of blacks by blacks isn’t a problem. As my mama said back in the day “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
The second problem with this argument is that it seeks to absolve badge wearing murderers of responsibility for their actions by pointing to other problems. I would have thought you would support people being held to account and taking personal responsibilities for their actions. As for it being just a few victims. When you lose your life you don’t usually get a second chance at life. So if you are one of the “few” you lose all you have. If you are dead because you were wrongly murdered it doesn’t much matter which gang the perp belongs to Bloods, Crips, MS13 or PD.
Nope. Not at all. Completely false and mess up.
I have been advocating for the deletion of public sector unions for decades. Until recently David would be one of the most vocal defenders of the public sector unions.
You moved the goal posts to the unions made me do it.
I think there are many problems.. most that we are not talking about because they are politically inconvenient. However, I agree with the bad-cop problem… but they are almost impossible to get rid of because of the unions. I also think we expect cops to do too much. But while we are expecting them to do so much, the pool of qualified candidates is smaller and the hiring process is more fraught with the risk of error. So, all the more reason to have a strong ability to fire people that are determined to be a bad fit. Sometimes that realization takes years… as rookies are developing and it is not always easy to tell the difference between learning and development opportunities and indications of a problem employee. Unions are butt in the seat job security. So we get a higher than acceptable percentage of cops that are not a good fit and they are the ones generally in these videos that are used to attack cops in general.
Me too (have never been a member of a formal union)… but there is a problem… public employees cannot, by law/practice represent themselves, as individuals… due to the unions, and for ‘convenience’ for the public entity, there is a complete need for public employees to ‘associate’/’aggregate’… but most ‘associations’ (actually, I formed one to avoid ‘unionization’) do not require dues, have no paid ‘reps’, but the public entities “cannot deal” with individuals… by law and practice… more is the pity… and I say that as someone in the public sector for 35+ years…
Unions tend to ‘protect’ their own, no matter what… and usually have paid reps, and require dues as a ‘condition of employment’…