Council to eye police review proposal

Petaluma City Council members will soon be asked to weigh in on a host of recommendations by a countywide task force charged with developing a model for civilian review of police shootings and law enforcement practices, but City Manager John Brown says the city is already doing some of the things the task force is recommending.

The Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force formed after the October 22, 2013 death of 13-year old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa. A Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy killed the boy when he was spotted carrying an airsoft BB gun designed to look like an assault rifle. When the officer demanded he drop the weapon, the boy turned to face him. Thinking his life was in danger, the officer shot and killed the youth. The Sonoma County District Attorney investigated the shooting and found the sheriff’s deputy acted legally and would not face prosecution.

Public outrage over the death prompted the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to form the task force charged with making recommendations on the possible establishment of a citizen oversight body to review police shootings, how to increase community policing practices and whether the coroner’s office should be separated from the Sheriff’s Department.

“We are already doing many of the things discussed by the task force, including community policing,” said Brown. “This is what we as a city were looking for when we hired Police Chief Pat Williams three years ago. We’ve always felt that more engagement with the community would create a higher likelihood that tragedies like the Lopez shooting would not happen here.”

Brown noted that the City of Petaluma has never experienced this sort of incident and added that Petaluma already has a citizen’s review body for police conduct in the form of the city council.

“The council is responsible for the police department,” said Brown, who added that if something like the Lopez shooting were to happen in Petaluma, the council would be the lead civilian agency to investigate the matter.

The Lopez task force studied community efforts in San Francisco, San Jose, Orange County, San Diego, and communities outside California to develop ideas on how a citizens’ review of law enforcement would work. The key finding was establishment of a fully independent citizen review board on the order of a criminal grand jury, with a scope of authority to investigate law enforcement, including the right to subpoena documents and witnesses.

“Our research has disclosed that while many of the law enforcement oversight bodies in California have the ability to subpoena, the power is not used often,” according to Santa Rosa attorney Eric Koenigshofer who chairs the Law Enforcement Accountability subcommittee of the task force, In Petaluma, such an independent agency would require a change of the city’s charter.

Koenigshofer said the San Jose civilian review process was found to be the best fit for Sonoma County. In San Jose, the city has an office of the Independent Police Auditor, which reviews police department investigations of complaints against police officers “to determine if the investigation was complete, thorough, objective and fair.”

The office also makes recommendations with regard to Police policies and procedures, based on the auditor’s review of investigations of complaints against police officers. The San Jose auditor, who is currently a retired judge, conducts public outreach to educate the community on the role of the office and its powers to investigate law enforcement.

Koenigshofer said the purpose of the task force was not about investigating the Lopez killing, but to establish a means for future investigations of law enforcement. He said an independent coroners office was necessary since the office is currently run by the county sheriff’s department, and in incidents like the Lopez shooting, the public needs confidence that law enforcement can be investigated by an independent agency.

Koenigshofer said the top priority of the task force was to create an environment that instills trust in law enforcement and other governmental agencies. He said the trust of the people in their law enforcement and other institutions was critical and at threat.

“We have a social contract that allows us to govern this country,” said Koenigshofer. “But that can only function when there is trust in our institutions. Hopefully this process will go a long way towards building that trust.”

The city council is expected to hear a presentation from the task force at its Monday, April 6 meeting.

(Contact E.A. Barrera at argus@arguscourier.com)