Fairfax’s diverse police deserves community support

There have been many righteous, peaceful demonstrations in response to the horrific killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police in states across the country.

In Fairfax, I believe the Town Council (with our community’s support), our police chief and the members of the police department have worked hard to ensure that peace is kept with a “light hand,” using community policing.

Our police force is the most diverse of any in Marin County — 70% of our 10 sworn officers are people of color, 30% are white.

Fairfax dispatchers, parkingenforcement officers and cadets are also a very diverse group. Police Chief Christopher Morin has been striving for and been successful in hiring diverse, highly qualified candidates for our police department for many years.

Morin spoke at our June 17 council meeting regarding his policies, his department’s diversity and his background as a gay man with a Black partner of 25 years. Our use of force policies mirror the “8 Can’t Wait” policies advocated by protestors — they’ve been on the books for years, predating the protests.

We have no “fat” in the police budget; running a 24/7 department is costly even with freezing a sworn officer position since 2005 (the department is small — about 20 positions total). Public safety is critical as is community policing. Residents of Fairfax have supported our local police over the years, most recently at the ballot box in 2019.

Measure F, a property tax that primarily supports public safety passed at 80.69%.

I believe our police department exemplifies the type of policing we would like to see in other areas. While I am pleased to see people standing up for a cause, I believe their efforts against police are misplaced in Fairfax.

I urge you to get to know our Fairfax police. Their recent police work on the horrible harassment of a Fairfax transgender teen is just one example of their caring and hard work (in four days, they investigated and sent recommendations to the district attorney to pursue criminal action, one recommended charge was for a hate crime).

Our firefighters are also concerned about “defunding” our police or cutting police-officer positions. They do not want to be “first in” on potentially unsafe calls. These calls can include mental-health issues or substance abuse. Our police deescalate the situation as they are trained — this allows the fire department to do its job. Our firefighters work closely and daily with Fairfax police.

Marin County has the Mobile Crisis Response Team for mental-health support — they are not fully staffed or 24/7. Fairfax police call MCRU (if available) for mental-health situations. MCRT generally does not want to be “first in” for safety reasons. The county should fully staff the MCRT 24/7 and also provide social-services support for all police departments throughout Marin — small police departments do not have the ability to staff in this manner.

As a white person living in Marin, the least diverse county in California, I know I have been treated differently and better than persons of color. I lived in Los Angeles through the 1970s-’80s with brutal LAPD policing tactics.

I also lived in the Deep South (with partners of color) for part of the 1980s and I have had a glimpse of terrible policing and racism. I believe that racism in Marin County has to do with housing policies, lack of affordable housing and resistance to change. I would like to see our protestors turn to focusing on ways to be more inclusive in our town and the county overall.

Growing up in racially diverse areas, I began demonstrating on social justice and equity issues as a teenager. I support our Fairfax police — I believe they exemplify what we want in police in California and across the country.

We are fortunate to live in a town where our police department is diverse while embracing progressive policing policies and truly practice community policing. We must look beyond to fully embrace racial equity through housing and broader social justice issues that benefit people of color.