ESCONDIDO ADOPTING RIGHT POLICY RIGHT WAY

Escondido has long had a record of governing and policing in ways that were hostile or worse to communities of color. In 2006, the city was in the national spotlight after it became the first in California to adopt policies penalizing landlords who rented to undocumented immigrants — a law that a federal judge quickly blocked on the grounds that immigration enforcement was the responsibility of the U.S. government. In 2010, the city again found the spotlight over its Police Department’s unusually close relationship with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and its practice of using sobriety checkpoints not just to find and punish drivers who were impaired but drivers who were undocumented.

Now times have changed for the better. This week, Escondido police announced that the department had refined its guidelines to create a standalone policy that emphasized that officers should seek to “de-escalate” tensions during encounters with the public. Excessive force complaints in New York, Dallas, Seattle and other cities plunged after they adopted such policies over the past dozen years. Officers are instructed to try to have conversations, not confrontations, with people they suspect of misconduct — and not seek to intimidate them from the moment of contact.

What’s particularly heartening about Escondido’s actions is how Police Chief Ed Varso reached out to so many groups in the process. Leaders of the North San Diego County NAACP, the North County LGBTQ Resource Center and the North County Equity and Justice Coalition all provided input on the Police Department’s plan.

Good for these groups, good for Varso, good for Escondido. This is how democracy should work.