Citizen input, state oversight needed to reform policing
While the weeks-long gavel-togavel televised trial of fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is outraging a nation with gut-wrenching testimony and graphic videos of the in-custody death of George Floyd, the Bakersfield City Council met behind closed doors to discuss the state Department of Justice’s investigation of its police officers’ behavior.
So far, city officials aren’t talking about the City Council’s private discussion of the pending conclusion of the state’s four-year investigation of alleged civil rights violations. But that silence likely will soon end and combine with citizen recommendations to bring long-demanded local law enforcement reforms.
During a Minneapolis arrest last year, Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground and knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes until paramedics arrived. Much of that time, until Floyd became unresponsive and later was pronounced dead, Floyd begged for his life and screamed he could not breath. Bystanders futilely pleaded for mercy.
Bystander videos of Floyd’s death circled the globe, inciting street protests and demands for police reforms in cities across America, including in Bakersfield.
In response to local protests, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and Bakersfield Police Department formed citizen advisory committees to hear local concerns and recommendations for police reforms.
Citizen recommendations that were handed to the Bakersfield City Council in a report last month address issues ranging from the way the city’s police force handles citizen complaints to how officers are recruited and hired.
As important as these citizen outreach efforts are, the conclusion of the state’s investigations of both the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the Bakersfield Police Department add necessary state oversight to assure real reforms get implemented.
In February, the state Attorney General named Joseph Brann and Dr. Angela Wolf, two prominent law enforcement consultants, to monitor an agreement reached with Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood to settle the state’s accusations regarding his deputies. When an agreement is reached with the city, Brann and Wolf should be assigned to monitor Bakersfield reforms, as well.
Constitutional violations alleged in the Justice Department complaint against the Sheriff’s Office included unreasonable uses of force, especially with canines; unreasonable stops, searches, arrests and seizures; and failure to appropriately supervise officers. Also targeted was the department’s use of deadly force against individuals with mental health disabilities, as well as failing to maintain a program to investigate civilian complaints.
The Justice Department investigations of the Sheriff’s Office and Bakersfield Police Department were started by former Attorney General Kamala Harris in 2016 after a series of high-profile shootings involving local law enforcement officers.
The most controversial shooting occurred in 2016 when a Bakersfield police officer killed Francisco Serna, a 73-year-old man with dementia, who was approaching with his hand in his pocket. Serna was not carrying a gun. Only a plastic crucifix was found in his pocket.
Harris said her investigation of the two law enforcement agencies was prompted by citizen complaints, lawsuits and media reports, including a 2015 newspaper series of stories in The Guardian, which alleged law enforcement in Kern County killed more people per capita than in any other U.S. community.
In December, just days before he left office to join the Biden administration, then Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the state’s agreement to settle its investigation of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
“It won’t happen overnight, and we’ll all have to stay on task,” Becerra said. “But these are the steps our communities want to see us launch for safer neighborhoods.”
To assure citizens local policing reforms will “stay on task,” Wolf and Brann are assembling a team of experts to assist with monitoring the Sheriff’s Office over the next five years. Similar state oversight of Bakersfield Police Department by the same team should be required.
The bulk of Kern County’s population lives in metropolitan Bakersfield, which is patrolled by sheriff’s deputies and police officers.
No matter where they live — within the city or county jurisdictions — residents of metropolitan Bakersfield should expect to receive the same efficient, respectful and fair law enforcement services.