Council sends back audit over ‘misleading’ race claim
In an unusual move, City Council declined to accept the report because of a claim it disputes
SAN JOSE » In an unusual move, the San Jose City Council sent back an annual report from the city’s Independent Police Auditor, citing its suggestion of ra- cial disparities in certain useof-force cases that the auditor later acknowledged were “misleading.”
It was the first time the City Council has ever rejected the report, after Mayor Sam Liccardo called out the discrepancy at a council meeting Tuesday night. Police auditor Aaron Zisser was told to revise the report, which will be reviewed in two weeks.
“Ultimately I don’t think it enhances the credibility of the work that you’re doing, which is very important work,” Liccardo said to Zisser.
The conflict revolved around part of the report that indicated white suspects who resisted po- lice were more likely to end up with no charges filed against them, and that of all suspects who were not charged after a confrontation, white suspects invariably were taken to psychiatric care as opposed to minority suspects who were taken to jail.
That conclusion was drawn from SJPD’s new public online use- of-force data dashboard. But this news organization reported in a story last week that a handful of arrests were used as the basis of the disparity claim. Further analysis showed that the report based another key finding on just three arrests. The report stated that 7 percent of Latinos, 17 percent of blacks, and 20 percent of Asians went to jail under the same conditions as white
suspects who were later not charged.
“If there was just any change in any variability in one person and one incident in any of those categories, it would lead to a completely different conclusion,” Liccardo said.
Zisser was receptive to the assessment, and later promised to clear up the discrepancy in revisions.
“I think the criticism is fair. I think the use of percentages rather than numbers, I can see now, that was misleading,” he said.
But Zisser and the council, with Liccardo joined by Councilman Raul Peralez, sparred over whether the report needed to be formally corrected, or just givenmore context.
Zisser, while acknowledging the missteps in presenting the data issue, stood by its integrity, saying the data extracted of the SJPD online dashboard was meant to show the limits of its usefulness for the public.
“This is a good lesson learned for a new IPA,” he said, while adding that correcting the report “sets a bad precedent.” Councilman Lan Diep was sympathetic to that stance, voicing concern about encroaching the independence of Zisser’s office and “micromanaging” by the council.
Liccardo sought to convey the gravity of how minimally substantiated racial disparity claims could harm the city.
“This is what gets quoted in the newspaper. This is what litigants use, quoting official city documents,” he said. “The impact of a printed report from a top official in the city of San Jose is significant and it’s not something that’s going to blushed over. It’s about race and and it’s about cops. It’s going to get cited a lot.”
Police Chief Eddie Garcia said he is not averse to criticism, but echoed sentiments he shared last week when the report first surfaced.
“There was no need to embellish this type of information and misrepresent this police department,” Garcia said. “In this case, it was the mayor and council who were the ones who were complete, thorough, fair and objective.”
For his part, Zisser on Wednesday said he was less concerned about the criticism as he was about the controversy’s potential to overshadow the report’s valid points and the relevant issues brought up at the council meeting. He referred to the family members of various people killed in police shootings in San Jose over the past decade who gave poignant testimonials about their losses with the aim of putting a human face on issues involving use of force, particularly with those suffering from men-
“Moving forward, I’ll definitely have issueswith the veracity of things that come out of that office. The accountability model we have here could be used as a national standard. That’s been blemished.” — Eddie Garcia, police chief
tal illness.
“My worry is this unforced error on my part is going to cause those messages and personal accounts to be overshadowed,” Zisser said. For now, Garcia is wary. “Moving forward, I’ll def initely have issues with the veracity of things that come out of that office,” he said. “The accountability model we have here could be used as a national standard. That’s been blemished.”
The San Jose Police Off icers’ Associat ion pounced on the controversy as an opportunity to discredit Zisser.
“It’s shocking that Mr. Zisser, whose of fice is supposed to stand for transparency, trust and integrity, has violated those very principles by deliberately misleading the council in his annual report,” union president Paul Kelly said in a statement. “His credibility is irreparably damaged.”
That’s criticism taken too far for Raj Jayadev, director of the civil-rights group Silicon Valley DeBug.
“This is the type of controversy that only seems to resonate with those that are within the walls of City Hall,” said Jayadev, who was in attendance Tuesday night.
“If people’s takeaway from last night was what was on page 35, public officials are missing what the community is saying is of most concern,” he added.
Garcia called references to testimonials Tuesday a smoke screen.
“I am completely empathetic and was also moved by the pain these families feel,” he said. “But that can’t be an excuse to mislead the council and community around data that had nothing to do with the tragedy surrounding of f icer- involved shootings.”
Coming ful l circle, Zisser restated that the misleading force finding was an aberration in his methodology, and in hindsight shouldn’t have published it without further study.
“I’m committing, if the chief will commit with me, to putting into place a process where we flesh out this data,” Zisser said. “This one admit tedly fell through the cracks. I want to look forward while remedying the concerns.”