Mayor tries to force release as Bay Area News Group prepares to file a lawsuit
In a move the day before this news organization is expected to file a lawsuit over the San Jose Police Department’s failure to release records under a state transparency law, Mayor Sam Liccardo said Thursday he has ordered the city’s public information officer to make the documents public.
But whether the mayor has the power to force the release seems questionable. Under the city charter, Liccardo does not have the authority to directly order the police to do it and so he is relying on a little-used authority over the public information officer, who works for the city manager.
A lawyer for the Bay Area News Group, James Chadwick, called Liccardo’s position “more (of) a positive gesture than a solution.” At issue are records of dozens of police shootings and uses of force by police officers since 2014 that this news organization, along with KQED News and others, requested Jan. 1, 2019, when the police accountability law — Senate Bill 1421 — took effect.
The law requires release of law enforcement records of all shootings and all uses of force that result in great bodily injury. It also requires the release of records about officers who have been found to have committed acts of dishonesty and committed sexual assault.
Police say it would take years
The San Jose Police Department has estimated it would take up to four years to produce the records. But the state public records act requires records to be released “promptly” once a government agency determines it has them. This news organization has been negotiatiating with the Police Department since December to speed up the release. City Attorney Richard Doyle proposed July 9 that the two sides try to resolve the dispute before an arbitrator, a position rejected by BANG’s Senior Editor Bert Robinson.
“Regrettably, we have concluded that we will have to proceed to court to compel the city to follow the law. It is not a step we expected given the current climate, with concerns evident among San Jose residents and cities across the country placing new emphasis on police transparency,” Robinson wrote in response.
In an email Thursday, Chadwick wrote, “I appreciate the mayor’s directive, even if it comes after we told the city we would be filing a lawsuit. But it doesn’t look like the public information office has any more authority than the mayor.”
Police Chief Eddie Garcia did not immediately return a message.
In a phone interview, Liccardo said it is unclear if he will succeed. He wants summary reports of use-of-force cases released within 30 days.
But he lacks the power under the city charter to order the Police Fepartment to comply and said that he was hoping to create “enough forward momentum to get it done.”
SB1421’s sponsor, Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, has introduced SB776, that if passed would strengthen the law and require the release of additional records, including officers found to have engaged in racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic behavior.