Marin City concerns need to be heard

Marin City residents’ complaints about their neighborhood being a training ground for Marin County Sheriff’s deputies is not new.

But it’s about time the Sheriff’s Office responds to them, not defensively, but by making changes that could help foster longer-term relationships and respect between the residents and local law enforcement.

If Sheriff Robert Doyle isn’t going to make them, we expect to hear proposals from the candidates running for his job in 2022.

The complaints were heard at a recent forum held at the Cornerstone Community Church in Marin City. The session, attended by about 70 people — in person and online — was organized by the Phoenix Project Marin and the Marin City Ministerial Alliance.

The complaint is that by the time new deputies get to know the beat and the people they are assigned to protect, they are reassigned to other beats or divisions.

The rotation doesn’t build a strong foundation for community policing, where officers’ knowledge of the community — especially local residents and businesses — is integral to building trust and respect between residents and law enforcement.

Most police departments in Marin have much smaller jurisdictions and maintaining that contact between police and residents is easier.

The challenge the sheriff’s department is facing are the four distinct sectors. Most of its training takes place in the Southern Marin sector, part of which includes Marin City, and the beat that includes San Rafael and unincorporated Novato.

Those are the two busiest sectors, providing more onthe-job training opportunities.

The other sectors cover unincorporated parts of the Ross Valley and West Marin.

Deputies also receive training in working in the county jail.

There’s a lot of value in providing deputies experience in each of the sectors, but that means deputies are often reassigned before the community gets to know them and they get to know the community.

The challenge the sheriff’s department is facing are the four distinct sectors.

In addition, some speakers at the forum said, those new deputies don’t have the same level of experience as the department’s veterans.

The Sheriff’s Office sent Undersheriff Jamie Scardina, one of the 2022 candidates to succeed Doyle, and Lt. Pierre Ahuncain to the forum to explain the department’s training program, hear residents and respond to their concerns.

That night’s dialogue should be a good start, not the end result.

Recent group sessions involving deputies and Marin City’s Black and Latino residents preceded the forum.

Some residents complained that some of their interactions with deputies indicated that officers didn’t really know the community; that they, their children or others would have been treated differently if the deputies were more attuned to local residents and their circumstances.

They want the benefits of a small town police force, not being a piece of a bigger beat and a larger department.

As one longtime Marin

City resident and community leader, Carol Thomas, framed it, they want deputies to be more attuned to “our lived experience.”

That should be the goal of every police force and that takes time, time getting to know the community and time getting to know residents and businesses — at all hours.

Many Marin City residents argue that there has got to be a better way to address their needs and those of the department.

The department should be open to considering potential changes that could enhance their important jobs and respect concerns repeatedly expressed by Marin City residents.