Measure G would make San Jose police more accountable

“Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In the four months since the killing of George Floyd, Americans of every color and creed have cried out for racial justice, reform and reimagination of public safety in America’s cities. We have employed our voices, and now it is incumbent upon us to deploy our votes.

For five years, faith-based congregations throughout San Jose, working through People Acting in Community Together, have pushed for greater institutional accountability and transparency in the San Jose Police Department. Creating King’s “beloved community” in San Jose requires that every resident feel confident that San Jose police officers protect and serve all of us, and that each officer will be held to the highest standards of conduct. Among other important policy changes, PACT has sought to expand the authority of the city’s Independent Police Auditor to review every officer-involved shooting and consequential use of force, and to have full access to police reports, data and bodyworn camera footage. The San Jose City Charter limits the IPA’S authority and scope, however, so any expansion of the IPA’S duties requires voter approval.

In San Jose Measure G, we have the opportunity to take some critically important first steps. Measure G’s passage would make police more accountable by mandating a full and independent review of every police use of force that results in serious bodily injury. Typically, the IPA only has the authority to review such incidents if someone has the courage to come forward to file a complaint. This expansion of review will ensure that a police altercation will not avoid independent scrutiny because of a witness’s fear of retribution, immigration status or other factors. It also ensures that the IPA will have full access to all evidence necessary to evaluate each incident fairly.

Voter approval of Measure G would do something even more important: It will enable the City Council to expand the responsibilities and scope of the IPA in the future, without having to wait every two years to put a measure on the ballot to do so. The city needs to have the flexibility to alter mechanisms for accountability in this fastchanging landscape of urban policing.

In particular, PACT and other advocates for police accountability have long sought to enable the IPA to have full investigatory authority over police misconduct cases — and not merely the power to review investigations conducted by SJPD’S own internal affairs unit. In recent months, Americans have moved well beyond the point of feeling satisfied with relying on the police to police themselves. San Jose needs independent investigatory authority.

One of us, Reverend Ray, has urged moving misconduct investigations outside of SJPD for several years, while the other, Mayor Sam, publicly announced his commitment to do so in June, as part of a nine-part reform plan. Two months later, a unanimous City Council agreed, but the city cannot move forward under the charter’s existing restrictions unless we pass Measure G first.

In two other areas of governance, Measure G will make San Jose more accountable, inclusive and equitable. It will expand the number of planning commissioners, so that every geographic district will have a role in critical decisions on matters relating to affordable housing, land use and community development. Measure G will also fix a decades-old conflict between the late arrival of decennial census returns and rigid deadlines for completing a community process for redistricting of council seats.

Measure G will improve the likelihood that every San Jose resident will be heard, protected, represented, counted and respected. That’s why the council unanimously placed Measure G on the ballot, supported by a broad coalition of community organizations, including the San Jose Police Officers’ Association and The Mercury News. Many have righteously taken to the streets to press for change, but in a democracy, the ultimate responsibility remains with each of us to take action to create a beloved community. Let’s vote.