San Jose City Council met Tuesday on Zoom and in person to discuss three police-related reports during the peak of local Black Lives Matter protests that the San Jose City Clerk posted.
After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, protests took place across cities worldwide. In response to the community concern about policing in San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo and city council members obtained independent assessments regarding the San Jose Police Department from outside professionals who assess policies and manage organizations.
The reports examine the police department in three areas: its response to protest activity, use of force and implementation of principles from President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
The task force examines how to strengthen public trust in police and create strong relationships between the community and law enforcement, according to the White House archives for Barack Obama.
The first report detailed protest activity and was conducted by OIR Group.
OIR Group works with local governments, community members and police agencies to address challenges regarding policing and collaborate on sustainable recommendations, according to its website.
The report was presented by OIR group members Michael Gennaco, Teresa Magula and Julie Ruhlin and presented 32 recommendations for the SJPD.
OIR Group emphasized a need for better tracking in the use of force.
Recommendation number five stated that SJPD and the city should engage with the community as it considers requirements for a protest to be an “unlawful assembly.”
The second recommendation stated that SJPD should ensure all lieutenants are well-versed in the fundamentals of the Incident Command System and capable of serving as the Incident Commander.
The Incident Command System refers to the combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications operating within a structure designed to aid in the management of resources during incident response, according to the Public Health emergency website.
“We have had a chance to briefly look at the police department’s response to our recommendations and we are gratified to see that they are largely in agreement with the thrust of the recommendations,” Gennaco said during the presentation. “The devil will be in the details of course.”
Police Chief Anthony Mata said in response to the report, 28 out of 32 recommendations have been implemented. They are designed for green analysis.
This refers to a color-coded system of budgeting and planning implementations. Green means that the implementations are applied immediately within their current budget. Blue refers to the continuation of existing efforts that are currently implemented. Yellow items are potential or future implementations that require more analysis by the department. The last category is orange, which are items that require collaboration with outside agencies.
“I acknowledge the harm and our actions had on our community and am committed to improving our response in the future,” Mata said at the city council meeting.
Tom Christoff, senior research scientist at CNA, a nonprofit research analysis corporation, presented the next two reports.
Other key recommendations included the use-of-force assessment which stated the SJPD should find a new use-of-force reporting system that allows for “better information entry, case tracking, review, analyses, and summary report creation.”
The report said that the SJPD should have a better definition of “resistance” and state the minimum resistance level needed for each use-of-force option.
The 21st century policing assessment of the SJPD found the department operates with fewer police officers than other cities of similar size and made or implemented progress with action items of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Christoff said he has 188 recommendations that will be divided into four categories going forward.
Councilmember Maya Esparza said while “some of the work” was already underway, the council recognizes there is still a need to ensure innovations for policing are fully implemented.
“I think continuing these efforts ensures that the police department is achieving its goal of treating people with dignity, fairness and respect,” Esparza said at the meeting.
Liccardo said there’s “plenty to pick at” with a total of over 300 recommendations for the SJPD to work on. He raised questions about the reports, saying he wanted to see what the police department is prioritizing.
Near the end of the meeting Liccardo said he sees an “overwhelmingly positive picture.”
“People will need to understand that they do have a department of women and men who are deeply committed to serving them and doing better,” Liccardo said at the meeting.
