City Council embraces Mayor's fundamental police reforms, votes to move ahead
The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously Wednesday, July 1 to implement proposals by Mayor Darrell Steinberg to appoint an independent Inspector General to review police use-of-force cases and to shift a significant portion of 911 calls to a new non-law enforcement department of mental and social work professionals.
The meeting took place against a backdrop of a spike in shootings and homicides in Sacramento. Police Chief Daniel Hahn said the city had experienced 24 homicides so far this year, up from 18 at the same point last year. Representatives of the Advance Peace diversion program detailed how they are trying to counter a spike in gang violence by engaging potential shooters in their personal development program, but said their work had been made more difficult by the Covid-19 stay-at-home orders.
At the same time, the City has seen sustained protests against police use of force, prompted by the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, along with calls to “defund” the Police Department.
The Council directed City Manager Howard Chan to work with Councilmember Rick Jennings to find more funding for early gang prevention and to come back at the July 21st meeting with a comprehensive funding plan for early intervention.
“We’ve got to get money to the community and the groups that are on the front lines of fighting this, now,” Mayor Steinberg said.
The Council also heard presentations from the Police Department outlining how its policies largely comply with the 8cantwait.org initiative and from Mario Guerrero, chair of the Sacramento Police Review Commission, on recommendations from the commission on how the department could strengthen its policies. Mayor Steinberg and the council members directed the Police Department and the City’s Office of Police Safety Accountability (OPSA) to quickly and thoroughly review the recommendations and come back to the City Council with a response in the coming weeks.
After more than five hours of debate and public comment, the Council then voted to create a new Inspector General position within OPSA. The Inspector General would have the full authority to investigate officer-involved shootings and use-of-force incidents that result in serious bodily injury or death. While the City Manager will retain the authority to make the final decision in officer disciplines or terminations, the IG will have the ability to make public recommendations before those decisions are made, which is a fundamental departure from the current system.
The Sacramento Community Police Review Commission will also have the power to take the IG’s recommendations and make its own public recommendation, thus creating a second layer of accountability.
Currently, review of use-of-force incidents takes place “behind closed doors,” Mayor Steinberg said.
“That creates a crisis of credibility and confidence in us as policy members,” Mayor Steinberg said. “We can’t even know in the end in many cases what the disposition or the outcome of the case was. I submit that that’s a fundamental problem.”
The second major reform the Council embraced Wednesday was the Mayor’s proposal to shift a significant portion of 911 calls away from a law enforcement response to a new unit staffed with mental health and social work professionals. Examples of the types of calls that could be diverted include those for people having mental health crises or those involving homelessness.
Council members authorized the expenditure of $5 million in general fund dollars to start the new department and to direct City Manager Howard Chan to designate an interim director to lead the effort. They voted to shift not just police calls but Fire Department calls as well.
“When it comes to the department’s call volume and their budget, they are asked to go out to a lot of calls that don’t involve underlying serious criminal conduct, and that don’t require an officer,” Mayor Steinberg said.
Deputy Police Chief Kathy Lester said the department supports the idea of diverting a portion of 911 calls to a non-law enforcement unit, citing the success of the model in Eugene, Ore., which has had such a differentiated response for 30 years. Other cities around the country are also looking at pursuing this model. Lester noted that about 13 percent of the calls received by the police department are considered low risk.
“Overall, we want people to be safe and get service from someone who can help them the most, and sometimes that’s not the police,” she said.
Finally, the Council voted to endorse two pieces of legislation: AB 1506 division and AB 2054. AB 1506 would create an investigative unit in the state Department of Justice to review officer-involved deadly force incidents at the request of local law enforcement officers, and to pursue criminal charges against officers if warranted. AB 2054 would authorize grants to community organizations to provide culturally informed responses to emergency situations.
