Sacramento Community Police Review Commission Meeting - March 8, 2021

The Sacramento Community Police Review Commission held a teleconference meeting on Monday, March 8, 2021, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:28 p.m. Eight commissioners were present; Commissioners Eddie Escobar and Erandi Zamora were absent. The commission approved the consent calendar, reappointed its chair and vice chair for 2021, established four new ad hoc committees, received a detailed police oversight presentation from the League of Women Voters of Sacramento County and the ACLU, and took up follow-up items. No verbal public comments were received via the public comment phone lines for any agenda item.

Chair's Update

• Chair Mario Guerrero reported that he was working with the mayor and council members to place the commission's outstanding 2018-2019 recommendations on a future City Council agenda, including use-of-force last resort language, an ethnic studies course requirement for cadets, drug testing, and pursuit-related recommendations. He urged each commissioner to brief their appointing council member.
• He clarified that proposed updates to the commission's internal rules of procedure had been sent to the City Clerk and City Attorney for review and would return for a future vote. He also noted that a letter to the City Manager from the prior meeting had been sent, and he planned to propose new ad hoc committees based on conversations with external stakeholders.

Consent Calendar

• The commission approved the February 8, 2021 meeting minutes; received and filed the October-December 2020 Police Complaint Activity Report; and dissolved the Mental Health, Rules and Procedures, and Discipline and Accountability Ad Hoc Committees. The motion was made by Commissioner Elkarra, seconded by Vice Chair Carter, and passed 8-0 with two absent.
• OPSA Director LaTesha Watson noted that the October-December report is the last quarterly complaint report in the current format; future 2021 reports will include more detailed information about complaint allegations that come through Internal Affairs.

Election of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson for 2021

• Commissioner Castillo-Krings nominated Mario Guerrero for chair, seconded by Commissioner Elkarra. Commissioner Falcon nominated Renee Carter for vice chair, seconded by Chair Guerrero. Each position had one accepted nomination, so Guerrero and Carter assumed the offices for calendar year 2021 without a contested vote. No public callers commented on this item.

Ad Hoc Committees for 2021

• Chair Guerrero proposed committees on crowd and riot control/de-escalation and on media policy, based on conversations with the ACLU, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the National Press Photographers Association. Commissioner Bliss requested that surveillance practices be included in the crowd/riot control scope; Chair Guerrero said the written scope could address that.
• Commissioner Castillo-Krings proposed mental health/alternative response and community engagement committees; Chair Guerrero proposed a budget committee to coordinate with Measure U. Commissioner Falcon expressed concerns about workload and technology access during COVID-19; Vice Chair Carter responded that the commission should proceed if members are willing to do the work. The commission combined community engagement with media policy, creating four committees:
  • Crowd, Riot Control, and De-escalation: Chair Keyan Bliss, Mario Guerrero, Basim Elkarra
  • Community Engagement and Media Policy: Chair Graciela Castillo-Krings, Mario Guerrero, Richard Falcon
  • Budget: Chair Keyan Bliss, Mario Guerrero
  • Mental Health and Alternative Response: Chair Richard Falcon, Keyan Bliss, Graciela Castillo-Krings, Michael Marion
• Commissioner Savage-Sangwan said she would leave at the end of April and did not join an ad hoc; Vice Chair Carter said she would decide later. The motion to establish the four committees was made by Commissioner Elkarra, seconded by Commissioner Marion, and passed 8-0 with two absent.

League of Women Voters and ACLU Presentation

• Susie Bacher, President of the League of Women Voters of Sacramento County, Norma Nelson, and Marshall Arnwine of the ACLU of Northern California presented. Bacher described LWV's criminal justice reform work, including support for AB 392 and a study of Sacramento's compliance and oversight.
• Arnwine acknowledged SPD's recent progress on its use-of-force policy, but took the position that the policy is still not fully compliant with AB 392. He cited the placement of perceived by language and sections that mix the reasonable and necessary standards, and urged SPD to remove inconsistent language and use verbatim AB 392 language throughout the policy.
• Nelson said the city council should hold public hearings and act on police reform recommendations, hold executive staff accountable, address systemic issues such as hiring, retention, and collective bargaining management rights, provide resources and possibly independent legal counsel to the commission, adopt community policing with sustained input from impacted communities, and improve public access to written reports. The LWV report had been sent to every council member; the group had met with four council members or their representatives, had meetings scheduled with two or three more, and had not yet met with the mayor or Councilmember Jennings. Commissioner Falcon committed to recommending that Councilmember Jennings meet with the group.
• In response to commissioner questions, Deputy Chief Lester said the city attorney's office had previously given an opinion that SPD is in compliance with AB 392. Chair Guerrero noted a color-coded matrix from a prior meeting and said he would send examples of outstanding recommendations to Deputy Chief Lester for follow-up before the next meeting.
• Commissioners also discussed making the presentation public; OPSA staff said the presentation was not submitted by the agenda-packet deadline. Commissioners agreed to work on posting it through minutes or a future agenda link. Senior Deputy City Attorney Audrey Anderson-White said city policy governs websites and social media but nothing legally prevents the commission from having them.

Follow-Up Log and Staff Updates

• The follow-up log was received and filed. No OPSA staff report was given. Deputy Chief Lester directed commissioners to the SAC PD recruiting page, which links to POST qualifications. Chair Guerrero requested presentations from the ACLU/Lawyers' Committee and the National Press Photographers Association at the April meeting.

Commissioner Comments: Website and Transparency

• Vice Chair Carter pressed for a commission website or public posting of the commission's clean 2018-2020 recommendations, saying it was ridiculous that the commission still lacked basic public tools. Director Watson explained that OPSA does not control the commission's webpage and that city processes may be slow because many commissions make similar requests. Chair Guerrero asked each commissioner to contact their appointing council member about the issue.

Key Outcomes

• Approved the consent calendar (8-0, Escobar and Zamora absent).
• Reappointed Mario Guerrero as Chair and Renee Carter as Vice Chair for calendar year 2021.
• Established four 2021 ad hoc committees with initial membership (8-0, Escobar and Zamora absent).
• Received and filed the League of Women Voters/ACLU presentation and the follow-up log.
• Directed staff to invite the ACLU/Lawyers' Committee and the National Press Photographers Association to the April meeting.
• Requested OPSA to transmit the website/posting request to the City Clerk and continued advocacy for public access to commission recommendations.
• The meeting adjourned at 8:28 p.m.

Note: The agenda and transcript direct callers for matters not on the agenda to phone queue 6, while the published minutes direct them to queue 7. The agenda and minutes also assign the same File ID (2021-00240) to both the complaint activity report (Item 2) and the dissolution motion (Item 3), which appears to be a clerical typo.