Good evening.

Welcome to the November 3rd, 2025 meeting of the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission.

The meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Member Sample is absent.

Member Johnson.

Member Coleman.

Member Corbs.

Present.

Member Griggs.

Member Lewis is absent.

Member Gian Gianulius is absent.

Member Brookins.

Member Espinoza Salazar.

Present.

And uh Vice Chair Wen Rostro is currently absent.

And Chair Carter Martinez.

Present.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

I would like to remind members of the public and chambers that if you would like to speak on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip when the item begins.

To provide greater community participation in our commission's work, we will allow more time for members of the public to give comments, and we'll ask the clerk to accept speaker slips until the final speaker has concluded their comments.

For matters not on the agenda, you will have five minutes to speak once you are called.

For members for matters listed on the agenda, you will also have my excuse me five minutes to speak once you are called.

We'll now proceed with today's agenda.

We'll start with the land acknowledgement and pledge of allegiance.

Please rise.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather today in the active practice of acknowledgment and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous people's history, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

All right.

So our first business today is public comments matters not on the agenda.

We're moving it to the front so that people don't have to stay for the whole meeting if they have comments they want to make for matters not on the agenda.

So as a reminder for the public, you will have five minutes to speak.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on public comments matters not on the agenda?

Thank you, Chair.

I have two members of the public who have turned in speaker slips.

Our first member is Clayton Buchanan.

Thank you for allowing me to do this.

I'm not here as a police captain, I'm here as the vice president for the Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association.

And I just want to clarify some things.

I could go back to September of eight, 2018.

So I just want to clarify that and set the fact straight that we don't give to the elected officials for the scale of the Sacramento City Exemptive Police Association.

That's all I have, and I won't take any more time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our last speaker is Henry Harry.

Thank you, members of the commission.

Um, I really appreciate appreciate you guys uh being here, uh being away from your families to make our city better.

Um, some of you guys, or hopefully most of you guys have a letter that I presented to the mayor last month.

I tended to get it to you guys right away, but um right after I gave it to the mayor, some of my plans changed.

I left town for about three weeks.

I've been back about a week and I've been busy every day.

So here we are tonight, and uh you have this letter again.

If I had an email uh way of contacting you, I would have gotten you this sooner.

So uh two key points in this letter is that uh I am challenging the mayor or the council on their uh attempt to be both the managers of the police department, and to call themselves independent overseers of the police department, it's one system the system of a city council, the city manager, and a police department.

They're the system, and yet the city council holds itself out as trying to be an independent oversight arm of the police department, and I'm just not buying it, and so I'm challenging the mayor and the council on the legitimacy of that, and ultimately it is this body of trusted individuals that should be overseeing the police department again, one man's view, but I'll keep working on that, and then the second part of that letter, and I mentioned this to you guys before, but I followed through on it in getting this letter to the council and to the mayor.

The second part suggests that there should be some type of mechanism where the mayor is involved or has some eyes on the discipline of officers before it's finalized in the most serious cases.

I don't believe the mayor should be involved in every aspect of discipline and officers in the police department that would be inappropriate.

But there are some cases where the mayor should have eyes on the proposed discipline before it's implemented because if it's not, you could have a very serious uh violator keeping his job with the police department because no one said to the chief of police, hey, this this discipline is just way too light for what this person did.

And um I'll just say that that working as a police officer, there was at least one incident where my partners and my co-workers, we would look at one particular person, and we would scratch our heads and we would say, how did that guy keep his job?

How is he still here?

And it was an embarrassment to the officers.

We were frustrated, but that that person kept their jobs for years, and so what I'm proposing to the mayor is that um he at least gets a chance to understand what the discipline is on some very serious issues before it's finalized, and you guys have that information here.

It may be outside of your purview for now, but I'm working on that, so we'll see how that plays out.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

Harry.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

I have no more speaker slips for matters not on the agenda.

All right, um, thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Is there a motion and a second for the consent calendar?

Motion and a second.

Second.

No, and I read a motion first.

Sorry.

Second.

Okay, Commissioner Johnson.

I have a motion by Commissioner Johnson and a second by Commissioner Espinosa Salazar.

Will the clerk please call the roll for the vote?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Sample is absence.

Commissioner Johnson.

Present.

Commissioner Coleman.

Commissioner, I'm sorry.

Uh I will need on a motion.

I will need either a yes or no.

So I'll repeat.

Uh Commissioner Johnson.

Yes.

Uh Commissioner Coleman.

Yes.

Commissioner Corbs.

Yes.

Vice Chair Buen Rostro is absence.

Commissioner Griggs?

Yes.

Commissioner Lewis is absent.

Commissioner Gianulius is absent.

Commissioner Brookins?

Yes.

Commissioner Espinoza Salazar.

Yes.

And Chair Carter Martinez.

I'm going to abstain because I was absent last meeting.

Can I do that?

Yes.

And with that, the motion does pass.

All right.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioners and Clerk.

We will now proceed to the discussion calendar.

Item number one.

I'm sorry, item number two is the 2026 work plan.

Um so I will talk about this for a moment and then open it up for conversation.

As a commission, we need to create a work plan for 2026, what we hope to accomplish, what our goals are, what our tasks are going to be, what we hope for the committees to do, and any other work we want to accomplish in 2026.

So I wanted to have a conversation with folks about um best ideas for how we can accomplish this, and if there are any volunteers who want to work on the work plan for 2026.

So I will open it for conversation if you can.

Are we discussing the work plan or discussing if you want to be a part?

Yes, if you'd like to be a part of putting it together.

Okay.

I would definitely like to be a part of that.

All right, thank you, Commissioner Coleman.

Um I'm gonna volunteer to also be a part of putting the work plan together.

My goal, my hope is that we can have an outline for the next meeting and um in our January meeting adopted after we get feedback on the outline.

So we'll have some work to do between now and our next meeting.

Is there anyone else that would like to volunteer to work on the work plan?

Uh Commissioner Buen Rostro.

You can include me in the work plan.

Okay, sweet.

All right, um, anybody else that would like to work on the work plan?

Going once, going twice.

All right, sold.

Thank you for the volunteers.

And again, we I will convene a meeting um within the next week or two so that we can put together an outline.

We'll flesh it out more in the December meeting and then adopt it in our January meeting.

All right.

Um, I forgot to ask if there are any members of the public who wish to speak on this item.

Well, thank you, Chair.

We have no speaker slips for this item, and then for the record, we didn't have any speaker slips for the consent calendar as well.

Okay, great.

All right, agenda item number three is Commissioner Communications with Media and other agencies.

And I believe we discussed this in our last meeting, and it was pretty much hashed out, but I wanted to see if anybody had any additional feedback or if there was anything we didn't discuss last time that we needed to talk about again in this meeting, um, we'll now turn it over to public comment as a reminder for the public.

You have five minutes to speak on discussion calendar items.

So would anybody in the public, is there any speaker slips?

Thank you, Chair.

I do have one speaker slip for this item, item number three.

Uh Henry Harry.

All right.

Thank you again, Commissioners.

Um, I am just unclear about some things.

I don't um I did not catch what was going on at your last meeting, so it sounded like you guys have discussed this.

So I'm just trying to cover all my bases with these comments.

Um I'm just trying to figure out if uh you guys are clarifying some existing rules about who gets to communicate, um, or or are you just tightening up who gets to speak on behalf of the commission?

And then uh I'm trying to figure out if you guys are you know reaffirming or if you're going to limit uh individual members can uh speak um or make comments as individual commissioners, and so um like I said I said all of this to cover my basis because I just want to pass on the message that um I want every commissioner to be able to speak as individuals as to what's going on here, and I'm hoping that nothing hampers that nothing hampers uh any one of you guys experiencing something, you're a trusted member of the community that's why you're here and to be able to relate it to the public as you interpret things would be helpful.

So I'm hoping that there is nothing that trips any of you guys up from being able to experience something and then being able to share it with the media, share it at a meeting uh without fear that you're getting in some kind of trouble.

Um, finish up by saying this, as you guys are discussing this.

I hope you're not doing anything to limit yourself within this commission.

Because if you do, I think you'll be shooting yourself in the foot, and you should not limit yourself, and if there's gonna be some limits put on an individual communicating, make the council do it and then we can have that fight over at City Council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Harry.

Clerk, are there any other members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Uh thank you, Chair.

I have no additional speaker slips.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Commissioner Corps, thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry, Commissioner Corps.

Thank you.

Um, so I know that we get emails uh from the city clerk's office asking us if we would like to provide or reach out to members of the media that have reached out to the commission because they have questions about items, and when that happens, the communication is if you speak to the media, you have to let them know that you're speaking on behalf of yourself and not the commission.

Correct?

Yes, yes.

I'm looking at I'm looking at the city clerk here, and he is not looking at me.

Yes, that is that is the uh that's the communication that we'll forward to uh commissioners if we receive right, right, right.

And so, but if we want to go to city council and we want to speak, and I've never, you know, I've gone to city council numerous times when I was not on the commission, but moving forward, if I'm gonna go to city council and I'm gonna speak on something that has to do with the police department, I would assume that I would say that I'm here speaking on behalf of myself and not the commission.

Is that correct?

Yes, okay, that's correct.

So I just want to make sure that that's the case so that um, and I think that's what that was the communication we had last time.

Was that comments were made?

I don't need to rehash that, but whoever wants to go to city council, and if you're gonna speak it's not on behalf of the commission unless like last time when it was um uh MEU and all that kind of stuff, and they were saying how did the meeting go?

Then we can, but that would be for you or Vice Chair Buen Rostro to go, you're like presenting the work plan, yeah.

Okay, all right.

I just wanted to clarify that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Corps.

Um, are there any other commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

All right, um, no vote is required on this item, so we'll move on to the next uh item number four is ad hoc committee report back.

So, um I'd like to hear from each of the ad hoc committees on the work that has happened since the last meeting.

Um we'll start with the engagement and function committee.

Yes, go ahead, Commissioner Quartz.

Cancel okay.

Sorry, I didn't realize that was the name of my committee.

Okay, so uh Commissioner Sample couldn't be here tonight.

We had an ad hoc meeting, what a couple of weeks ago, and a couple of items on our agenda were after speaking with Commissioner Brookens.

How are we going to implement everything he talked about?

We still don't have an idea of what we're gonna do with that.

As much as we would like to figure something out, we take all suggestions, Commissioner Brookins, on how we can take what you're doing with the uh our young population and exposing them to the police department to have a better relationship.

We just talked about how great that was, but we weren't sure exactly how to move forward, so it's still on our agenda and we still talk about it.

Um, and then the other thing too was when um Commissioner Espinoza Salazar, who is at SAC State, we talked about because she deals with um college-aged kids, just like we had an MEU meeting, because that seems to be the time when we can talk to the public without having any restrictions, maybe doing something at SAC State.

So that was kind of we threw that out there a little bit, and I think we're still gonna be talking about that.

Nothing has been set in stone, and then the last thing we talked about was uh training and orientation, which has been on our list of things to talk about for quite some time for our new commissioners.

I still consider myself new.

What type of training and onboarding do we need to do?

And there's been so much discussion about that because if we do anything off site, we can't have a quorum, right?

And so, how are we gonna do that?

Um, Blake Norton provided a very nice outline of training opportunities for everybody, but again, we already have our commission meeting, we have our ad hoc meetings, we just didn't feel it was right to have a third meeting on the on people's schedules per month.

So actually, Commissioner Sample came up with a good idea about would we be able to do our trainings here, meaning we could either do them for 20 minutes to 30 minutes after each commission meeting, and we could pick the topics and we can do it either every other month or every month or however we want to do it.

Um, there was an again we could share all the topics and we can create an agenda, um, or we could do it where if everybody thinks they might be able to come early.

We could arrive at five and then do it for the first half hour.

I guess for our lovely attorney.

What does that look like?

Would we be able to do training here?

Because it wouldn't necessarily be for the public, it would be for us.

So, would we be able to do like a closed door type training?

Because you don't need to be here.

City clerk doesn't need to be here.

How would that work?

In the past, it has been in an open meeting where trainings have happened.

Okay.

So because you are all meeting and there's over a quorum.

Well, there's a quorum, um, you have to have a public meeting because you're discussing matters within your purview.

So it's only when you're not discussing matters in your purview that all of you can be here, but why wouldn't we do that together?

Um, otherwise it would have to be less than a quorum.

So if you didn't want, you know, necessarily staff, you probably would have to break it down for less than a quorum to be present during these trainings.

So even so we couldn't have them attached to a to one of our commission meetings then.

We could not.

No, you could.

We could.

I would just say you couldn't have um a quorum present.

You would have to have less than a quorum.

So we that's what I'm saying.

We wouldn't be able to do a training with everyone here.

Yeah, no.

Not unless it's an open meeting, Captain Buchanan.

To your idea, what if we did uh half the commission before and half the commission after?

So it's still all commissioned days.

So we could do that.

So half the people could show up at five, and then the other half could stay after.

Less than a quorum.

Whatever that's.

Right.

So half and half, but I mean half and half, right?

That would be so we could potentially do that.

Um I did not bring the training outline with me tonight because I didn't realize that commissioner sample wasn't going to be here.

But there were a good I Blake, I don't know if you how many items were there on that training outline.

There's at least a half a dozen.

Yeah, yeah.

It's pretty weighty and it can be chunked out very easily, right?

And and we can make it like very manageable for you all.

But I did it based on some of the work I did in Philadelphia and some of the just kind of other work, but something for you to share with the commission, and then maybe it would you guys should rank what are what is most of interest to you all, and then um, and then we would help in the places that the police department has a uh significant role, then to develop something that would be easy and digestible and not take too much more time.

But if there's only six items, we could potentially just say we're gonna do all six, yeah.

I mean, unless there's something glaring that people weren't interested in.

And would you then do the training yourself, or you would invite guests from the police department that have expertise in these areas?

Um, so we could do it.

What probably makes the most sense is to by topics identified, we would then identify the and you know, somebody who if the work is closest to them, like a subject matter expert, and have them go through, like for example, we may want to talk to you about patrol operations, right?

And what what's the day in the life of somebody assigned to patrol?

What is the command structure?

Kind of what you know, call-to-call, you know, those things.

And we'd probably pull a captain or a deputy chief to have a conversation with you about kind of understanding patrol functions.

We'd do that for investigations, we could do that um for community engagement.

So, you know, uh certainly Captain Buchanan and I can speak to some of it, but we would love to get you closest to the people working in our department, and it also will allow you all to build some relationships with the people that not only we work with, but you all will be working with as well.

Um, and really it'll depend on the topic.

Um, and so who's best suited to give you the best information, but we have a lot of resources at our fingertips in terms of how people can engage with you all.

So and then back to because this is training, we wouldn't need to have the city.

I mean, they can I guess be here if they wanted to, but they wouldn't necessarily need to be here for these meetings and and the attorney, or would you would you need to be present?

No.

For less than a quarter.

Yeah, no, okay.

And then we obviously wouldn't have this to the public.

I guess these are the types of things we have to hash out because probably don't can't meet here in this room, or could we?

Probably could.

Oh, okay.

Uh Jacob Redberg, obviously the city clerk.

I'd have to um speak with uh our management to make sure that yeah, availability if staff needs to be present and all that.

And then I also will say because there are eleven members on the board, that makes quorum six.

So if you were to split up the trainings to do two and two, there's gonna be an odd man out.

There's gonna be one extra, because you can only do five at a time to not have quorum.

So you'd have a let's say the before and after did work, you'd do it before training of five people and after training of five people, and then there's one person who does not receive that training in the same sessions.

So the chances of everybody showing up to have we had a meeting where everybody's here.

I mean, I guess we'd have to just kind of wing it and then maybe so.

I think a good thing on that is there's a person that was here was gonna be left out.

We could do maybe a a virtual meeting, like I could follow up with that person and give a summary of the topic that was taught.

Right, right.

So I'm something that may be a workaround.

It's a one-off of one person.

Okay, okay.

Well, does anybody have any questions, comments?

Uh, does this sound like something that you all would be interested in doing to avoid having a third potential meeting per month?

Let me call through the speaker list because a bunch of folks have raised their hands.

And oh, perfect.

Probably questions for you.

Oh, I don't know if I can answer them, but all right.

Um, Commissioner Espinosa Salazar.

Oh, um, I just wanted to circle back to um hosting something at SAC State.

Um, I don't necessarily the idea behind it was to um have it at a place that's more convenient for the public.

I know, like a lot of students, they will just like see something interesting happening in the union or something like that, and they'll just stop by.

And so I think that's like a better place for.

I mean, I am there every day, and there's just people walking around and they'll just join.

So um that was sort of the idea was to have more people in the public um come in, and then um I just wanted to know, like, excuse me, um, if that was something you guys are interested in, like I could look into that because I work with event services.

Um I do know that sometimes they only let certain organizations host at SAC State.

Um, so is that something you guys want me to look into?

Or yeah, okay.

Thank you, Commissioner Espinosa Salazar.

Um, I put my hand up also.

I was wanted to say I've been on the commission for three years and I haven't received any training either.

So I think this is um a great idea.

I really um look forward to it, and I think it will help us be able to deepen the work that we're doing.

Um I like the idea of 20 to 30 minutes before and after the meeting.

I think that's great as well.

And um I think uh we should I was gonna recommend reaching out to OPSA because they probably have some trainings that would be suitable for us as well.

So reaching out to them, and then um Blake, if you can send me the outline or Commissioner Corbs, if you can send it to you.

I can pull the group and see like how we um prioritize what people want to be trained in.

Sounds great.

All right, Commissioner Griggs.

I just wanted to add that it seems rarely we have a full commissioner meeting here, so I I think that would probably still work out, no problems before and after.

I'm all for that.

All right, um, would any other commissioners like to speak on this?

Um I just want to say that I'm glad that you all um came up with um the idea to do this.

Um it kind of brings us closer together and gives us a full understanding as we go along from month to month of where we're hidden direction we are, and then it kind of kind of bridges that gap with SPB also.

So thank you very much.

All right, um, anything else, Commissioner Corps?

No, so I will plan to send you the uh the agenda of the educational onboarding topics, and then should we plan in the December meeting?

Will you be able to send that out?

We could put I guess we'll put that on the agenda, and then people can kind of rank and then we'll just go by how it ranks and what's gonna be first, and then we can just all right.

Yeah, sounds great.

That was easier than I thought.

All right, um, thank you.

Our next committee report back will be the community policing and response efficiency committee.

Don't have an update for that.

Okay, so that thank you, Commissioner Wenrosha.

And then the last is the resource allocation and efficiency at impacting public safety committee, um, which is the committee that um Commissioner Lewis Spearheads.

She's not here tonight, and I think uh we didn't have a meeting in the last month because she was ill.

So uh we will have a report back for our next commission meeting.

All right, so any other commissioners wish to speak on committee report backs.

Uh go ahead, Commissioner Buen Rostro.

Very quickly, so as we think about the committees that we had this year, the work that probably is still pending on the committees.

I that's probably great content to think about for the work plan for 2026.

Specifically, are these you know, do we want to continue some of these ad hocs or are there different ad hocs that we should be focused on that would be more in line with what we want to do as a commission?

So just throwing that out there.

Thank you, Commissioner Buenrostro.

Um quick note on your ad hocs have to expire after a year.

So you can't continue on.

It's supposed to be limited term.

That's good to know.

Thank you.

All right.

Um, this item does not require a vote, so we will move on to the next item.

Agenda item number five is the blue envelope program.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you.

I have no speaker slips on item five.

All right, thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Leave me out.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh thank you.

I uh I do have something that I'm gonna read just so I make sure that I get everything uh exactly right, but I'm gonna share what the blue envelope program is to the my fellow commissioners.

I know that Captain Buchanan has a few comments, but we're gonna have a guest speaker, William Cho, who is part of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Review Commission, and he was the one who had brought this to my attention, what the blue envelope program was, and I have to give him credit for uh he has mentioned a couple of times of how can we get the Sheriff's Review Commission and the police review commission to do something together?

How can we collaborate together?

He happened to bring this to my attention, and I said I'll bring it to the commission, and so we'll see.

So I'm sure many of you are sitting here going, what in the world is a blue envelope program?

So I'm gonna just read a few a few sentences here.

Uh, the blue envelope program is an initiative to create safer interactions between law enforcement and members of the disabled or neurodiverse community.

It gives disabled people a visual tool to help them let officers know they have communication barriers due to disabilities, which could require more empathy and patience.

So it's people with autism or other cognitive conditions are provided with tools like a blue envelope, a lanyard or wristband, a seat belt cover.

I'm gonna pass this along and everybody can just take a look at what's inside.

Um, a way to notify responding authorities that the person may require additional patients' support or understanding during law enforcement interactions.

Um, the blue envelope program has already been adopted by other law enforcement agencies in California, like Placer, San Bernardino, San Diego Sheriffs, Auburn, Lincoln, Rockland, and Roseville police departments, and there's been others across the state and the nation.

The blue envelope program originated in Connecticut in January 2020 with the goal of improving communication and safety during traffic stops for drivers with specifically with autism.

It was initiated by a bill passed by the Connecticut State General Assembly that required the Department of Motor Vehicles to create a resource to aid interactions between autistic drivers and police officers, and then that program led to safer, more compassionate interactions between law enforcement and people with cognitive or development conditions.

Um I don't think I need to go into more and more, I just wanted to give you a very basic review of what the program is at this point in time.

I would love to have William Cho come up and introduce himself and share a little bit more about the program.

Do you want me to take that?

Since uh Ms.

Corb's covered it all, I can leave, right?

Good evening, Commissioners.

It's nice to see you.

And uh, for the record, um, and for our new commissioner, Mr.

Coleman, I am William Cho from the County's Sheriff Community Review Commission.

Uh staff, Captain Buchanan.

Very nice to see everyone.

In light of the recent historic meeting between the county board of Supervisors and our city council, I feel this is appropriate.

And I'm here to guide your conversation and fill in the blanks about the blue envelope program, which we were very excited about.

And hopefully we can make this happen countywide.

There's a lot of support for it.

I'll guide you through this high-level overview of the program, and then we'll talk about some nuts and bolts that the captain may be interested in.

As Commissioner Corps stated, we're here because we believe, and I believe that our issues, our common issues, don't stop at lines on a map.

Homeless issues, crime, they don't stop at the city limits or at the county line.

They affect all of us.

So we think cooperation and working together is important in that we don't work in silos.

We have to do this in order to keep our community safer.

Basically, what is a blue envelope?

As Commissioner Corps stated, it's an initiative to create safer interactions between the disabled community and uh public safety members, whether it's law enforcement, fire services, or EMS.

There's all there it not only is there the program aspect of it, but there's a tangible part that you can hold in your hands, which you've done so here with that kit.

Disabled persons can receive a kit that uh signifies that they may require some extra compassion, time and patience when interacting with the public safety officer.

So a lot of times, as the captain can uh share with you, many times on the street when an officer encounters a subject who uh may not be compliant, may be uncooperative, uh, maybe resistant.

Uh the officer doesn't always understand why what's going on in that person's head.

Is there a mental issue?

Is there a substance abuse issue?

Is there something else going on?

A lot of times these cognitive and developmental disabilities may be a factor in that person's inability to comply with a request or command from a from a police officer, and that in turn could lead to unfortunate outcomes.

Uh, the officer could misinterpret that as being resistant or even a threat which would endanger that person and the officer and the public in general.

Some uh instances you might have there, people with cerebral palsy may have tremors that could be misinterpreted by an officer as being guilty, or those shaking system uh symptoms could be misinterpreted as a uh substance abuse disorder or DUI.

Autistic drivers can have a hard time uh and difficulty with communication and with their uh their have that's manifest through their body through their anxious behavior, that could also be uh problematic during an encounter as well.

So what the blue envelope program aims to do is to delineate and clarify, you know, what is a problem versus a misunderstanding that could be easily resolved and de-escalated.

A lot of these uh concepts are backed by data and science.

It's been proven that people with uh IDD or um intellectual and developmental disabilities are overrepresentative in our criminal justice system, uh whether they're victims, survivors, or offenders, uh, and I believe that's because they're they have the inability to advocate for themselves as uh well as you and I could.

You can see the uh organizations there, the government agencies and the other organizations that have conducted this research.

They run the spectrum from uh, well, autism spectrum, uh, Centers for disease Control, data and Statistics on uh autism spectrum Disorder, the Justice Clearing House, the National Institute of Health, and there's a white paper that is very insightful there, and uh some of this research is also available from the U.S.

Health and Human Services Agency.

So there's a lot of support behind this.

It's not just anecdotal or uh media stories, so what happens when this breaks down, and there's an unfortunate encounter.

Unfortunately, we only hear about the bad outcomes.

I think it's important to note that this isn't just something that we hear about on the news as an abstract issue or a problem somewhere else in the world.

I'm pretty sure that uh each and every one of us may know somebody or have a friend or family member who may be physically or mentally disabled.

Um and I remember as a child growing up near my home, there was an Easter SEALs office, and I would see the staff escort groups of disabled people on the street, as they taught them how to ride the bus or shop for groceries.

So these people, our disabled neighbors, our friends and family, they're they're a bigger part of our community and they're interacting and they're functional than maybe we probably realize.

And also, when I served as an SRO, I saw the same thing when I saw the special ed classes being let off campus and being taught the same life skills: how to ride the bus, how to shop for groceries, and and things like that.

So it's it's much more uh bigger part of our lives than we may actually realize.

So, what happens when that breaks down?

Those unfortunate outcomes they happen all too often here in California.

Um we don't hear about the good stories, unfortunately, but most recently in 2024, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, you know, tragically ended a 15-year-old autistic boy's life.

I think that could have been preventable.

There's a lot more context behind these incidents.

We're just demonstrating what could happen if there is a disconnect between that problem and that misunderstanding.

Um 2021, LA County Sheriff's shot and paralyzed an autistic and deaf person because that person failed to follow or respond to an officer's request and commands.

Completely preventable.

It's unfortunate that happened.

So bringing it back here to California, you know, where is it?

Currently, uh, at last count, there are 12 states in the country, uh, including California, and here we have 16 counties and growing.

Uh, I believe there are three more counties coming online here in the next fiscal year.

Uh, there's hundreds of cities that are already involved in this program.

Uh, one city that is notably absent from that is Sacramento.

I find that a little disappointing personally because I think as the capital city, we should be leaders in this.

Here are some of the counties and the cities.

The uh you can see some of the cities that are local to us or adjacent to us that are highlighted that are already participating in this.

Legislation.

I know your uh agenda item uh touched on this, and I'll get into a little bit of that here momentarily.

We have uh AB 2002 in 2024 in SB 664, which were introduced to make this mandatory statewide.

Um Connecticut, as uh was mentioned earlier, was the first state in the country to uh make this statewide, and we also the most recent attempt was uh in the state of Michigan, recently introduced a bill September 25th to uh do this in their state as well.

On a national level, we have a House Resolution 3155, which is introduced this year, and to touch on your agenda item in the description and analysis, paragraph two, uh referencing SB 664.

Just want to clarify it stated that the legislation had failed.

Uh, it didn't go into much more detail than that, but we've I want to share with you, we've been in contact with the uh the senator and the bill's author and some of the other uh legislators involved in this.

The only reason it failed was not for lack of a support, just because of funding.

You know, we're in a tight spot uh fiscally.

So I have uh every belief that they will uh bring this back in the next uh legislative term.

These are some of the supporters of the blue envelope program.

You see on the left side the legislators involved and the co-authors, and also on the right side, uh some of the uh government and community-based organizations, health care agencies, and there was enough space, but there were literally dozens and dozens of uh police officers associations and deputy sheriff's associations, other public safety associations that all support this because they see the value in this and what it does to protect uh the disabled in our communities.

So, implementation, how does this work?

You have three main parts to it.

You have your public safety, your police fire EMS, you have your disabled, and then your community partners, which include businesses, CBOs, health care providers, schools, special ed departments, and service providers there, which include counselors and therapists, and everyone involved in that continuum of care.

The three core uh pillars at the bottom, the communication and outreach.

We all have spheres that we um move around in, but sometimes they may not always interact or cross paths with each other, which is why it's important to have these partnerships to get this information out to those particular communities.

Consistency is important because it has to be consistent countywide.

A disabled person can move from you know our city down to El Grove or to Folsom, and they have to be able to have that same experience with the blue envelope here with you know, hopefully and hypothetically, uh in the future with SAC PD as they do with Folsom PD.

It can't be different.

They rely on that consistency.

Cost savings is also involved because that the cost of the program could also be shared with these community partners as well.

The kit.

This is basically how it works.

It's uh available by request at through public counters.

Um, it's free.

We had a lot of questions about um privacy, things like that.

So we just wanted to make that clear.

There's no registration involved, no questions asked, it's private, it's completely voluntary.

And on the uh other side of that, you can see the items in the kit itself.

Some of these are uh basic fundamental part of the kit, and there's a couple of add-ons in there, uh, and that's completely up to the uh participating agency.

Low investment, high returns.

So this is based off of Plaster County Sheriff's Office model.

Uh for the last uh fiscal year, they purchased 700 kits distributed throughout the communities at the public counters.

Approximate cost about seven, eight dollars per kit, depending on what you what is actually in that kit and you choose to purchase.

Total cost of the program about $5,000.

I know budgets are tight now, but that's actually a drop in the bucket, and we talked about different ways to potentially fund this.

Reaching out to community partners might be viable for the future.

But you know, if each one of us, you know, talks to our city council member, one thousand dollars from their discretionary budget would cover the startup costs and cover the operating costs for at least a year or two.

So that's an easy way to go.

Um I hope this is more palatable than what you might have imagined.

All that translates to real people and real stories.

It's it's not just something you hear about on the news, it's people, it's it's our friends, our family, our colleagues, our co-workers, our loved ones.

So each one of these people has a stake.

You know, Joseph, like the uh sharing his experience.

Um, recommendations from your your family doctor or your counselor or your or your teacher.

And then um Officer Theresa.

She's actually a personal friend of mine from LAPD.

Um, you know, glad to see blue envelopes in her city, and uh being able to help disabled people uh is actually very rewarding for her, so keeps everyone safe.

So I'm not a salesman, but as I keep telling everyone about this, it's low effort, low investment, high returns.

It's something we can do to make a difference without a lot of effort.

So I'm here to guide your conversation, help you with any questions you might have.

I think first I have to ask if there are any members of the public who wish to speak on this item.

Thank you.

We have no speaker slips.

All right, um, are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Uh Commissioner Buen Rostro.

Uh first of all, thank you, Commissioner Corps for putting this on the agenda.

Uh thank you for the presentation as well.

Simple question.

Um, where might the county be in adopting this?

That's the first question.

Uh, what's the status of the county doing this?

And also, what are some steps that we as a commission can take to support this?

Glad you asked that.

So you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

You can use us as a model.

We've actually just approved a uh ad hoc committee from our commission to explore this topic as well.

Um, it's been it's been at least three months since it was formed.

Um so far we've uh reached out to some community partners and um established some meeting dates with them.

So we have a lot of interest.

Uh the executive director of ALTA, which is the community partner for Placer County SO, has stated uh she said she will she's excited about this, and she will do everything she can to support this and bring it to Sacramento County.

And I also met with um Placer County Sheriff Wu on Saturday.

We had a conversation about this, and he said he pledged any support that Sacramento County might need, and Captain, you might be interested.

The lieutenant Passer County Lieutenant in charge of their blue envelope program, former SAC PD alum Michael Quavitz.

So you're in good company.

So I think there's a lot of uh relationships there that we could leverage.

Um we are still in conversations amongst the committee, and uh developing our recommendations for the sheriff, but what we're doing is reaching out to the city, SAC PD.

We believe we may have interest from Folsom PD, L Grove, and I don't believe Citrus Heights will be a problem.

So if the cities get on board um and make this a countywide initiative, um it's already in our surrounding region in YOLO, Sutter, Uba, Placer, El Dorado counties.

Um I don't see why Sacramento couldn't be a part of that.

Um Commissioner Querbs.

Uh thank you uh Commissioner Cho for that presentation.

Uh I know every what's on everybody's mind probably is like the cost, and I love the way that you presented that.

Um, if we each, you know, we could fundraise, we do all this other kind of stuff, but the easiest way is we all represent a council member's district.

They do have discretionary funds.

If everybody asked for a thousand dollars, we could at least get 700 kits.

Um, I do want to ask uh Captain Buchanan, because when I reached out to him about this, uh his initial email was that he they that SAC PD had a similar program but not the same.

Uh so I don't know if you want to talk about that or if it's even pertinent.

Yeah, I I think the program we have is is similar, but it's definitely not this program, it's return me safe.

Um, and it's about returning people that have uh you know dementia or other disabilities.

Um they can register, so if they're located, it's it's chronic misappropriation thing, right?

So to keep them get them back home.

Um our challenges with that, we did a lot of promotion on our social media and internally or externally with all of our platforms, and we've only had a handful of people uh sign up for it in like six months.

So that would be one of the concerns I have if we're gonna make it if anybody would like to make an investment.

Where does that outreach look like to get people involved?

Because I think the program can only be except as successful as getting people to buy into it, right?

Because I do think there's a lot of merit to this, and thank you for uh Commissioner Cho for the presentation.

I think it was excellent.

So I I agree that it's gonna be the marketing behind it, but I I wouldn't I would imagine that our local um media outlets would be very interested.

I know that I believe they already did one uh media, I don't know, post or something about that when I think Placer County Sheriff Scott on board and the news came out and spoke to them about that.

Right.

There's been uh that I know of at least three or four articles about the Placer County rollout into the captain's uh comment um marketing, certainly a big part of that, but that's where the reliance on the community partners comes in.

Uh Placer County did a press release press conference in with their community partners.

Uh the executive director of ALTA was there along with uh business and community representatives who also spoke, and when the program was rolled out, there was a great response from it, and uh a great response from the community as well.

And to the um I I understand there's a parallel program the captain mentioned.

I I understand the value of that particular program, but I have to say this is an apples and oranges, it's it's they have different purposes, different scopes.

Um and I think each has its own value.

And I would agree with you on that.

I think there's this is it for evolving incident, right?

A traffic stop, a contact out there in the community versus the searching for someone that's that's missing.

So I do agree with what you said.

And just a couple of points I want to clarify in uh paragraphs three and four on your agenda item for this.

Um I know it specifically mentions traffic enforcement with uh SAC PD.

This is not limited to traffic, it's for any type of encounter, whether it's medical, police, somebody out on foot, on a bicycle, uh out in the park, anywhere.

Um, and also the policy section, uh, it runs the gamut, the entire spectrum.

Plaster County does not have a policy about this, it was an information bulletin, uh, I believe rolled out during briefings and uh in service training, and then you have the complete other side of the spectrum where Venturer County SO has a complete written policy training bulletin, and then going further than that, the inland empire.

Um, not only do they have this completely um well developed, but they did a training recently involving hundreds of uh first responders, officers, firefighters, EMS, uh community partners.

I have to say there were well over two, three, four hundred people there putting on this training and participating in this, so well received.

Thank you.

Um Commissioner Griggs, uh Mr.

Cho.

Uh, thank you very much.

Uh are you going to be here till the end of tonight's meeting, or are you leaving early?

Can be if you like.

I just I have a couple of questions for you, a couple of uh avenues I'd like to speak with you about regarding this program, of course.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I raised my hand and you already started speaking about this, but could you talk a little bit more about what the training would look like for um officers to recognize what this what the blue envelope program is, and also what would the training for the community look like.

Of course, a lot of that would be uh dependent on the marketing, making people aware of this.

You know, what is a blue envelope?

I imagine at first people might be curious like what is that?

And be curious about it.

And I can't tell you how many people I've run into thinking that they don't know anything about blue envelope, and they already know about it, which excites me.

So uh some of it is already out there.

The training, uh, and I invite Captain Buchanan to chime in on this.

Um training could be as informal as briefings, uh morning briefings, or it could be uh a structured formal presentation, uh and um curriculum to make officers aware of uh of the blue envelope.

So if you happen to see or encounter one of these in the field, then you have to take a step back and uh take a breath and understand that this person may have special needs set, um, would require more time and patience and empathy.

Things that uh you may not be able to do with a normal encounter, a person um without these uh disabilities, and uh handle um the situation accordingly.

But the officers would also um, and I won't speak for the police department, but they they would also have to be uh, they couldn't sacrifice their safety or the safety of one anyone else, and they would still enforce the laws that they're charged to do, Commissioner Coleman.

Yes, thanks.

Thanks so much for the information and and for being here.

Um it kind of was brought up sporadically in our discussion.

Uh but the captain mentioned it.

And you as well.

How's how's the how's the marketing look like?

Like, so if if the city were was to bring this on, is there like an ad campaign, TV ads, or is there like events, you know, like uh how does that work?

And also um I I was trying to pay as much attention to the slideshow as possible.

What are the rates of participation in the places in California that have already adopted um this program?

Um I feel like that would be useful information as well.

Marketing, the sky's the limit.

Completely up to your participation.

The uh what we can look at are the existing campaigns, the existing blue envelope programs throughout the state, the ones that are uh successful, such as Riverside County, San Diego County, Placer, and some other jurisdictions, and see what that looked like.

It is uh press conferences at the initial outset to announce it.

Then you have uh Riverside County is an elaborately professionally produced video to uh explain the whole concept uh with you know actors and special effects and everything.

It's pretty pretty cool.

You should check it out.

Um, but it's everything in between.

You have uh you could put uh I'd be glad to develop a media campaign for you, but uh it could be any everything from uh PSAs to uh something on the side of a bus to uh radio and TV, uh print materials, uh social media obviously.

Uh there's it's really limitless to what you can do, it's only limited by your imagination and I guess your time and budget.

As far as the participation rates, uh that's something we hope to learn at our next meeting with Placer County, which we have scheduled for uh December.

What um or like what are two or three items that we could do to help you with your program or getting this program um what are two or three items we could do to help?

I think it's engaging with your council members, making them aware of this program and how valuable valuable it could be for the city, engaging with your uh with uh Captain Buchanan, also Chief Lester, same message.

This is a great program, be great for our community.

Um and I think it would fill a gap that uh currently is not being served, and uh learning more about it.

I encourage you to learn more about it, and uh as you bring this to your commission and consider it, and also uh recommend it, hopefully recommend it to your police department.

Um there's a wealth of material that we've already accumulated, and we're glad to share that with you, and we can have uh further those further those discussions as we go forward.

I have one one last question.

Are there any statistics on um uh incidences where the blue envelope program was in place and that prevented some type of um mishandling or uh of a traffic stop?

We do know there are some instances of that.

I don't have the specific numbers.

We'll be glad to share that with you uh at a later date.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Are there any other commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

All right, thank.

Oh, go ahead, sure.

Yeah.

Sorry, I just one question.

Could I get a copy of your PowerPoint?

This is the first one, so if I have to present anything in the future, it'd be fantastic to have in my first request.

Second is when we talk about training, we we do have a learning domain in our basic academy on persons with disabilities and how to police with the do policing uh mechanisms with them.

So this would just be an addition to that.

This would be an identifier to how to deal with those types of people when we when we encounter them.

So it'd be a good precursor, say, hey, we know we're going through the situation because there's a lot of times to what he was saying that there's some validity to it.

Um and we'll bring it back in to our department and have a discussion about it.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Commissioner Buen Rostro.

Very quick, sorry.

Um just providing um response to the agenda item, and um, you know, the the agenda item says provide feedback to the community police review commission's community policing and response efficiency ad hoc.

Um, I want to just highlight efficiency.

Um, does this uh resonate with efficiency?

I I think absolutely yes, in terms of does it create better interactions that are more efficient and create better processes for both and better outcomes for both the community and the um police officer that might be involved as well.

So, again, um I think this is good feedback for that uh committee and also for potentially we want to focus on efficiency.

This is a good example of what efficiency can look at like as well for this commission.

Okay.

Thank you, Buen Rostro.

Are there any other commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

All right, um, no vote is required, so we'll move on to the next item.

Item number six is the commission follow-up log cleanup proposal.

Is there a staff presentation for this item?

Um, no, I don't believe there's a staff presentation on this item, none from the clerk's office.

Um are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you.

I have no speaker slips from the public as well.

Would Audrey all like to speak on this item?

No, thank you.

Okay.

Um right.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Commissioner Buen Rostro, okay.

So my suggestion with this follow-up log is that um we refresh it completely, and I would say if you look at the follow-up log, all of the requesters are previous commissioners.

I don't see any commissioners that are current commissioners.

Here, um, the follow-up log.

I'm just double checking.

Um, so my suggestion is that we actually scrap the items here.

A lot of them we actually already covered.

It seems like we already covered.

With the caveat that if there's a commissioner that identifies an item that they want to keep on the lock, that you bring it up and that it becomes, you know, a new item in the follow-up log with that commissioner's name that requested it.

So when I looked at this, there were four, there were three items that I would want to keep.

I can share what those are.

Um, and then for other commissioners, I would suggest that if there's any other items that you want to keep that you that you um mention that.

So for me, there's the three items that that I identified that would still be good for us to keep us a potential future topic, include number two.

This was a presentation on what the professional standards unit does.

Uh what the professional standards unit of the police department does.

Seems like a good presentation, seems like a good topic for us to know about.

Um item four for me uh was one that might still be good.

This one's around a request for a presentation on the department's annual budget process.

Um, I think that's again good for background for the commission.

Uh, and then the last one that I saw was um a request on the hiring practices of the department.

I would actually maybe amend that a little bit.

It'd be good for us to know about the hiring practices, but also to know about the challenges in hiring for the department.

Because something that we hear a lot about is staffing shortages of the department.

It'd be good to know about the challenges of hiring folks in the department.

Where are they hiring from, and maybe even learning about how we can support them in their hiring practices?

What are the challenges in policing that we might be able to learn more about when it comes to staffing?

The last one was number 10.

All right, are there any other commissioners who'd like to speak on this item?

Alright, this I believe there is a need for.

Oh, I know I just.

Go ahead, Commissioner Corps.

Okay, like the one that you just mentioned, Commissioner Buen Rostro about the hiring practices and all that.

I mean, that almost could be part of the training outline.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I think they're potentially.

Just thought when you were mentioning that.

All right.

So I believe a vote is needed on this item to um, I'm gonna use the words refresh the follow-up log.

Is there a motion and a second for this item?

Commissioner Coleman.

I'll I'll go ahead and start that motion.

Motion from Commissioner Coleman.

Is there a second?

A second.

Second by Commissioner Johnson.

Uh Clerk, will you please call the roll for the vote?

Thank you, Chair.

And just to clarify, you're making a motion to um, as uh Vice Chair Buen Rostro proposed to clear the follow-up log, except for those three items that he had identified uh in his statement that he made.

My apologies.

I was under the assumption that uh we would all have a chance.

I thought we were voting on his uh suggestion that if you would like to keep something, you bring it up and you know, read it or whatever.

Um so I'm is that was that mistaken?

Yeah, I was gonna say I don't mean to be the only one that's like that holds up the item.

So I I don't know if that needs to be a motion today.

Maybe it's at the start of the conversation.

So if there's any other items that folks see in the follow-up log that they want to keep.

Understood.

I honestly then I would like to withdraw my motion there because I'd like to actually look it over myself as well.

And I I thought we were okay in that procedure.

My apologies.

I see.

Okay.

Commissioner Griggs.

I'd like to hold on a motion until uh next meeting because again, we need time to go through the to the log.

Okay, that's fair right, Audrey.

All right, yeah, no problem.

We will do that.

We will hold on a motion on this item and carry it over to our next meeting.

Um, are there any other commissioners that would like to speak on this?

The next item is staff and go ahead, Commissioner.

Sorry, I keep doing this.

Um, I didn't even do a request.

Okay, so um the other thing to note about the follow-up log, the way that I see it, and correct me if I'm wrong, it it's a request for an agenda item, but it's also a conversation with the potential percenters about how they might be able to handle that request.

So, for example, if it's better handled through training, then you as you see in the note in the status, there's always feedback from the department.

So there's always that opportunity that if we request as an agenda item, it could end up being something a little different, but at least we're moving the ball forward with that issue.

Any other commissioners wish to speak?

Commissioner Coleman.

Can I get a copy of that follow-up log emailed to me, please?

Yes, I um wrote a note to myself to make sure that everybody gets this.

Thank you, ma'am.

All right.

Any other commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

No.

All right, the next item is staff and commissioner comments.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak?

Hearing none, this concludes today's agenda.

Thank you everyone for your participation.

The meeting is adjourned.