Will the CPRC be the next Survivor's Island and other tales of woe

High tech meters are the choice, according to a survey done on the subject by Riverside City Hall on which of two new systems should replace the very unpopular Smart Park in downtown.

"Luke" wins with 54% of the vote tallied. That's actually more decisive than several recent city council races have been but is there a paper trail to this vote?




Mayor Ron Loveridge's special task force assigned to elicit recommendations on the planned renovation of both the downtown library and museum has set a meeting schedule.

The dates planned are April 23, May 19, June 6 and June 7 with times to be announced.



However, the city hasn't given much advance notice on when the first meeting will be held which is this Friday, April 11 at 3 p.m. at the Mayor's Ceremonial room on the seventh floor of City Hall. It's obvious that City Manager Brad Hudson and perhaps some of the elected peeps are hoping that the task force will recommend that the renovation projects for both facilities be combined into one single Riverside Renaissance extravaganza. Even the appearance of several hundred people who packed the city council chambers at a special joint meeting of two of the city's boards didn't change that path. It will be interesting to see what happens if the task force created by Loveridge strays off the beaten path, though that's not expected to happen at this point.



For those who are interested in the future of both the museum and library including proposed renovations, it's important to stay involved and attend the meetings, let your voices be heard on the issue. Recently as noted in Dan Bernstein's column, the city manager's office tried to pick up its marbles and take them home after the creation of the mayor's task force and the response of hundreds of people who opposed the combined renovation of both facilities.



Apparently gone are the days when Riverside's city council meetings merited longer articles than these briefs but some things were actually passed at the city council meeting last night. The discussion on the use of foreclosed homes in the city's loans program for low and medium-income home buyers was interesting. However given that as one councilman once said repeatedly, most of the foreclosed homes are in the higher priced market range (which is higher than the $285,000 or so cap placed on this program) and not so much in the "affordable"range, this could be setting up more "foreclosures" down the road unless great care is taken to avoid these pitfalls.



Will Metrolink come to UCR? That's the question on a lot of minds as Metrolink works out the route and stations for its new Perris line.






A Redlands Police Department officer suffered minor injuries in an onduty vehicle collision. Not so lucky were two Los Angeles Police Department officers who were involved in an onduty crash with one of them suffering severe head injuries. The officer driving the car lost control of it on highway 118 while on the way to drop it off after finishing a work shift.

At least 2,400 law enforcement officers have died in onduty car accidents since records have been kept.




A confidentiality clause will keep Hemet's city government from being forthcoming about the departure of its city manager.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Getting someone to speak on the record about why former Hemet City Manager John Davidson left his job would require the lifting of a confidentiality clause contained in his settlement agreement with the City Council.

And that's a legal agreement council members don't seem too eager to eliminate.

"You got my comment and it's in the paper," Mayor Marc Searl said Tuesday during a break in a regularly scheduled council meeting.

Councilwoman Robin Lowe also dismissed the question.

"You've beat the horse to death," said Lowe, referring to Davidson's exit and the settlement clause.

Councilman Eric McBride said the confidentiality agreement "was a decision that was already made."

Davidson left March 11 under unclear circumstances. The city already is interviewing candidates to succeed Davidson.

Davidson, who earlier served six years as Redlands' city manager, left the Hemet city manager's job in 2006.

He lasted only 16 months as Hemet's top executive and was paid $233,080 as settlement for his voluntary departure.

He received a 10 percent pay raise in January, boosting his yearly salary to $253,000.





Some rather interesting intrigue surrounding the Community Police Review Commission in recent weeks on several different fronts including a complaint that's been filed against one commissioner. More to come on the continuation of the ongoing saga of the CPRC as it's been a while since anyone's either tried or threatened to get a commissioner tossed off of it. If you've been following the story of the CPRC in Riverside, this latest development or actually developments should be no surprise as they unfold and it will here in this blog as I'm sure it will elsewhere. History has a way of trying to repeat itself.

If you guess who this individual is (and if you've been following this blog and local politics, this should be fairly easy), you'll only be half right, because it might not just be one of them this time. And that's a first. But perusual, it's the one who is not afraid to speak his mind and on the CPRC these days, that's a very rare thing. In fact, I think it's the threat of expulsion that leads to some commissioners being much more quiet than they used to be. Even in closed sessions, the commissioners are closely monitered by officers in the police chief's office. They receive assistance but it wouldn't be surprising if some of them at least also felt closely watched.

Is someone or some folks unhappy or perhaps impatient with the pace with how the city manager's office is ahem, handling the CPRC? If you've been following that situation for the past two years, it's been an interesting political and sociological study in how a city government can take what was once a vibrant body and shrink it down to a panel of confused and rather quiet panel of people more closely identified to law enforcement, the police department and politicians at City Hall than they are to the communities in Riverside.

Toss in a suddenly proactive city attorney who's apparently trying to make up for the lost time he spent detached completely from the panel by "assisting" it, and this assistance includes forbidding items to be placed on its agenda discussing potentially hiring and retaining independent counsel. What the commission needs from him is another round of training on the Brown Act, given that a recent Outreach Committee meeting violated this act's provision against serial meetings because the rational was that this provision only pertained to voting on items and not the discussion of items.

And "seventh floor" politics which one former commissioner said led to his resignation. Was this person indeed the only one?

The city manager's office has said publicly that it supports the CPRC. The city council members who opposed it promised to support it now because the voters have spoken when they passed Measure II. Yet in December, one anonymous individual ranted against former councilman, Art Gage blaming him for the CPRC's still being around even though to the last day, Gage was one of its most adament opponants and during most of his tenure in office (except on the initial election trail and in his earliest day) kept to that position openly.

Yet since current City Manager Brad Hudson has taken over, it's been out one executive director and five commissioners in less than a year. Others look at the high turnover on the commission and say, there must be problems. It certainly doesn't speak well of its management at the seventh floor level. But it's hard not to see the commission as an untelevised (for the moment) edition of Survivor Island, what with commissioners leaving it or having their service on it challenged again and again.

To be continued...






The Los Angeles Times wrote this commentary on the ongoing probe into Orange County's jails.





Here, is a message from Orange County Supervisor John Moorloch on the issue of what's been going on in the jails.




1. I want to thank the District Attorney, Tony
Rackauckas, his staff, and the Special Grand Jury for their hard work
and diligence, as well as their perseverance in the face of
significant obstacles, in developing the evidence that led to the
D.A.'s report on the tragic and unnecessary death of John Chamberlain.

2. This report details at least two major and
disturbing issues with the Orange County Sheriff's Department:

a. While there is certainly mention of stellar performances by
some jail deputies who undertake their responsibilities diligently and
assiduously, there appears to have been a culture of disinterest at
best and active negligence and recklessness at worst in protecting the
safety of everyone—including and especially inmates—in the Orange
County jail system. There is no excuse for deputies whose job it is to
monitor activity in the jails to be watching television shows and
movies, playing video games, texting, sleeping, or maintaining false
work logs in order to cover up their failure to work and follow the
policies and procedures mandated by the jail system and the Sheriff's
Department.

b. There was apparent corruption by the former Sheriff and some
of his command staff who invoked the 5th Amendment privilege against
self-incrimination during the grand jury proceedings—somethin g one
would hope never to see from honest law enforcement officials, who
altered documents to present to the D.A. and grand jury, and who
undertook steps to otherwise participate in an attempted intentional
violation of the protocols for investigating a custodial death and a
cover-up of that violation. The current Administration appears to be
taking significant steps to correct these problems.

3. This report justifies the creation by the County
of the Office of Independent Review, and may well, upon further
examination, justify the creation of the District Attorney's proposed
civilian monitor of County Jail Facilities, but for these innovations
to be truly successful, we must find ways to break the culture of
sending warnings to those who are not performing their duties when
inspections are imminent. This culture, as well as the admitted
violation of grand jury secrecy rules by a number of testifying
deputies, shows a shocking lack of respect for the rule of law and the
importance of proper conduct and behavior.

4. While the District Attorney is complying with his
ethical duties in deciding who to prosecute and who not to prosecute,
the District Attorney's report makes it clear that there are personnel
working in the Orange County Sheriff's Department who should have
their employment re-evaluated. We expect Acting Sheriff Anderson to
bring his goals of rectitude and transparency to that process
forthwith upon his receipt of the evidence.

5. The Code of Silence so pervasive in the Orange
County Sheriff's Department must end—now. Good cops must not stick up
for bad cops. We look to the overwhelming number of good and dedicated
deputies, sergeants, lieutenants and captains to assist Acting Sheriff
Anderson and whoever is selected as Sheriff in once and for all ending
this culture of silence that only protects the wrongdoer, and does
nothing to aid the citizens of Orange County who pay their salaries.




Orange County's interim sheriff has asked the FBI to investigate the jails and has suspended five deputies so far.




The NAACP is asking for a probe into the light sentences given to the so-called "Barbie Bandits". Two White women who robbed banks receiving 10 and eight years probation, while the two Black men were sentenced to two and eight years in state prison.




In the New York Daily News, is this interesting article about how only about 34% of the department's officers accused of misconduct are being charged administratively.


(excerpt)



Department records show that of the 296 cases substantiated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, more than a third were closed because police officials refused to file charges.

By comparison, just 3.3% of cases were rejected by the department advocate's office of the NYPD in 2006, 2.3% in 2005, 2.9% in 2004, 0.8% in 2003 and 3.9% in 2002, the records show.

"This dramatic increase in the cases the NYPD is dumping clearly signals to the public and the CCRB that the department now believes it is free to ignore police misconduct," said Christopher Dunn, associate director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

NYPD officials said the increase could be attributed to more stringent standards when selecting cases to prosecute and the changing nature of the complaints.

"Many times the CCRB will substantiate allegations based solely on the civilian's version without any corroboration," Julie Schwartz, deputy commissioner of the department advocate's office, said in an e-mail.

She said a growing number of the complaints were being generated by cops involved in more subjective stop-and-frisk cases.

"This coincides with a dramatic decrease in the substantiated allegations of force, less than 2% in 2007, that are easier to prove," Schwartz wrote.





Another NYPD sergeant investigated in a rape case may have to submit a DNA sample.



In the Sean Bell trial in New York City, an expert for the defense testified that the 50 shots fired by officers at Bell and his two friends were done so in a matter of seconds.





(excerpt, New York Daily News)



"I fired 31 rounds as fast as I could," Alexander Jason said at the detectives' trial in Queens Supreme Court. "I was able to shoot 31 rounds in 12.3 seconds."

That includes the time it took for Jason to reload - just as Detective Michael Oliver did on that tragic morning when he fired 31 shots at Bell with his 9-mm. Sig Sauer handgun.

Jason said it took just 4.5 seconds to empty a 15-round magazine and the single bullet already in the chamber of his test gun. Also, the trigger on his Sig Sauer was stiffer than on the one Oliver used, he said.

"Someone could shoot a gun faster with a lighter trigger," Jason said.







In Albany, New York, the city council urged the state commission to investigate the city's police department, according to the Albany Times-Union.




(excerpt)



In a letter dated March 17 that was received last week by the state Commission on Investigation (SIC), the council members, including President Shawn Morris, cited a "disturbing trend of improper behavior by some members of the Albany Police Department with inadequate or insufficient responses by police administration."

( Read full letter from Albany council to SIC in MS Word format.)

The letter was not presented to the entire 16-member council for endorsement because of concerns it would become mired in politics and never released, some members who signed it said.

The six-member commission, headquartered in New York City, investigates allegations of public corruption, including misconduct within police forces statewide.

"The commission has received the letter and is reviewing it," said Steven A. Greenberg, a spokesman for the SIC. The timing of a decision on whether to take on the case "really depends on the complexity of the investigation, how much cooperation the commission receives or doesn't receive, and where the investigation leads," he added.

The letter was signed by Morris and council members Dominick Calsolaro, Corey Ellis, Catherine Fahey, Carolyn McLaughlin and Barbara Smith.







We all pay for police mistakes stated the Denver Post columnist, Susan Greene. Greene was talking about problems that the Denver Police Department had when its officers were locking up innocent people. It's not clear whether the city's independent police auditor is examining this situation.



(excerpt)



Someone in Mayor John Hickenlooper's administration might elucidate for Jama's lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado why their client was held for a week without a court appearance. The public defender, it should be noted, refused to represent Jama because he wasn't the real car-theft suspect.

This case stinks. And the stench is even stronger given that Jama isn't alone.

Denver police last year paid $18,000 in damages and legal fees for wrongly jailing an Aurora woman after an officer incorrectly identified her as a suspect.

And Christina FourHorn — a Sterling woman whose case of mistaken identity was detailed March 20 in this column — also is eyeing a lawsuit. Denver held her for five days despite the fact that the real suspect is seven years younger and weighs 90 pounds less.

An officer showed Four Horn photos of the suspect in her case, demanding that she say she was the woman pictured.

What kind of twisted, Abu Ghraib reality are law enforcers working in when they insist — over several days and despite evidence to the contrary — that you are someone you're not?

"I thought things like this never happened in America," Jama says.

Innocent people are being plucked from their lives and caged because of police work that is beyond sloppy. If that doesn't bug you, maybe it will when FourHorn and Jama sue the city and win chunks of your tax dollars for their troubles.