Election 2009: Labor contractions and pains

Contempt of court charges were dropped against two Marines who were jailed for refusing to testify against former Marine sergeant and Riverside Police Department officer Jose Nazario during a grand jury proceeding and Nazario's trial last month.


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



"While the actions of the witnesses were unlawful and in direct violation of the court's orders in this case, the government submits that proceeding with a trial regarding contempt would not be in the interest of justice," Behnke said in documents. "The punitive affects of further contempt proceedings against these witnesses would serve little, if any, purpose in light of the severity of the charges the witnesses face in military court."

Weemer and Nelson, who were members of Nazario's squad, still face criminal trials in military court for their alleged roles in the killings in Fallouja.



Nazario was acquitted at trial in federal court and is now trying to get his job back in the police department. The police department's keeping it under wraps about whether it will or will not return Nazario back into its ranks now that it's opened up eight positions vacated by terminations, resignations and retirements. It also never responded to his comments said to another Marine sergeant that were written up in the Wall Street Journal about beating the shit out of people and finding a reason to take them to jail while employed at the police department.




More information about the dismissal of the contempt charges is here.






The discussion of the fatal shooting of Fernando Luis Sanchez and the protest that took place last weekend continues here. Some of it is very interesting; some of it like "bruin1" calling a person who questioned the Sanchez shooting an "Eastside activist" is more predictable.

There's also people asking on a couple different discussions about the fate of the 50 originally budgeted patrol officer positions that were passed by the city council during two separate votes several years ago. They even said that they had passed along the concerns on these positions to their elected representatives who had little or nothing to say in response. Why should they respond? Three of them are wrapped up in an issue that they didn't appear to care about last month and their collective pen probably ran dry before it could respond with as much concern and enthusiasm to this issue which could have future repercussions on the city.


However, the overall silence on the staffing issue and the expansive prose on City Hall's latest prohibition on the Community Police Review Commission's incustody death investigations by the city council's members really come down to the same thing and that is backing the decisions made by the city council's direct employees, being the city attorney and the city manager, whatever they may be. If that means backing prohibitions on the CPRC, they will clearly do so in writing. If that means being silent or saying very little while the city manager's office is making budget decisions that directly or indirectly cut or freeze staffing in the police department, then silence for them is the better part of valor.

It's really all the same because it has to do with a reluctance to even question the actions let alone criticize them of their direct employees which they evaluate periodically through each year, in part because perhaps they believe that if they engage in criticism of these employees then they have to ask themselves why they hired them in the first place. Perhaps they view their direct employees as extensions of themselves and particularly in the case of the elected officials who authored the recent opinion piece because two out of three of them are up for reelection next year. What will happen when decisions made by the city manger and city attorney's offices become campaign issues?

That remains to be seen in what is expected to be an exciting election year, possibly even more so than Election 2007.

Some said that the political dynamics between the police labor unions and the city council have also made things more complicated. Apparently, the police chief and city manager's office will not only not budge on labor concerns involving staffing but they won't even meet with at least one involved labor union. Not a good position for all the involved parties to be in with months before the next round of contract negotiations begins, where it is expected that the status of both officer and supervisory level positions will be on the table or at least that's what is hoped including possibly a protective provision in a future MOU for sergeants similar to that enjoyed by detectives. Considering the reduction in positions at that level, such a provision should be a given as a goal to achieve.

But what ultimately takes place could tell the tale for not just one election but others as well.

And 2009 is indeed an election year in more ways than one. For city officials, it's one of those really long cycles like what took place in 2007. Attempts to make it at large in the final rounds of the process of course failed miserably once that proposal stepped outside of the Governmental Affairs Committee, which only several years ago was a vital committee that met often and discussed serious issues while today its members get together in public every so often trying to push items which suspiciously come off as being part of a personal or political (and in some cases, the personal becomes political) agenda. It took dozens of people going to a July city council meeting and over a dozen speaking against an election "reform" proposal to squelch that proposal.

Whether there's a sunny sky or clouds on the horizon in the police department about its staffing abilities depends on where you're standing.

At the top, the department has said it's staffed with more officers than ever, as if they could be grown from seed or even wishful thinking. At the city manager's office, Asst. Chief Tom DeSantis said last June that the department was "fully staffed" even as the supervisory vacancies began and have continued to climb as they've increased since his speech in response to an audit of the department which urged an immediate addressing of these problems. But as the ranks become lower, there seems to be more pessimism about whether or not the police officer staffing at those levels will keep up with the city's growth or fall behind it. The famous lyric from the opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, which sings "everything will be all right" doesn't seem to be trickling down well from top to bottom on this issue. At least not so far.





It's not clear whether the current blood letting at the Still-Belo Enterprises owned, Press Enterprise has anything to do with the fact that the coverage of Riverside's city council meetings has been reduced to tiny news briefs including the expenditure of over $1 million for rehabbing two downtown parking garages on Orange Street.


About $942,000 of the money will be borrowed from the city's general fund and paid back in about 10 years. Hopefully, these garages don't include the ones which immediately come to mind which are the ones that were constructed just a few years ago but garages that are at least 10 or 15 years old.

But it appears that the blink-and-you'll-miss-them city council meetings have led to the blink-and-you'll-miss-them news briefs in a newspaper that is losing reporters certainly experienced reporters from the city beats in Riverside.

But don't fret because banners are coming to downtown Riverside!





(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Local companies, nonprofit organizations and individuals can sponsor the banners, choosing the artwork they want on their banner, which will also display the sponsor's name.

Sponsorships range from $650 for one banner, $1,100 for two and $1,500 for three banners.

Foster said the project reinforces the city's efforts to make Riverside "the City of Arts and Culture."

In October, the Riverside City Council unanimously voted in favor of Mayor Ron Loveridge's proposal to brand Riverside as the "City of the Arts."

"I can't think of a better way to promote the vision of being 'The City of Arts and Culture' than hundreds of banners on our streets," Foster said. "It reinforces that this is a city that values art in the community."

Artist Leslie Brown, a part-time art instructor at Riverside Community College, already has visions of her colorful banner with orange groves, monarch butterflies and clouds.

"I like the idea of butterflies fertilizing arts and culture in our community," she said. "If we are the city of the arts we should display it. We have to walk the walk, we can't just talk it."





If you want to learn more about banners, there's this like orientation that's being held on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Art Museum downtown.




Lake Elsinore will be laying off more of its employees. Not good news for that city.






Despite pessimism about the proposed medical school at the University of California, Riverside, educational officials hope to move forward.




In the wake of the upcoming departure of San Bernardino Police Department Chief Michael Billdt and a couple of local professors will be conducting talks to kind of figure out what to do next.


(excerpt, San Bernardino Sun)





Fontana City Councilman Frank Scialdone, a former police chief in Fontana and Rialto, and Cal State San Bernardino criminologist Larry Gaines met Monday with Mayor Pat Morris, Police Chief Michael Billdt and acting City Manager Lori Sassoon.

Morris said the two experts will be called back as soon as the scope of their inquiry has been established.
Gaines said, "We have talked with the city about the possibility of looking at some of the processes within the Police Department."

"We don't know what, with any precision, we'll be looking at."




Throughout the city, police substations are shutting down. Community residents have expressed concern about the situation but rest assured, the city and department will be hosting a public open house so they can weigh in on the closures after they've already taken place.



(excerpt, San Bernardino Sun)




Department leaders have pointed out that the actual substations are set to be replaced with Virtual District Offices that will allow residents to email police commanders and sergeants and view crime data for the each of the city's patrol districts.

But Sylvester Sylvester, a director of the Highland Palms Neighborhood Association, opined that the decision to save money by closing the substations was a mistake.

He said his neighbors appreciated being able to bring their problems to police personnel who were stationed nearby. Sylvester doubts that e-mail will be enough to keep those relationships between cops and residents alive.

"People like to be able to speak to someone one-on-one," he said.




Press Enterprise Columnist Cassie MacDuff who usually covers San Bernardino County's antics stepped over to Riverside's and analyzed the Barbie vs Bratz wars.




A whistle blower in Oakland's police department has blown the doors off what's happening there and is suing the city including his police chief.



(excerpt, San Francisco Chronicle)



Officer Chris Yanke, a 16-year veteran, said in the suit that he broke the police "code of silence" several years ago when he "truthfully reported criminal misconduct and police brutality by a fellow OPD officer who was well-liked, which resulted in that officer's termination." The officer in question was not identified.

After Yanke came forward with the allegations, he was removed from the department's technology unit and placed on unpaid leave in 2006 on the grounds of insubordination, said the civil rights suit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The city had rejected a claim previously filed by Yanke but has not responded to the suit in court. Attorneys representing the city did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.

Yanke was briefly stripped of his badge and gun, the suit said. Although he currently retains his status as a peace officer, Yanke was placed on unpaid leave last year without due process, the suit said. The city "completely cut off his vested and protected property interest in his salary and benefits," the suit said.





After an inexperienced officer in Millville, New Jersey crashed his squad car into a house, the internal affairs division of that department decided to investigate the matter.



A captain in the department was quick to defend the young officer who had crashed another squad car earlier this year.



(excerpt, The Daily Journal)




Romanishin said Friday the results of an investigation by the department's Traffic Safety Unit were forwarded to Lt. Wayne Smith, the department's internal affairs officer.

"That doesn't necessarily mean the officer did anything wrong," Romanishin said.



The officer had been responding to a call for backup and while driving, flipped his car over and slammed into a nearby house. He survived but is on home rest for the forseeable future.







The New York City Police Department is trying to determine whether the practice of some of its officers of falsifying summons is growing into an epidemic. Earlier this year, two officers had been investigated on these allegations and now the department is spreading its net wider.


What caused suspicion to be aroused against the earlier two officers was after they had filled out 40 traffic and seat belt tickets during one work shift. Now the investigators of this incident are looking elsewhere.




(excerpt, Newsday)




A source close to Campisi says that shortly after the rookies' tickets were scrutinized Internal Affairs learned of other officers who may have written suspicious tickets.

The source wouldn't identify where those other cops are assigned, but two other sources familiar with the matter said the growing probe involves the 102nd, 103rd and 105th precincts. The sources also said at least several officers are under suspicion.

Steve Worth, a lawyer for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, declined to comment.




A trip being taken by San Jose's independent police auditor to Nigeria has raised some controversy.



(excerpt, San Jose Mercury)



"I think the trip is OK," Mayor Chuck Reed said, "but I just don't think taxpayers ought to pay for the time the independent police auditor will be gone."

The non-profit CLEEN Foundation invited Independent Police Auditor Barbara Attard to join an international police oversight training panel in Nigeria, and has offered to pay the transportation and lodging costs of the five-day trip in November.

Even so, Reed and others questioned how it would benefit San Jose and the city taxpayers who pay the auditor's $160,000 salary — but she ultimately got the go-ahead.

"We don't have department heads travel to the other side of the world very often," Councilman Pete Constant said. "I have a hard time seeing the public purpose or benefit to the residents of San Jose."

Added Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio: "I think it's tough to compare Nigeria with their violence against women and torture to San Jose as far as what we're going to learn."

Attard said San Jose should be honored to be chosen to represent the small field of civilian police overseers abroad and that the trip would raise the city's international stature and profile.

"San Jose is a world-class city," Attard said. "We derive recognition from involvement in such international panels."




An interesting blogging on good police officers in Salt Lake City.

If you are into weather futures for Southern California, there's a variety of opinions on whether or not there will be rains, Santa Ana winds or a combination of both forces of nature ahead. This site claims that there will be both wind and lots of rain next winter. This site claims it will be warmer and drier this winter.


This site doesn't know but asks for people's opinions on the situation. But state officials predict that California will have to dip into its drought bank.




Former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson who has one murdered former wife and one missing current wife has now divulged his timeline in yet another book on the investigations into the fate of two women who married him.



(excerpt, Wall Street Journal)



Mr. Peterson gave me many hours of exclusive interviews," author Armstrong reported, "including a timeline of the day Stacy Peterson disappeared - something he's refused to give in full to any other journalist."

In an excerpt from Armstrong's foreword to the book, he wrote:

In this first meeting I told Drew Peterson, "Understand that I'm going to report everything. The good and the bad. I won't hype or bash you, but I'm not going to hide the ugly. Can you live with that?"

Drew Peterson, always composed, nodded his head. "I have nothing to hide. I just want people to hear my side for a change."





Another article on Peterson's latest revelation here.

When will the freeze thaw?

"Are you going to eat my brain?"

---Claire Bennet


"Claire, that's disgusting."

---Syler,



Heroes season premiere, Sept. 22.




Another day, another interesting comment about the postings here on Riverside's Community Police Review Commission. From yet another person who complains about the CPRC yet has clearly not even read the city's charter which outlines its powers. The same charter which under 810(d) states that the commission is to "investigate and review" officer-involved deaths, not simply to "review" them. If the commission was simply designed to review these deaths, then the word, "investigate" probably wouldn't be included in the charter language.

Fortunately, there are links in an earlier posting to the language which defines the CPRC's process and purpose and outlines its duties and powers including this page. It's helpful to review those in the face of articles written by elected officials where they try to narrow the scope of the commission's powers and responsibilities assuming that most of the public hasn't a clue about what they voted into the city charter in 2004.

Just because those who drafted the language first in the ordinance and then in the city's charter clearly wish now that they had done it differently doesn't make it so. The fact is, the status quo of investigating these deaths within days of when they took place suited the city council and city attorney just fine for nearly eight years until the lawsuits and resultant settlements began to pile up a bit.



(excerpt, Inland Empire Craigslist)



FBM says from 2000 to 2008 the CPRC investigated officer involved deaths (OID). Investigated being the operative word here, because she claims that they suddenly are not allowed to do so now by the City.


Might it be that the CPRC of 2000 to 2008 "REVIEWED" cases - as they are supposed to. Now certain members of the CPRC see fit to "investigate" such OIDs. Clearly the CPRC was established to REVIEW not INVESTIGATE.

I believe it was said very clearly that the city's government has no intention to impede the duties of the CPRC - as it was established. I'm not a trained investigator, nor do I believe the members of the CPRC are. Trained investigators gather facts that the CPRC are to REVIEW - a fact that FBM seems to fail to recognize time after time after time.

Community Police REVIEW committee. See the "REVIEW". It's not the Community Police INVESTIGATIVE committee. FBM would do a much better service to remember this fact as well as certain members of the committee itself.




Also, what would have been nice is if this individual while showing obvious passion on the subject through his use of capital letters could have gotten the name of the panel right. It's not the "community police review committee", it's called the "community police review commission" and if you don't believe me, look here.



Yes, it's indeed true as stated earlier that from 2001-2008, the CPRC was allowed to begin its investigations within several days of a death incident and not once was it restricted from doing so by the city attorney for violating the city charter and not once was it restricted by the city manager and/or city council from doing so because it was jeopardizing a criminal investigation. Eight years, about 12 officer-involved deaths and not once was this issue ever raised by anyone, certainly not through an opinion piece.



As of now, the commission can't investigate the deaths in any meaningful way if it has to wait months even years to investigate. All it can do at that point later on is "review" and again, if you go back and look at the ordinance and charter language what you will find are the words, "investigate and review".

It was very disingenuous of the three city council members who wrote the opinion piece to omit the word "investigate" and simply leave "review" which is what the author of the comment did. But the city council members took it further and tried to redefine the purpose of the CPRC as simply being a body which only engages in policy review and recommendation which it's clearly not. Is this being done to emulate what LEPAC had represented during the era which preceded the consent decree against the police department? If they use their powers of office to enforce that definition of what the CPRC is rather than what's written into law, then it would be these individuals who are obstructing the proper enforcement of Sec. 810 of the city charter with any actions that may be taken by the city council.

The opinion article does provide a useful road map in case the city council does push restrictions of the CPRC's powers through its direct employees as some people suspect might have already been taking place.

And given that it appears that the city manager's office is making important decisions about the police department, decisions about staffing and supervising issues through allotment of the budget that might have consequences for the department in the long run (as they did a decade ago) not to mention the people that it serves, that produces questions about that office's sudden interest in placing even more restrictions on the CPRC at this point and time. Instead of fretting about what the CPRC has done without incident for nine years, the city council members should write articles about a department that's understaffed to serve a city of this size that's still growing quickly and how it intends to direct its city manager's office to address these issues before serious problems develop in the future. But from the dais for the most part, there's been silence.

Kind of reminiscent of several decades ago.




More discussion on the latest fatal shooting of Fernando Luis Sanchez here including an individual who claimed to be posting Sanchez' criminal record.





No word yet on when the opinion piece which the Riverside City Council must surely be working on right now in connection with the hiring and staffing issues in the Riverside Police Department will be published in the Press Enterprise.

Last week, the police department finally thawed one of its supervisory positions out of deep freeze when it filled the vacancy of outgoing sergeant, Terry Meyer who has retired and also filled the resultant detective position. The detectives have been somewhat spared from the situation involving the freezing of vacancies even as they have been impacted by attrition due to retirements which took place going back into the final months of last year.

According to their current MOU with the city, the detective vacancies are to be filled when vacated, a condition the members of the Riverside Police Officers' Association's supervisory unit of sergeants probably wished they had as part of their current contract. Given that it's more than likely that most if not all of the city's bargaining units will lose items from their contract certainly at the beginning of contract talks, it's not clear how this will all play out next year. Will the sergeants push for a similar MOU and will they as a bargaining unit within the RPOA try to prevent more positions from becoming vacant at their rank? Will they instead face even more vacancies given that several sergeants may retire in 2009? What will be the reaction of City Manager Brad Hudson to any such thing if it takes place and what will be the reaction of the city council who serves him?

Two promotions so far have filled about six or seven supervisory and management vacancies and unfortunately, it doesn't appear as if more of these positions will be filled for an extended period of time. Bad news for a department where the average police officer is about 24 years old and has about 2 1/2 years experience in the field.





Tuesday, Sept. 23 is the day the Riverside City Council meets again.

One of the main events will be the public hearings to be held addressing proposed hikes of the city's sewer rates. This will take place around 3 p.m. in the city council chambers next to City Hall. It's fairly typical to have these meetings when few people can attend to offer their input in person on what they think of the sewer rate changes.

As you've heard recently, the city's residents were told rates needed to go up to replace or repair the ancient sewer system beneath our feet and these rates would compensate for the lack of rate increases in a decade or so. Are the sewers not in great shape? If the raw sewage that erupted from an opening in the street between the Riverside County Office of Education and what used to be Grant Elementary School is any indication, then yes, there may be a problem.

Yet, later we were told that there might actually be a rate decrease at least for local businesses. Will rates go up this year only to elicit complaints when higher utility bills start arriving in people's homes during an election year? Will rates then come up to be discussed again and then temporarily reduced? Will it be the situation involving the ever fluctuating electric rates all over again?



The report on the proposed rate change structure is here.







The city council will also be meeting in closed session to discuss lots of lawsuits including one against Greyhound Bus Lines and another one with Colton.


The city council will also be discussing labor issues involving eight categories of city employees.





Jurors appearing at Riverside County Superior Court are are getting parking tickets.


A Riverside County fire fighter got busted for embezzlement involving over $1 million.




Will the new medical school proposed for the University of California, Riverside be put on hold?



An interesting opinion piece about an attempt to ban a book in Temecula written just a week before National Banned Books Week is commemorated.



A huge jury pay out to the tune of $3.1 million to a Los Angeles Police Department officer who filed a lawsuit alleging the use of racial slurs and retaliation in the department.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Robert Hill, a 25-year veteran of the department, said he was called a "rat" and moved to an inferior assignment at a less desirable division after he reported that Sgt. Gilbert Curtis used racial slurs -- "wetbacks," for instance -- and made derogatory statements including, "If God loved them, why did he make them black?"

The officer had also raised concerns that Curtis might have been stealing funds from the department's Youth Explorer Program. Curtis, who according to an LAPD roster is Latino, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Hill, who is white, alleged in court papers that he was told by superiors to drop the complaint against the sergeant if he wanted to save his job.

Gregory Smith, Hill's attorney, told jurors in the trial that Hill suffered from depression after his superiors "cooked up this scheme" to punish him for violating a "code of silence" that existed within the department.

"His career is over, his friends are gone and his reputation is nothing," Smith said.




Three Columbus, Ohio Police Department officers have been fired over what were called "inappropriate" actions. In one case, one officer had punched another one in the face.


The Fraternal Order of Police is contesting the firings.



(excerpt, Columbus Dispatch)



Sgt. Jim Gilbert, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said he met yesterday with the union lawyer about appealing each of the three cases.

"We're still evaluating which charges were upheld by the director," Gilbert said. "But we believe we can prevail in front of a third party."

More updates about the status of the local newspapers including the Press Enterprise.




Heroes premiered after an unplanned nine month sabbatical.

Syler's brother is who? Ando vs Hiro and Claire vs Peter in the future? Mohinder getting powers? And what happened to Matt?

Blasphemy but all in good fun. Welcome to Season 3.

The iceberg cometh...

"The source known as Deep Throat provided a kind of road map through the scandal. His one consistent message was that the Watergate burglary was just the tip of the iceberg. "


---Bob Woodward





"Now we're through the looking glass here, people. White is black, and black is white."


---JFK





Dozens protested the fatal officer-involved shooting of Fernando Sanchez, 30, near Arlanza in Riverside yesterday. It was the first protest of an officer-involved death in several years.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The protesters started in Bryant Park and moved to the corner of Wells Avenue and Van Buren Boulevard where they held up signs that read "Stop the killing" and chanted "don't shoot to kill."

Sanchez's family called for police to use less-than-lethal methods of subduing suspects.

"With so many things they can do today, they don't have to kill them," said Sanchez's mother, Ida Sanchez, 61, citing Tasers and beanbag guns.

Fernando Sanchez was the second Riverside resident police shot to death this month. A pair of officers shot Carlos David Quinonez, 48, in La Sierra on Sept. 1 when he pointed a shotgun at them.

John DeLaRosa, assistant chief of the Riverside police, said he would not comment during the department's internal investigation into the shooting.

An officer chased down Sanchez, 30, after Sanchez ran from a gas station convenience store when the officer tried to speak to him, police have said.

The officer, whose name hasn't been released, struggled with Sanchez and the officer felt a gun in Sanchez's pocket, according to police.

Sanchez wouldn't take his hands out of his pocket and the officer, fearing for his safety, shot Sanchez several times, police said.

Sanchez had no outstanding warrants, police said. Police said in a news release that a handgun was found on Sanchez.




As is usual in cases like this, there are comments on this article. One commenter provided me with an interesting case of deja vu but at least he's learned how to better behave himself. The commenters who have justified the shooting based on what the Press Enterprise and the police department have said about it (which is very little so far) may be right, but it seems that if the city and police department were really all that confident that the last three incustody deaths, all involving Latino men, were as justified as they appeared to be, then the attitude from both parties would be the following.


Bring us your outside and independent investigations, because we welcome any outside scrutiny by any party because we stand behind the conduct of our police officers when they use lethal force. We welcome these outside probes including by a commission of civilian volunteers from the city we serve because we believe that our officers' actions can withstand such scrutiny and doing this will promote accountability, transparency and trust in the city towards its police department. We've got nothing to hide, certainly nothing that would cause us to obstruct the evolution of the public's trust in our agency's services.

Now, has the city or police department said anything like this, lately? What exactly have the mayor, city council members (at least the three who will comment publicly), city manager, city attorney and police department said? Is it anything remotely similar to the above?

I didn't think so.



You would think with nearly 10 years after the shooting death of Tyisha Miller (including five years spent under a consent decree) and over $22 million spent, that the city and department would have reached this level in the process. At least they should have done so. Actually, in the case of incustody deaths, the department did do this for just over seven years. Even during years when they had more fatal shootings like 2003 with three fatal shootings (out of about seven shootings total for that year), the city and department allowed the investigations to continue. But even though there were more shootings during 2002-03, very few of them resulted in civil litigation. Only one of them, the November 2002 shooting of Anastacio Munoz resulted in a lawsuit being filed.

But in 2008, that pattern of unencumbered investigations by the CPRC came to an end. And curiously enough, that happened after the city had paid out money on lawsuits filed in three fatal incidents. So given this, is it really that surprising that the city government changed its attitude and the rules on these investigations, hiding behind a rationale it never expressed concern about until just recently?



Look what they have done and said instead in the past several months. They've placed restrictions on the Community Police Review Commission's ability to carry out its charter mandate to investigate officer-involved deaths in any meaningful way. They suddenly decided to do this after eight years of remaining relatively quiet on the issue and how the commission was handling these cases. They've changed their practices during a time period of an increase in officer-involved deaths and an increase in lawsuits filed in relation to earlier deaths that the city either has settled or is in the process of settling totaling about $1.5 million so far.

The impression that it's left people is that the city fears and doesn't trust its own police department. Pretty vividly. What the city hasn't done is explain why this is the perception that it is sending through essentially muzzling the civilian oversight in this city in the area of officer-involved deaths. Whatever faith it had in the police department that led to at least 10 unencumbered investigations of officer-involved deaths by the commission without city interference is clearly gone without any explanation why. And that's attracted attention even from people who haven't been following what's been going on with the CPRC. The sudden actions of the city manager, city attorney and now three council members have caused people to sit and take notice that something problematic was taking place.


What's interesting is the amount of words that at least of the city council members will expend on defending their direct employees actions against the CPRC is much, much greater than that expended by them to address concerns with hiring and staffing issues in the police department including the freezing of supervisory positions. When the city froze a sizable portion of the new officer positions that it had created over the past several years, the city council including the three members who wrote the opinion piece not only didn't write any articles on this issue, they didn't really talk about it in any public forum.


The police department plans to brief the barely-there Community Police Review Commission on the Sanchez shooting on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall in its council chambers (which is in the adjacent building). Just as it will finally give a briefing on the death of Martin Gaspar Pablo over two months after it happened.


But since the commission pretty much had its abilities to do a meaningful and timely investigation shut down by the city and you have elected officials shielding concerns about civil liability around the so-called integrity of criminal investigations and the city attorney did the same thing except he used his new interpretation of the city charter to mask concern about the same civic liability.

How do we know this? Because from 2001-2008, neither the city council including Frank Schiavone, Steve Adams and Nancy Hart nor City Attorney Gregory Priamos ever contested the initiation of an investigation into about 12 incustody deaths and if their rationale for doing so now was solid, they would have complained about it or placed these restrictions on these investigations much sooner. The difference between allowing 12 incustody death investigations by the CPRC to move forward and not allowing them to do so now is the sheer magnitude of civil litigation filed alleging wrongful death and civil rights violations filed in recent years compared to the dearth of lawsuits filed between 2000-05.

And what's most interesting about the article written by three elected officials was how the commission *worked* for years until just recently and they believed that restricting how it investigates incustody deaths was the way to get it back working again. However, during the period it "worked" (which was between 2000-08), it was actually beginning its investigations of these incidents within days of the incidents. During the time it didn't work (as defined in the article), it had the ability to do so restricted. This leaves the three elected officials essentially contradicting their own argument.

It's entirely possible that while discussing behind closed doors whether or not to pay out on yet another settlement, the city government said, no more! We can't handle another lawsuit so let's remove anything that we perceive places us at risk of being sued for wrongful death.

What you see now involving the handling of the CPRC by various entities in the city is similar to situations involving icebergs. Just as in most cases, only about 10% of an iceberg is visible above the surface of the ocean, so it will very much likely be with this latest round of actions involving the CPRC.

And in the weeks and months ahead, what you will see here is more information about the other 90% of Riverside's latest "iceberg".





Deaf Awareness Week began and there's a week's worth of activities planned. The percentage of deaf people in Riverside is about 17% which is higher than the national average.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The week of events kicks off today with a picnic at Fairmount Park and ends with a softball game Saturday pitting the Riverside Police Department against the deaf community.

Other activities include an open house at California School for the Deaf Riverside, American Sign Language storytelling at the Arlington Library and a performance by Wild Zappers, an all-deaf male dance company.

"We have to do more and more to expose people to the deaf community," said Burstein, chairman of the city's Model Deaf Community, which works to build quality of life for the deaf and hard of hearing. "Deaf people can be invisible because you can't tell we are deaf."

This is Riverside's ninth annual Deaf Awareness Week. The Model Deaf Community organizes the week.




The city of Menifee is still trying to figure out how to be a city.




The Riverside County District Attorney's office is set to release a report on officer-involved shootings by sheriff deputies at the Soboba reservation, something it rarely does.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Last month, sheriff's investigators turned over a package of information that included witness statements, autopsy results and other evidence to prosecutors, who will determine whether to file criminal charges against the deputies.

Pacheco said investigators are still waiting for transcripts to be completed and can't say when the findings will be released. He said he plans to model his report after those produced by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

That office has been generating public reports on all its officer-involved shooting cases for 30 years, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman.

"The public has the right to know the facts of a shooting and the rationale of why criminal charges aren't filed," she said.

Very few law enforcement officers end up being criminally charged, she said.

"You have to show a crime was committed. That's extremely hard to do."

The San Bernardino County district attorney's office started issuing public reports on a few high-profile officer-involved shooting cases in 1999. In 2003, the office decided to produce reports on all of its officer-involved shooting cases, said Susan Mickey, a spokeswoman.

"We recognized that the public has a lot of interest in those cases and how we reach our decision," Mickey said. "We didn't want the public to think it was a flip decision."






In the wake of the future ouster of its current police chief, the city of San Bernardino's decided it might be a good time for an examination of the police department's policies.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




"I think you'll see some movement in the next few weeks or so, and maybe something on our next council agenda," Councilwoman Wendy McCammack said.

"I can tell you that it's the consensus of the council to bring in some kind of labor negotiator, and if Chief Billdt stays until March, maybe that person can help us search for a new chief," she said.

On Thursday, Mayor Pat Morris announced that police Chief Mike Billdt would retire in March.

The announcement came two weeks after the police union approved a resolution of no confidence against the chief by a 3-to-1 margin.

City Councilwoman Esther Estrada said she would like to hire a consultant soon.

"In the minds of the officers, the department's problems are not getting taken care of," she said.

"In my mind, the sooner this is taken care of, the better."





So does this mean that San Bernardino's interested in improving the practices of its troubled law enforcement agency? But at least if there are issues, this city's government is trying to deal with though in this case is it a sign of too little, too late?



While the city grapples with its police department, San Bernardino County is grappling with reining in its ethics abuses.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise editorial)



The county spurned the grand jury's approach, saying that severance packages are negotiated pacts that need to settle all potential legal claims. Constraining those agreements could leave the county vulnerable to costly lawsuits, the county said.

Taxpayers might first wonder just what county practices would create the need to settle legal claims at costs so far out of proportion to employees' work history. But beyond that, the county's lawyerly response offers no safeguards to prevent future abuses, despite clear evidence of the need.

The county does make a plausible case that current technology cannot prevent political use of the county e-mail system, another breach in Postmus' office. Still, officials failed to explain just how the county will enforce its existing ban against such activity.

The county needs a better ethical strategy than relying on existing policies that have failed to deter misconduct, and finding fault with others' proposed solutions. Supervisors seem unaware that the county has a deficit of public trust -- a gap that political posturing alone can never fill.







Officers in the Chicago Police Department which has been in the news a lot lately are clashing with their chief.



(excerpt, Associated Press)



"People are doing just what they need to get through" their shifts, said Lt. Robert Weisskopf, president of the Chicago police lieutenants union, "and not any extra."

In addition to making fewer arrests, police are seizing fewer guns and frisking gang members less often than they did before Superintendent Jody Weis was brought in to clean up a department embarrassed by a string of brutality cases, according to interviews, statistics provided by police and an internal document obtained by The Associated Press.

Department spokeswoman Monique Bond disputed the notion of any deliberate slowdown by police, saying, "There is nothing that we have to prove or support a theory like that."

She suggested instead that the drop in arrests means officers are focusing on serious crimes instead of such offenses as disorderly conduct and public drinking.

But some members of the police department, both publicly and privately, blame low morale and fear of investigation by Weis, a former FBI agent who took over in February.

"If I see a crime happening, I take action," said an officer who has more than 25 years on the force and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. "But I don't go out of my way to stop someone on a hunch or if they look suspicious. I don't want to be accused of racial profiling and run afoul of this guy who we know won't back us up."









In Dallas, police officers there are up in arms about a survey on sexuality being given out to those attending a diversity training course.






Facing criminal charges are two New York City Police Department officers for an off-duty assault of a fireman.



excerpt, Newsday)




Long Beach authorities say the NYPD officers - both assigned to the 101st Precinct in nearby Far Rockaway - punched the off-duty Long Beach firefighter and kicked him as his 22-year-old sister watched Saturday morning around 4 a.m., City Manager Charles T. Theofan said.

When the firefighter, Brian McNamara, 32, ran from the attack on West Beech Street and Virginia Avenue, the assailants followed him across the street and beat him again, Theofan said.

Theofan said police don't know the identity of the third man, who is still at large, or whether he is a police officer. There were originally four to five people in the group but only three participated in the assault, Theofan said.

At one point, a bystander, Andrew Romanelli, 27, of Long Beach, went to help McNamara, Theofan said. It was unclear whether he was injured.

Long Beach cops later found the assailants, with the sister's assistance, a few blocks away from where the beatings took place, Theofan said. They were covered in blood, he said.

The two officers - Douglas Rome, 25, and Jason Ragoo, 26 - surrendered yesterday to be fingerprinted, photographed, and charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, Theofan said.





A police officer in Louisville, Kentucky allowed his son to handcuff people who had been arrested. Needless to say, that created quite a few problems.

Double, double, toil and trouble...

"Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves."


----Lewis Carroll




"No lie can live forever."


---Martin Luther King, jr.





Politics make strange bed fellows and the latest example of that is that three members of the Riverside City Council got together and wrote themselves a rebuttal to the recent Press Enterprise editor recommending independent counsel for the Community Police Review Commission.




What can be said about it, after you finish cringing in embarrassment that supposedly intelligent and well-informed city officials have authored such a piece? That it's entertaining, perhaps and it is, because it's one of the truly most ignorant articles to be put out by any elected official (let alone three) in a while. What's even better is that it puts the CPRC and the latest round of assaults against it (including some far worse than what drove voters to put the commission in the charter in the first place) front and center including in the press just in time for another election year. What could be better? And as an extra bonus, this time they did it this time without the assistance of former Councilman Art Gage who kept his criticism verbal.

And it surprised me, because I truly thought at least two of these elected officials in the past had at least offered up some rather articulate, thought-out opinions on the CPRC. At least those who supported the commission tried to educate elected officials on at least the basics of its history, operation and structure. Obviously, these informative seminars on such basic information about this vital and very much wanted commission didn't take root.

The first most interesting thing about the rebuttal supposedly authored by city council members, Frank Schiavone, Nancy Hart and Steve Adams is that it doesn't seem likely that any of them really wrote it. You see a lot of borrowed phrases from City Manager Brad Hudson and some from City Attorney Gregory Priamos, for sure. Schiavone regurgitated some of these words in some comments he made in a response to speakers during public comment at a city council meeting several weeks ago but he appeared to have borrowed those comments as well.

But it doesn't look like it came from any of them. If it did and if the concerns shared in this opinion piece had been an overriding concern of any of these council members during their entire tenures (which are briefer than the tenure of the CPRC), they certainly never shared them with the city residents who are supposed to be their constituents. If they did share them with any constituents, then it seems that these exchanges were restricted to the constituents that they paid for and not offered as freely to those who voted or didn't vote for them at the polls instead of their pocket books.


And I know this, because I've had conversations with different council members throughout the years including Schiavone and Hart about the CPRC and neither one of them whether I agreed with their views or not, ever mentioned a peep about being concerned about the integrity of criminal investigations due to the commission's in place procedure that it has followed for conducting officer-involved death investigations for seven years now. Yet from the way this article was penned, you'd think that they had been raising this issue far longer than they ever had and had in fact, been screaming it from the roof tops.


Not so! In fact, none of them raised it in a public forum except when Adams briefly ranted at a 2006 meeting about arresting outside investigators for obstruction when no CPRC investigator has ever been present at a potential crime scene being processed after an officer-involved death and there were never any plans to ever have one present. Besides, these potential crime scenes are crowded enough with city employees tramping all over the place including representatives of various departments outside the police department's own representatives which often number over 100 people according to login sheets submitted as part of several past officer-involved death investigations submitted by the police department's Officer-Involved Death Team to the CPRC.

What you probably won't find on a login sheet at one of these "crime scenes" is a signature by a CPRC investigator. Why? Because they aren't there among the crowd of people who do congregate at these so-called crime scenes.

Still, there's been silence on all fronts about any such concerns that the CPRC might be interfering with criminal investigations for years and it likely would have stayed that way except for the recent rash of officer-involved deaths in the present and the rash of shootings in the past that were litigated against the city. It's more likely that given the years of silence on this suddenly pressing issue that it's the increased payouts by the city in litigating and then settling officer-involved death cases that is the real problem here, including the $800,000 settlement on one death that allegedly included a promise by the city to the plaintiffs to use the actions of the officers in that particular situation as a future example of what not to do in a similar situation.


But indeed not a peep from any of the stake holders from the city's employment ranks since 2001 on these concerns.


Not by Chief Russ Leach. Not by City Manager Brad Hudson. Not by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis. Not even City Attorney Gregory Priamos who know holds the commission's purse string or even the Riverside County District Attorney's office which has sent representatives from its office to attend CPRC meetings as observers not to complain about the commission's investigative protocol. And not these council members, at least of them in the past showing they are certainly capable of having intelligent conversations about the CPRC. In fact, not by any city official who's currently serving on the dais.

Not until just now.

That's what history states no matter how it's being rewritten now by elected officials who some now suspect are merely bringing discussions and perhaps even actions against the CPRC out of the shadows where they may have hidden for years and finally, into a public forum of sorts for all to see. The response to this opinion piece by many people has been relief that all this intrigue that many suspect has been going on for several years behind a wall of alleged public support for the will of the voters who passed Measure II, has finally come to light where the public and voters can finally see it. Even individuals who aren't particularly strong supporters of civilian oversight of police sat up and took notice at what they saw as city officials' inappropriate micromanagement of a body consisting of city volunteers. Contrary to what the city council members who authored this article stated about the CPRC not being unique in this city, the micromanagement by a host of individuals and outright attacks by others has made it very unique among the other boards and commissions in this city.

Why? Because it might just be the only board or commission actually voted into the city charter because city residents were sick and tired of their elected officials and others turning it into a political football. And the latest hijinks of the city government and their direct employees involving the commission are simply refreshing the memories of city residents as to why it's now a charter amendment.

But away from the clearly obvious and back to this suddenly pressing interest and why it's so important now.

After all, if this concern about investigations botched by the CPRC had been festering all these years, it would have to light long before now by city officials who deal with city residents they represent in a democratic and transparent fashion. But that of course, didn't happen.

It's not surprising to see Schiavone's picked up his pen again to author another opinion piece. After all, his council seat is up for reelection next year and if Orangecrest's and other southern neighborhoods in his ward views on him are any example, he's really got his work cut out for him to remain on the dais for another term.

But what's surprising about a piece that three of the city's elected representatives signed their names to is how little understanding each of them has individually and collectively about the Community Police Review Commission. It's embarrassing to read their inaccurate interpretation of the basic text of the city's charter, as city officials they have been educated enough on this issue by their constituents to at least have a basic understanding that the CPRC is much more than a policy reviewing machine. I was contacted by constituents of these council members who mouths open in shock at the ignorance of the CPRC expressed in this opinion piece. Did they even read the charter, some asked.

The answer can only be, no. What they did do was conflate the commission which is charter-mandated now (as they did correctly note) with one that was not which was the Law Enforcement Policy Advisory Committee that was disbanded with the installation of the CPRC.

Schiavone of course was backed financially in two elections by the Riverside Police Officers' Association not to mention being backed by this union's political action committee during his ill-fated attempt to be Riverside County's newest supervisor. Of course, it didn't go all that well. Despite all the literature put out by his campaign, he not only soundly lost the election, he failed to win a single precinct in his ward averaging less than 40% of the vote. After that kind of loss, something like a plurality election process might sound a bit more appealing than it did several years earlier. That of course, didn't pan out when people showed up at meetings and made their displeasure at this unknown and to Schiavone's credit, he backed down from his proposal as did Adams and Councilman Rusty Bailey who serve on the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Adams was another city council candidate backed heavily by the RPOA who campaigned for him during his first run in office. But not his second, where the PAC instead backed another candidate running against him. Still, Adams misrepresented himself by claiming he had the RPOA's support and then turned around and said he wasn't in their pocket along with making other disparaging statements about the union that years ago as a former police officer he had been included as a member. In fact, in 1999, a photograph was published of him in the Press Enterprise leaving a high school where an RPOA meeting had taken place, the meeting where the majority of the officers decided to shave their heads to protest the firing of the four officers who shot Tyisha Miller the year before. When asked about it, Adams had told a concerned resident in his ward that he had attended that meeting out of curiosity.

And in fairness to Adams, as stated he did rant about investigators during a public safety committee meeting in early 2006 discussing the CPRC but fellow member, Hart did not verbally agree with him in any way at least not back then. But then this discussion which spilled out into an opinion place didn't take place in a public form except for Schiavone's brief comments several weeks. It apparently took place behind closed doors, either literally or metaphorically by these three individuals.

The biggest shock to many people was Hart, though once independent, in recent months she's been more likely to follow along with the boys and she's also up for reelection. She's also potentially facing a formidable candidate who hasn't decided yet if he intends to run who could give her a run for her money. Hart had endorsed Measure II, recognizing that the political manipulations of the CPRC up to that point entitled it to the protection of the city's charter. Hart also told people she believed in what the commission was doing and that included its investigation of officer-involved deaths.

It's not clear how many other elected officials on the dais endorsed this opinion piece and that's pretty easy to understand given how quiet they have been. At any rate, legally according to the Brown Act, only three council members at most can sign on to an opinion piece without violating its serial meeting provision. Even discussing it with other council members who didn't sign onto it is a violation of serial meeting laws. Even different clusters of city council members discussing a similar issue such as who should be the attorney for the commission without public announcement constitutes a serial meeting violation. So, an opinion piece signed by a contingent of the city council that is one less than the quorum has muddled the waters quite a bit given the city council's apparent refusal to conduct any kind of substantive discussion in a publicly announced forum. This opinion piece was clearly an attempt to circumvent that democratic process by avoiding a discussion on these issues.

Hopefully, the silence by the rest of the city council on the issue of the CPRC is about of embarrassment over their colleagues' written piece and not apathy. Only time will tell.

So why the sudden interest? Why the sudden interest when there was no interest back when the commission investigated the previous 12 officer-involved deaths that trace back to June 2001 with the first fatal officer involved shooting investigated by the commission.

Back then, it took the commission six months to initiate its investigation which led to a discussion in protocol. What was interesting is that led to another meeting with stake holders in the process of conducting various investigations and reviews of officer-involved deaths. One of them, Chief Russ Leach, seemed to lead the charge in stating that it was important for the CPRC to decide for itself how and when best to initiate its investigation of these deaths. But the Leach back then is clearly not the Leach in place right now. The Leach that publicly supported a strong commission wasn't the Leach disposed by the RPOA's attorney for a law suit filed by one of his officers who appeared to resent its existence leading then presiding Riverside County Superior Court Judge Dallas Holmes to proclaim during a court hearing that he never met a police chief who supported civilian review.

Yet despite the lack of concern, within several weeks after Hudson's directive, we have this piece of prose by city officials who were silent on this issue for years before suddenly deciding criminal investigations are suddenly being jeopardized by trampling feet (which again, never has happened yet and won't because investigators don't show up at crime scenes) and witnesses suddenly being corrupted by having to give more than one statement (which would actually help clarify the veracity of witness testimony saving the Riverside County District Attorney's office a lot of work having to do so themselves). If for one thing, you have witnesses giving different statements to different people, wouldn't it be more advantageous to learn about that before the grand jury proceeding, the preliminary hearing or before they get on the witness stand at a trial?

And given the D.A.'s office record of never filing charges in a case involving an onduty shooting by any law enforcement officer in the county in its entire history (and no, Former D.A. Investigator Daniel Riter doesn't count because he was indicted by a citizen grand jury), this sudden concern by anyone is very interesting.

But here's a sample of the dramatic prose delivered by three individuals who again never even once offered any opinion on this even when asked before this month. Not while asked when running for office. Not while serving in office. But now, that two of them are likely planning to run for reelection.


(excerpt, rebuttal)



Law enforcement agencies bring criminals to justice. The commission reviews officers' actions to ensure consistency with departmental policy and to suggest policy revisions.

It is utterly inconceivable that anyone would suggest that criminal investigations be jeopardized by allowing civilian policy reviewers to tromp through crime scenes or contaminate witness statements.

Don't get us wrong. Policy review is very important, and until recently the commission has been able to contribute to the accountability and enhancement of Riverside's Police Department. But the government's first responsibility is to bring criminals to justice -- and no civilian can be allowed to impede this process.

We wholeheartedly support the city attorney's representation of the city's best interests, the city manager's direction to staff to ensure the integrity of the criminal investigation process and Riverside's policy review process beginning after the criminal process -- as is done in 16 of the 17 similar agencies across California.

And we urge the commission to refocus on reviewing the policy issues before it and get back to professionally carrying out the public's business.



The last sentence is particularly reflective of the ignorance of these elected officials because all it shows is that the same charter provisions that they have shrouded themselves with, they haven't read or they don't understand. Essentially urging the commission to "refocus on reviewing policy issues" shows that that first of all, they are not cognizant of what the full duties of the CPRC are despite all the attempts of their constituents to educate them and two, they don't know the difference between the commission that the public has called for and its predecessor, LEPAC. And that is an absolute disgrace to the city to have city council members who are encharged to represent the citizenry who are pushing decision making processes by two of their direct employees Hudson and Priamos without even understanding the body and the powers and responsibilities of the body involved. It's their responsibility as elected city officials to know this information.

The CPRC is emboldened in its by laws (which these individuals obviously haven't read) and its policies and procedures (again, which clearly weren't read) to do investigations both of citizen complaints and of officer-involved deaths, yet when they attempt to even define the CPRC's function in their article, all three of them state that it's just about creating policy recommendations. When the charter, ordinance, by-laws and policies and procedures clearly state otherwise. Go back and read all of these things. These elected officials must not want you to do so or else they would have offered you the citations themselves in their opinion piece or told readers where to find this information.


To access them, it's as simple as picking up a copy of any of the CPRC's annual reports which include indexes with this information or visit this site to click on "reports" and then "annual reports". Take your pick.

There's much more to say about this including the curious references of police officers as being "criminals brought to justice" in the opinion piece. But you have to remember some things here. The commission was set up to oversee several functions of the Riverside Police Department through both an investigative and review process. It did just that including its investigations into officer-involved deaths for about seven years without a peep from any of these three council members for the most part until earlier this month. But unlike the case several years ago, more lawsuits have been filed against the city for wrongful death and that's got the city government and several of its direct employees including its litigator, Priamos clearly more apprehensive than they were several years ago when there were even officer-involved shootings but fewer lawsuits.

Do the math and add it up. And what it adds up to so far is about $1.5 million in settlements with several lawsuits left to go and possibly more to be added to them. This wasn't the case back years ago when the city council didn't concern itself about the "integrity" of catching "criminals" (otherwise known in this context as police officers of this city) but it clearly appears to be so now that these officer-involved death cases may be getting expensive. And with three deaths since in less than three months, that concern can only be growing at City Hall.

But what is history anyway except to be repeated by those who don't learn the first time around?

When the incustody deaths spiked in the police department in the 1990s, the city council was faced with requests by LEPAC to broaden its powers of oversight and the city council did nothing in that direction. They didn't address issues in the police department which were serious back then and they aren't doing the same thing now. How many opinion pieces have been written about what's happening in the police department by city council members?

None.

The city council isn't writing opinion pieces addressing the staffing issues in the department which were serious enough to warrant a warning from a hired consultant who conducted an audit last June. They aren't writing about up to 19 police officer positions frozen for months even though the city's growing population-wise and size-wise, even as another annexation is progressing through the process set up to expand Riverside's girth.


Members of the city council aren't writing opinion pieces addressing the staffing issues pertaining to the number of experienced supervisors falling behind the trend of retirements at this level leaving the very young and inexperienced police department potentially under supervised. It's not writing about disparate information provided by different individuals including a representative from the city manager's office on officer to supervisor staffing ratios.

Did any members of the city council write opinion pieces or even discuss the reduction in overtime paid out to detectives leaving only one homicide unit detective available to handle overtime and for a while, no sexual assault and child abuse detective? Did they write opinion pieces when Crime-Free Multi-Housing went through multiple directors in one year or when the citizen academy was shut down?

No they did not. In fact, Schiavone's response to concerns about staffing issues raised by a consultant in June was that hey, they promoted a lieutenant today. But at least he made some comment, something Adams and Hart have yet to do on these issues even though they are elected representatives. Even though city residents have raised concerns about slow response times and less access to fewer resources that tie back to staffing cuts.

So it's clear that when it comes to addressing issues in the police department which could easily turn into a crisis or two if ignored in opinion pieces, the city council isn't willing to do so.

But they are willing to write opinion pieces to essentially prevent the commission from doing what they claim to want it to do, which is not to counter its charter powers, in order to accomplish what? To shield the police department and thus the city from accountability in cases where that may be all that there is to address serious concerns in the police department including some which have emerged this year? If the department was provided with the staffing and resources that it needed and if city council members advocated for these things in public meetings, private meetings and in opinion pieces, some issues that the commission has probably had to grapple with that have made it less popular with these elected officials might not be issues. Lesson learned, from the city's five-year foray into court-mandated reform to the tune of $22 million.

And for some of these individuals, will it really stop at an opinion piece which potentially has brought a long-shielded agenda to light? I do hope the trio's next opinion piece comes from a much more informed position than this one did and will be just as illuminating. Stay tuned because it's just about written in stone that there are more exciting chapters in this ongoing situation ahead.

Let the games begin.


The next CPRC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in the city council chambers at City Hall. This agenda is packed with agenda items pertaining to four fatal officer-involved shootings and one officer-involved death.


Here are city resources which explain more about the CPRC.


Riverside City Charter provision

Riverside Municipal Code provision

CPRC Bylaws

Policies and procedures of CPRC


If you're interested in learning more about LEPAC, the best source of information is the Mayor's Use of Force Panel Report released in April 1999. It includes a rather comprehensive section on this subcommittee of the Human Relations Commission.




To be continued....





The Riverside Police Department's most recent community forum the other night at Arlington High School was detailed here.




Ward Five City Councilman Chris MacArthur attended the meeting. Schiavone whose ward is also included in the Central Neighborhood Policing Center did not attend nor did Mayor Ron Loveridge. However, both the department's command staff and over 100 city residents did attend the forum.




Temporary parks in downtown Riverside.






An event organized by the Riverside Chinese Culture Preservation Committee



SAVE CHINATOWN

Why Should You Care about Riverside’s Chinatown?



a public forum


Wed., September 24, 2008

Riverside Public Library

3581 Mission Inn Ave.

6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Free and open to the public



The site of Riverside’s Chinatown at the corner of Brockton and Tequesquite Aves is on the verge of being developed. The City Council will soon vote (possibly in October) on the proposed plan to place a medical office building squarely on top of the archaeological remains.



Come hear about a grassroots effort to preserve the site.

Learn why the site is important.

Hear Riversiders attest to the importance of local history and local memory.

Become part of the grassroots movement: sign our petition and receive a “Save Chinatown” button!



For more information, contact Deborah Wong, deborah.wong@ucr.edu.

Want to know more about Riverside’s Chinatowns?

See www.asianamericanriverside.ucr.edu.






A man tased by Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies who later died was not killed by a taser, stated the coroner from that same agency.





Another Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy indicted on felony assault charges.



The Riverside Transit Authority will be holding public hearings on its proposed fare increases in November. Be sure to attend them if you care about the future of public transportation county-wide.

"We have not walked away from community policing..."

"We want to get to know you and you to get to know us."

---Riverside Police Department Chief Russ Leach






"I don't know any of you."

----Brother-in-law of Fernando Sanchez, who was shot by a city police officer last week

San Bernardino Police Chief Mike Billdt is out.


He will be retiring next March. Some say that was always the plan. Others say the two no-confidence votes he received from labor organizations were a major factor. Not many police chiefs stay in power long after receiving no-confidence votes. Billdt didn't buck that trend.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



That success prompted the mayor to ask Billdt to stay three more years, but the chief only agreed to two, Morris said. It always was the plan for Billdt to retire, he said.

"He's had incredible success," Morris said. "It's a difficult job to get crime down."

However, union and council representatives said Thursday they had not heard of Billdt's planned exit.

Councilwoman Wendy McCammack also said she had no knowledge that the chief planned to retire. The chief stepping down in March is not going to solve the structural problems the department has, she said.

"If the officers on the street have a concern about leadership in the department, I would be very concerned if that affects their performance on the streets," she said.

Billdt did not return phone calls seeking comment.






In the neighboring county, the much quieter Riverside Police Department held its third community policing forum, this time at Arlington High School for its Central Neighborhood Policing Center. It attracted an audience of over 100 people, many with concerns and questions.

Chief Russ Leach led the meeting where he was joined by the majority of his command staff and division heads as he had been earlier this year at a larger forum held at California Baptist University. It was very informative in some ways, not as much in others but a very interesting event. An attempt at dialogue which is never a bad thing but somewhat limited by time and the nature of the forum. Leach did tell audience members that the forums might soon be quarterly in different regions of the city as part of the commitment to the department's Strategic Plan. Other department representatives said that similar forums in the north and east NPCs would be held probably next year, with one being held in downtown and the other, in Mission Grove.

Representing City Hall at this meeting were Ward Five Councilman Chris MacArthur and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis. Missing was City Attorney Gregory Priamos who didn't attend, perhaps being busy at another meeting that took place at City Hall around the same time, which was the latest meeting of the Community Police Review Commission's ad hoc committee on coming up with protocol for officer-involved deaths. Even though the commission's been pretty much barred from even investigating them in any real meaningful way by City Hall, it's still going through the motions to establish a protocol for that process.

Still given the larger role Priamos has played in policing affairs particularly in the role of oversight, it was surprising not to see him nor his office represented at all to monitor what was being said by everyone.

The area commander of the Central NPC, Bruce Loftus, served as the MC, introducing everyone and Leach spoke on several occasions. Loftus introduced his officers on staff which were three POPs officers, three school resource officers and four detectives, many of whom attended the meeting. He was joined by two of the three area commanders, one field operations captain and various heads of divisions ranging from special investigations to special operations and the audit and compliance panel.

Part of the meeting was spent talking about crimes.

Leach and others there said the number one problem was traffic. In high schools, it was gang, bullies and fighting. Asst. Chief John DeLaRosa and Deputy Chief Pete Esquivel both addressed the audience on the administrative and operations functions of the department respectively. The department having essentially been split in half through these divisions as someone pointed out.

They discussed the decentralization of the community services in Riverside including the neighborhood watches, citizen academy and POPs officers but it appeared to be as much a geographic decentralization as anything else especially when Leach discussed a history that went back 25 years and followed the development of the city's two field operations stations. They emphasized the cooperative aspect of decentralizing the department into four policing centers and spreading the resources that the department offers four different ways. That would be very necessary in this kind of structural format and would be an asset to the city.

But of concern to some, is the more competitive aspect of this division especially during a time period of limited resources like the current situation. How is viewing the department as four entities based on geography and not quite equal-sized at that, going to impact the philosophy of community policing (rather than the division of the resources in the past Community Programs Division) inside the department? Will it foster cohesiveness and cooperation or competition and isolation? The jury's out on that one and only time will tell which way it goes.


But Leach said that the rumors that the department has been moving from community policing aren't true. We have not walked away from community policing, Leach said.



"Not so, we've gotten stronger," Leach said, "No program has been canceled."




Except for the Citizen Academy which has been on ice for months now even as the police department's Web site calls for applications to a session scheduled much earlier in the year. It was suspended until further notice because the city's not paying the overtime required for those who teach the classes. Crime-Free Mult-Housing may not currently have a director given that both Officers Clarence Dodson and Chris Carnahan helmed it briefly after the retirement of long-time director, Officer John Start. These are more community service programs than community policing (which is more a philosophy), but they are and have been used as the department's benchmark on its progress in community policing when it's something really much broader.

Decentralizing community policing itself would need to be done through the department's field training program, because that's where academy graduates learn to police and if this department moves closer to embracing community policing as a philosophy then this is where it all begins. But it's not clear that this is what's happening. Teaching officers from the ground up about community policing as opposed to more watchman or paramilitary structure policing, is very important as is training the trainers how to do so. Promoting those who embrace this model is very important as well to build a command structure which fully embraces community policing as a matter of course. Rewarding through community service or public safety awards those who utilizing problem solving and community oriented policing should be more frequent and perhaps the idea of a community policing award that was briefly considered during a joint session of both the CPRC and the Human Relations Commission should be considered again.


Then there was more specific talk about the central NPC and what it was doing and who was doing it.

Loftus in his presentation on his precinct included the officers assigned to his division as part of the manifestation of this decentralization including POPs officers Jeffrey Barney and Kenneth Beebe and School Resource Officer Kevin Feimer as well as Sgt. Brian Kittenger who was next in Loftus' command.


MacArthur who's got to be one of the hardest working elected officials spoke about how regularly these issues came up at meetings that he attended.



"Tonight is your night," MacArthur said, "You are the ears and eyes and you know your community."



No other elected official appeared at this meeting, not even Ward Four Councilman Frank Schiavone. The absence particularly of Schiavone and Mayor Ron Loveridge said more than their attendance would have. A woman behind me in the high school auditorium said to another woman that Ward Three Councilman Rusty Bailey was unable to attend.

The community's participation in these forums is often what is key and many people did attend and participate, not that the question and answer session was long enough, but people did ask questions, sometimes out of turn. That's when forums get more interesting and that's when the information starts to flow. That also is a useful test on how well a department knows its own program when it steps apart from what it's rehearsed.


It was interesting watching Leach and another department representative sift through a pile of cards to pick out the final three questions they would address. The most interesting questions as usual were those made spontaneously from the audience, addressing everything from how to handle a burglary in process in your own home to who should contact the family members of a person shot and killed by the police. But that's how it often is, many times the questions aren't carefully written out on cards and submitted for a decision on which ones will be answered. They come out sometimes fast and furious, at the time they come into people's minds especially when things are going on. That's community policing in a nutshell is being able to face those questions and answer them knowing that it is what helps you grow including in the development of any meaningful "partnership" between the police department and the communities it protects and serves.

I doubt my questions which I had and still have would have survived the sifting process though the one about officer morale was an interesting one. Leach said that officer morale was currently great. Is that really the case? Has anyone asked?



Some other oral (and not written) questions involved whether or not officers were held accountable if they crossed the line. Leach said that the department had an internal affairs division which processed complaints "filed by people in the community" and those initiated by supervisors in the department. However, in reality, the majority of complaints filed by city residents are not investigated by the internal affairs division but by field patrol supervisors with varying levels of experience at that position. He didn't mention the existence of the CPRC and it didn't appear as if any of the commissioners were in attendance though he did reference the CPRC when addressing a question about a recent fatal officer-involved shooting.

A Latina said that she had been handcuffed then hit by an officer and that other family members had been mistreated by officers. Often it takes entire presentations before these questions are asked as most often they are at the very end of forums like this one and other meetings. For all the candor that is promised, this subject is one tread on lightly by the department at nearly every public meeting.

Leach directed the woman to talk with Internal Affairs Lt. Steve Johnson about her complaint which she said was filed some time ago to find out where it was in the process.


But it wasn't an individual complaint, the woman said about profiling and excessive force.


"It happens all the time".



Members of a family who had lost a member to a police shooting last week also spoke up with questions, the kind that don't fit on 3 x 5 index cards.



The family of Fernando Sanchez who was shot and killed by an unidentified police officer last week appeared at the meeting, the evening before they were set to bury their relative. And despite increased dialogue on how family members of those killed by police should be notified and by whom, Sanchez' story was virtually identical to that told by family relatives of Joseph Darnell Hill who was killed by police in 2006.


The brother-in-law spoke about his work with corrections and other services, how he believed that the police should personalize themselves in their contacts with the community. They plan to attend the police department's briefing (which Leach did announce) at the CPRC meeting on Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.


This community forum came at a time when many questions are to be asked by not so many people, at least not out loud. It's not like the decentralization of the four NPCs into increasingly separate entities is seen as a bad thing but what it is seen as by many, is a numbers thing. Does the police department have the numbers to pull it off? Why is it attempting to do so during some of the most difficult budget times in the city's recent history? What is really going on here?

The forum offered some answers and some useful and good information but it raised more questions as well.


The city's coming out of its hiring freeze, an event foreshadowed in the situation depicted in a link included in the last posting of the two men who were trying to become Riverside Police Department officers. Hiring more entry level officers could potentially fill gaps in the current staffing levels but could increase the ratio between officers and supervisors especially given the vacancies at the sergeant rank.

Although one of those positions was filled by a promotion, which changes the current status of the department's vacant positions.




Supervisory Vacancy Watch:


Sgt. Randy Eggleston, retired earlier this year

Lt. Pete Villaneuva, retired about a month ago for medical reasons

Sgt. Kevin Stanton, retiring in October

Sgt. Terry Meyers, retired for medical reasons this week

Sgt. Lisa Williams, transferred to a newly created spot in Communications

Sgt. Don Tauli, scheduled to retire in December but might be staying on another year

Sgt. Leon Phillips, promoted to lieutenant on July 1 to fill vacancy





Addition:



Sgt. Dan Warran, who starts field operations later this week working initially with Sgt. Jay Greenstein who was promoted several years ago.


Warren's spot at the detective ranks will be filled by the promotion of Officer Jayson Wood.


More sergeant retirements are however expected in the next year or so, given how many of them are approaching retirement age. But there are currently eight vacancies that have opened up in the department that it is currently trying to fill.



It's interesting that it was the retirement of Meyer that apparently was the tipping point in opening up the sergeant ranks for one promotion to fill the vacancy created by Meyer who took a medical retirement apparently rather suddenly. To learn that the department broke its freeze on filling sergeant vacancies because of one more unexpected one kind of makes it seem that it's riding a fine line between what's a healthy ratio of officers to supervisors and what's not. How many more retirements and vacancies involving sergeant positions until it really impacts the levels of supervision over what is a very young and inexperienced police force?

There will be further analysis of this public forum and the issues discussed in upcoming postings.








Another building in downtown Riverside is going to be converted and renovated.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The $10 million project goes before the Planning Commission at 9 a.m. today at City Hall, 300 Main St.

The only approval Mruvka needs is to take over portions of three streets -- Santa Fe Avenue, Jack. B. Clarke Way and Ninth Street -- to alter traffic circulation and create safe walkways connecting the packinghouse project to nearby buildings he owns.The proposal by developer Alan Mruvka for the renovation of the packinghouse in the Riverside Marketplace goes before the Planning Commission today.

The proposal would create a campuslike environment connecting five buildings, all north of the downtown Metrolink station and south of Mission Inn Avenue.

The buildings would share a parking structure Mruvka plans between the Vine Street office building and the railroad tracks, said Debra Leight, a city planner.

The project is part of a grander plan to transform part of the land between Mission Inn Avenue and 14th Street immediately east of the freeway.

The most dramatic proposal Mruvka has made is to develop the downtown Metrolink parking lot with 400 apartments, 40,000 square feet of retail space and a 1,000-car parking structure at a cost of about $100 million.

The idea is to create a district where Metrolink commuters could live, shop and dine, Mruvka said Wednesday. They also could use John W. North Park.









The Riverside Planning Commission has voted to annex more land for the city by the Box Springs Mountain.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Ten residents, nine of whom live in the targeted zone, spoke in opposition. They said they were concerned about the effect it would have on their rural lifestyle, on wildlife in the area and on their tax bills.

"I see no benefit from it," resident William Leuer said.

"I want everything to stay as is," Steve Wilcox said.

City officials at the meeting said the annexation would have little discernible effect on residents' rural lifestyle.

Nineteen single-family houses sit in the annexation zone -- many on East Blaine Street -- and only about 350 acres are in private hands.

The Riverside County Park and Open Space District owns 917 acres, the University of California owns 160 acres, the city owns 40 acres and the Riverside County Transportation Commission owns 20 acres.

The matter goes to a public hearing before the City Council in about a month, Planning Director Ken Gutierrez said.





Some retirement perks by Hemet's city employees have people in an uproar.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Former City Manager Steve Temple received $1,580 for a gift card from Cabela's, a popular outdoor clothing and gear store.
Former Public Works Director David Oltman received $2,300 to purchase tools.
Former Police Chief Pete Hewitt received $1,235 to buy a new television.
The three are among the 41 Hemet employees who received going-away presents from the city when they retired under Hemet's "Retirement Recognition Program."
Since the program was adopted by the City Council in 2005, Hemet taxpayers have spent more than $47,000 on retirement presents for employees, including a $1,305 cruise for a departing police officer and a $1,660 telescope for a retiring fire battalion chief.
Some residents have strong opinions about whether the program should continue.
"I don't like it," said Hemet resident Jim Johnson. "I think they should scrap it."





Problems with possible voter registration fraud are attracting attention in San Bernardino County which has already seen its share of corruption issues emerge.



Just say no.

That's what the Seattle Police Department's police union said to having to use both digital audio recorders and video cameras giving a thumbs down to accountability.




(excerpt, Seattle Times)



O'Neill said he sent the department a cease-and-desist letter on Friday. At a meeting with the top brass Monday, O'Neill said he was told the command staff was unaware cameras were being used during the bicycle protest.
O'Neill said the department has promised to put the cameras "back in the box" until the issue is ironed out with the union.
Police spokesman Sean Whitcomb declined to comment Wednesday on why the cameras were used and where the department stands with negotiations with the union. He said the department "is always looking at different technologies to assist us."
"If the officers have the cameras going all the time there could be a chilling effect on citizens and juvenile talking to the police," O'Neill said. "If they think the cops are videotaping all of their conversations they might not want to have their names or faces used."

O'Neill said that many officers are torn about the issue. They say they like video for evidence, but some officers say they aren't thrilled about having a camera recording what they are saying throughout their shifts.

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess, chairman of the public-safety committee, said he doesn't see any problems with officers carrying small cameras.

"I certainly don't object to it," Burgess said. "Anything that sheds light on what our officers are encountering and their behavior is a good thing."





In Springfield, Illinois, a judge issued the ruling that internal affairs division records aren't always exempt from public disclosure.


Not surprisingly, there were some upset folks.



(excerpt, State Journal Register )




“We respectfully disagree with the judge’s opinion, and we’re considering our appeal options,” Myers said.

The judge had ordered the sheriff’s department to turn over four internal affairs files concerning Deputy John Gillette, but not a file in which IA investigators cleared Gillette of wrongdoing in an incident in which he detained Gekas at gunpoint.

Both sides agreed that the case could set an important precedent in a state where police internal affairs investigations have traditionally been kept secret.
That kind of blanket secrecy, Diehl said, isn’t acceptable.

“Should all internal affairs files be exempt (from disclosure)?” the judge wrote. “The answer is indisputably ‘no.’”





In Florida, the internal affairs chief himself is in hot water.




Sex on the job? That's a recently discovered perk in a police department in Connecticut.



(excerpt, The Register Journal)




The police department launched an investigation into the relationship between Officer Chris Donovan and dispatchers Jennifer Street and Cathy Goodfield after several other officers and dispatchers reported they were flirting while on duty and appeared to be spending an inordinate amount of time with each other, according to documents released after a Freedom of Information request.

The 650-page investigation shows extensive misuse of sophisticated equipment for sexual chats, which has led to a thorough review of police communication systems.

Donovan, who has also been reprimanded for sleeping on duty, bad mouthing other officers and having dispatchers "ditch" his calls while getting a hair cut while on duty, resigned June 9. Street, 23, resigned May 28, and Goodfield, 41, resigned early June.

, 36, said in a statement provided to investigators that he had engaged in sexual intercourse with Street, including in the female locker room of the police department, for about one month. Donovan and Street independently told investigators in statements that they had engaged in sexual intercourse from late April to late May. Goodfield also admitted to having sex with Donovan, according to the investigation.

Donovan, Street and Goodfield could not be reached for comment Wednesday.



What exactly did former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona's Professional Service Representatives do? Not very much, as it turns out.


Los Angeles Police Department Officer Spree DeSha's funeral takes place. She was killed on Sept. 12's Metrolink collision along with 24 other people.





Don't look now but the Ghost walk tours will expand this year. And if you have $100 to spare, you will be given a look at the legendary catacombs beneath the Mission Inn Hotel.