Do We Need a Civilian Review Board for the CV Police Department?

On December 4, 2001 a 7 member Citizen's Task Force on Civilian Review submitted a report on Civilian-Police Review. They concluded that a Review Board was not necessary but that the initial filing process for citizen complaints needed revision and improvement, and a Citizen Advisory Board on Police Practices and Procedures should be established. It does not appear that these recommendations have been fully implemented yet.

This is an interesting question that has been asked in the Chula Vista community for some time now. National City has a Review Board and an Advisory Committee. In a recent interview with an editor of the Union Tribune the National City Police chief praised the help they have been in turning the crime situation and the community's relationship with the police in National City around.

"Let's talk about community outreach. Years ago there was a very poor relationship between the department and the community."

"We have more bilingual officers, a chief's advisory committee and a separate citizens' review board. The citizens' review board looks up citizen complaints of misconduct against the police. The chief's advisory committee is made up of residents, different people from the community, whom we call when we talk about policies and civic issues. What we can do to better serve the community."

My personal interactions with the Chula Vista Police Department over the years have been very positive. They have always come across as courteous and professional whether stopping me for forgetting to turn my lights on or responding to a burglary at my home or during a very serious incident with one of my special education students. However, a resident of Southwest Chula Vista has had the police pull a gun on his wife (a kindergarten teacher) in his front yard three times. She was just inquiring as to why they were in her front yard harassing her son and his friends. This is kind of scary especially when considered along with the experience of Christian Morales in his own front yard. His crime apparently was being Latino and driving a brown truck. No arrest was made, but he ended up in the hospital. His mother was threatened with a tasar when she tried to help her son. (Federal Lawsuit Charges Chula Vista California Police Officer Moises Rodriguez With Brutal Beating Of Innocent Man In His Family’s Driveway) After 4 officers harassed him for a period of time Christian wanted to settle.

I was chatting with some friends outside of the Civic Center Library one evening in 2007 and a gentleman came up to me expressing his concern and his long campaign to get a Police Review Board in Chula Vista. I believe his name was Rico. He said he was very concerned because his son was almost killed by a Chula Vista Police Officer. He told me about a pregnant woman who was tased by a Chula Vista Police officer: ("4. Hannah Rogers-Grippi, 6-month-old fetus, Chula Vista, Calif. Dec. 15, 2001 Police shocked a 36-year-old pregnant woman in the back for refusing to follow orders. At the hospital, fetal heart sounds were heard during the examination. Two days later, an exam revealed that the fetus had died. Autopsy report lists cause of death as intrauterine fetal demise. Maternal methamphetamine use was a contributing factor. The coroner said it was difficult to make a causative link between the Taser event and the intrauterine fetal death"". There have been and continue to be many lawsuits against police departments for the various abuses related to tasers. For example, a woman who was pregnant but had a miscarriage shortly after being tased and falling on her stomach won $675,000 from the City of Chula Vista, California.")

A union official picketing a defense contractor in Chula Vista was stunned by a tazar and won his suit on 4/20/05.

  
 I have a Freedom of Information Act Request in to get a list of all complaints and lawsuits
filed against the police department due to police conduct. I got a response today 1/11/08 to my
request. Deputy City Attorney Joan Dawson informed me that Penal Code sections 832.5 through 832.8 protect the confidentiality of any and all complaints against police officers. (Read her e-mails here.)
 She did send me a list of claims filed against the police. I asked for information
from 1990 to present. I got a list from 1995 to 2007. The list has 104 claims. Only one claim is
listed for 2007. I know there was a suit by the son of Terrance Allen, but I don't see his name on the list. I sent Joan Dawson this e-mail 1/11/08 inquiring about missing data. 
 On 1/18/08 I received this email from Captain Wedge offering to do a one-hour 
presentation for the Southwest Chula Vista Civic Association about how officer complaints are
handled. I will bring it up at a meeting and if people wish schedule a presentation, but I still
don't have a list containing the number, type and disposition of complaints by year from 1990 to present and how they were resolved as I am entitled to according to section (c) of Penal Code 832.5:  
c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), a department or agency that
employs peace or custodial officers may disseminate data regarding the
number, type, or disposition of complaints (sustained, not sustained,
exonerated, or unfounded) made against its officers if that information is
in a form which does not identify the individuals involved.

This is the 1/22/08 response to my 1/11/08 e-mail to Deputy City Attorney Dawson. I was provided with a list of all claims that were litigated from 1990 to 12/31/07. There are no litigations for 2007. This is obviously an improvement over previous years. Ms Dawson also corrected me that the Quinones case was not a police matter but actually a civil claim against the city. The Terrence Allen case is discussed below. I do not know why she says there was no lawsuit filed? Was it settled out of court or is the Union Tribune reporter wrong??

2/22/08 I got another letter from Ms. Dawson in which she informed me the law says "may" not must, and the department apparently does not keep this information anywhere outside of privileged records. These three PowerPoint Slides were also included, which do provide some information:

It is interesting that so many Departmental Complaints are sustained but so few citizen complaints are sustained. The ratio of complaints to contacts seems good. It would be interesting to know what the ratio of complaints per arrests is in other departments.

Terrance Allen is the black man who was lying in the parking lot of the South County Regional Center shortly before midnight on August 3, 2007. He got into a violent fight with officers in which one officer was seriously injured. The District Attorney is still investigating the case, but again one wonders about the mental condition of someone lying in the middle of a parking lot and why there are not alternative non-lethal responses for these kinds of situations. This is a follow up story from the U-T archives:

Son of man fatally shot by police files legal claim

[R, E, S, F Edition]

The San Diego Union - Tribune - San Diego, Calif.

Author:	Mark Arner
Date:	Oct 4, 2007
Start Page:	B.2
Section:	LOCAL

Document Text

CHULA VISTA -- The 12-year-old son of a man who was shot and killed by police two months ago near the South Bay Courthouse filed a legal claim yesterday against the city.

Terrence Allen was killed Aug. 2 after Chula Vista police found him lying on the ground near the courthouse. Allen fought with police, authorities said, after he refused their commands to get up and move. Three officers used Tasers on Allen before shooting him.

The claim was filed with the city's risk management office by attorneys representing Allen's son. It says officers used excessive force and were poorly trained. Legal claims are required in order to sue a government agency.

City spokeswoman Liz Purcell declined to comment.

Allen's death is one of nine shootings by police officers, sheriff's deputies and prison guards countywide this year, and is among 49 such shootings since 2005, said Paul Levikow, a spokesman for District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

Dumanis has not completed a review of Allen's shooting.

--M.A.

This is a quote from the U-T article about the 90-year-old man who was shot by the police after several hours of failed negotiations at the Palm Mobile Estates. The main concern here should be that the police had hours to come up with some non-lethal means of subduing this man when inevitably there would be a confrontation, but instead of using rubber bullets, tranquilizers, tear gas or whatever else they have available they granted his request to die at their hands. "Since 1990, Chula Vista officers have been involved in at least four instances in which they shot and killed someone. The most recent, in August, involved three officers who shot Terrance Allen, 38, who refused to leave a parking lot. He was shot with a Taser gun, then attacked officers. "

This is a table I made from information on the California Aware website. They are the Center for Public Forum Rights. They go incognito to public agencies and ask for information. They then rate the agencies on their performance. This table summarizes the information on a few police departments in San Diego County. There is an article in the Voice of San Diego about this report.

Department	City	Previous Grade	Legal Compliance Grade	Customer Service Grade	Details
Chula Vista Police	Chula Vista	F-	D	A	Details
National City Police	National City	F	B-	C-	Details
La Mesa Police	La Mesa	F+	D-	A-	Details
SD County Sheriff	Imperial Beach	F-	C	A+	Details
San Diego Police-headquarters	San Diego	N/A	C-	A+	Details
Coronado Police	Coronado	D+	A+	A+	Details

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/lemas00.pdf:

City	Yr.	Population	Violent Crime	Murder	Forcible Rape	Robbery	Aggravated Assault	Property Crime	Burglary	Larceny- Theft	Motor Vehicle Theft
Chula Vista	2005 2006	206,239 212,393	927 947	5 7	66 70	338 351	7489 7034	1235 1184	3758 3817	2496 2033	23 41
Oceanside	2005 2006	168,550 167,604	778 848	7 8	78 48	264 245	634 635	5657 4873	1065 979	3846 3261	746 633
San Diego	2005 2006	1,272,148 1,266,847	6603 6391	51 68	376 248	1862 2164	4314 3811	46213 45209	7462 7746	24613 24125	14138 13338
Escondido	2005 2006	136,362 135,293	692 713	2 3	21 33	186 235	473 442	4911 4407	801 758	3031 2687	1079 962

Crime in the United States in 2006

City	Population	Violent crime	Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter	Forcible rape	Robbery	Aggravated assault	Property crime	Burglary	Larceny-theft	Motor vehicle theft	Arson1
Chula Vista	212,393	947	7	70	351	519	7,034	1,184	3,817	2,033	41
Coronado	26,662	23	0	3	9	11	516	67	379	70	1
Del Mar	4,417	26	0	1	7	18	274	54	190	30	0
El Cajon	93,320	473	4	28	154	287	3,612	638	1,954	1,020	26
Escondido	135,293	713	3	33	235	442	4,407	758	2,687	962	17
Imperial Beach	26,612	168	1	17	34	116	747	169	342	236	3
La Mesa	53,559	235	3	8	111	113	2,497	447	1,459	591	16
Lemon Grove	24,341	170	1	12	65	92	793	211	319	263	9
National City	61,972	524	2	9	211	302	2,463	453	1,125	885	12
Oceanside	167,604	936	8	48	245	635	4,873	979	3,261	633	21
San Diego	1,266,847	6,391	68	348	2,164	3,811	45,209	7,746	24,125	13,338	185

Looking at these statistics and excluding San Diego with five times the population, Chula Vista appears to have the highest crime rates in almost every category. Since it has the highest population this would make sense.

 I quote Susan Watry, who is upset that the city's cuts are going
to cut the Tuesday night dance that seniors have enjoyed for 20 years:
 "How can I tell these people with a straight face
 that an ill-conceived jail in our new police station is still costing
 us $1.7 million annually; that the laundry and cleaning budget alone
 ($8579) would probably be enough to keep Norman Center open on Tuesday
 evenings? No budget cuts there! Apparently our
 new jail has not brought in the income it was 
supposed to from the county. It also,like the
 Civic Center, still is not entirely paid for."
 
 To pay off the city's debt on the police building by 2033
the city will have to pay a total of $102,236,447 and that is only
if they do not refinance the debt and extend the term and
increase the amount owed, which they have done in the past.
 
 Click to see a page from the 2007 Audited Financial
Statement of the Public Financing Authority (city council)
relating to the loans to build the police station. 
 
Click here to see an organizational chart
for the Chula Vista Police Department. 
 
A salary chart for the entire city is at
Issue Four.