On Tuesday, July 20th, national and local professionals gathered at the Handlery Hotel in San Diego to learn about, and discuss issues revolving around police accountability and
community-police relationships. With an increasing amount of attention given to police abusing the trust given them, CAHRO saw the need to host a training symposium in which members from both law enforcement and the community
could build trust and learn about different types of police civilian review.San Diego Chief David Bejarano and the ACLU's John Crew started off the day discussing the hurdles in building trust between law enforcement
and community. "Police tend to work and sometimes live in very insular groups…groups that unfortunately tend to inherently distrust the public which they are serving," said Mr. Crew, who directs the ACLU's Police
Practices Project. Although Chief Bejarano's police department is a national model for community policing, he conceded that relations between law enforcement and community can be strained, however "the process of mutual
trust has to start somewhere…we are trying to begin that process through more community involvement."
The four most prevalent types of review and operational oversight were discussed in the next panel:
internal affairs where law enforcement staff investigate their own officers; independent civilian review of internal affairs investigations; independent civilian investigation of police activities; and independent Inspector General
review of internal affairs investigations. A panel of experts, including Scott Fulkerson of San Diego County Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, Katherine Mader of the LA County District Attorney's Office and John Parker
of the San Diego City Citizens' Review Board discussed the successes and failures of each method. Hypothetical scenarios were presented to each panelist to demonstrate the limitations of each system. The point was made
that police accountability to the community is ultimately a reflection of the ability and will of city and county administrators and law enforcement chiefs to ensure that police act professionally.
One highlight
of the symposium was a presentation on youth-police relations, made by Eli Reyna of the Orange County HRC and a group of young people who gave testimony to their interaction with the police. Unfortunately, the majority of
their experiences were negative, however it provided an invaluable learning opportunity the audience.
The symposium provided "tools for the toolbox" through workshops on strategizing for police-community
partnerships. Topics were: community policing with the San Diego Police Dept. and San Diegans United for Safe Neighborhoods; conflict resolution and policing with Community Boards; and building trust between community
and law enforcement with the American Friends Service Committee and San Diego Human Rights Commission.
The symposium was a uncontested success. Comments from attendees evaluating the session indicated they felt
it was "more informative than [they] anticipated," with "valuable skills to take back to my constituencies." CAHRO is planning additional symposiums on the same topic in other areas of California.
