The "Symposium on Community and Police Relations" sponsored by CAHRO in December provided an opportunity for community and police representatives to talk frankly about what can
and should be done to improve police and community relations. Law enforcement officers and the public also had a chance to closely examine the strengths and weaknesses of efforts to deal with police officers who abuse
their authority.
Among those taking part were state Attorney General Bill Lockyer; U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Yvonne Lee; Mary Dunlap, director of San Francisco's Office of Citizen Complaints; Don Casimere,
director of the Sacramento Office of Police Accountability; LAPD Inspector General Jeffery Eglashl; and Novato Police Captain Reg Lyles.
The issues provided ample fuel for lively discussions on problems in law
enforcement within the community, and on how laws can lead to conflicts between police and the public. A great deal of useful information was shared.
John Burris, a prominent civil rights attorney who has made the
prosecution of police officers who abuse their authority a career, was well received by an audience that included law enforcement officers. He prefaced his remarks by acknowledging that the vast majority of police officers
conduct themselves appropriately and provide an indispensable service. His speech focused on ways to improve training and disciplinary practices to minimize the number of officers who go beyond the law in exercising their
authority.
CAHRO designed several workshops following lunch to allow people to consider ways law enforcement and community could work together to address relations between police and: people of color; the
homeless; documented and undocumented immigrants; schools; gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendereds; and youth. Most of the workshops were well received, and participants rated them highly for providing new and useful
information.
In one workshop, presentations by Wesley Mitchell, chief of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department, and Stephen Thom of the U.S. Justice Department's Community Relations Service
inspired participants to incorporate ideas in their own communities.
Lt. P.J. Guido of the Santa Monica Police Department and representatives of Third Eye Movement, a youth group, engaged in lively and productive
conversations on how police could work with youth and treat young people with the respect they would expect for themselves.
Representatives from the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco and newly retired
Berkeley Police Chief Daschnell Butler discussed the no-win position police are put in by having to enforce laws that leave homeless people with few options, particularly when no shelters are available. Butler wrote a book on the
topic and stated that an ideal partnership between police and community would mean for both to work together to provide resources to meet the needs of homeless people.
Tina D'Elia from Community United Against
Violence, an organization working against hate violence perpetrated against people because of their sexual orientation, talked about their work and the experiences of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered with
police. One startling statistic mentioned was that more than half of the complaints of abuse by transgendered people nationally are against law enforcement officers. Fortunately, a lieutenant with Berkeley Police
Department assigned to work with gays/lesbians/bisexuals/transgendered people was in the audience and spoke of the new training that is occurring, and the improvement of relations within the last several years.
Two workshops were somewhat disappointing. One on immigrants suffered from the last minute cancellation by Assistant Chief Earl Saunders of the San Francisco Police Department because of a family emergency. As a result,
there was no law enforcement official prepared to discuss model policies and protocols for addressing immigrant issues. Some responses by law enforcement officers to statements made by professionals in immigrant advocacy
regarding complicated immigration laws reportedly led to confusion that may have been avoided.
The workshop on police and people of color was so emotionally charged it sometimes created more posturing than
direction. Comments from those attending the session were mixed with some expressing disappointment and others feeling that the rhetoric needed to occur before a real dialogue could begin.
This was CAHRO's fifth
symposium on topical issues, and the third relating to community and police issues. Although we have been pleased with the evaluations of our symposiums in the past, it has been instructive to host a symposium in which there
are a few problem areas. We are a learning organization and have already developed new guidelines to address the weak points we encountered in an otherwise successful event.
