Name: 3 big California police unions release national reform plan to remove racist officers
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3 big California police unions release national reform plan to remove racist officers

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThree major police unions in California introduced a reform agenda Sunday to improve outcomes between police officers and their communities and “root out any racist individual” from their ranks.The San Jose Police Officers’ Association, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League outlined the plan in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.The proposal comes amid sweeping calls for police reform, weeks of protests and heated debates over police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd was killed May 25 during an encounter with four police officers now charged in his death.“No words can convey our collective disgust and sorrow for the murder of George Floyd,” the police unions said in the ad. “We have an obligation as a profession and as human beings to express our sorrow by taking action.”The plan outlines action items aimed at holding law enforcement officers accountable during their interactions with community members, including:• A national database of former police officers fired for gross misconduct that would prevent other agencies from hiring them.• A national use-of-force standard that focuses on de-escalation, intervening when officers witness use of excessive force or misconduct, appropriate responses to dangerous incidents and stronger accountability provisions, following a model by the Los Angeles Police Department.Unrest Over Police Violence• A warning system to identify officers in need of additional training and mentoring, modeled after the San Francisco Police Department.• A public website that would allow people to track use-of-force incidents, similar to a model adopted by the San Jose Police Department.• Frequent crisis intervention and de-escalation training.“We believe that each of our departments has made tremendous strides in strengthening accountability, transparency and adopting policies that reduce the number and severity of uses-of-force,” said the police unions said in a joint statement Sunday. “However, we can do more.”Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, said the plan — and the decision to publish it in major newspapers — is a bold move that he hopes will show police are willing to engage in difficult conversations on race and policing.“We can’t keep saying, ‘Oh, this is one bad apple,’” Montoya said. “We need to be honest, we need to be candid. Yes, there are racist police officers.”He added, “By launching this campaign, we want to let the public know, let the legislators know, let elected officials know, we’re willing to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.Critics said more meaningful change still needs to happen. AM Chung, an attorney and policy researcher with JusticeLA, a coalition for justice reform, said the police union’s proposal “misses the point of why around the country people are pushing to defund the police.”“All of these things — ongoing training, use-of-force standards — this is all in existence,” Chung said.Pointing to policies in the 8CantWait initiative, designed to reduce police violence, Chung said some police departments have many such policies already, “and yet it has not stopped the brutality from happening.”The proposed database of former officers fired for misconduct, for example, might not solve problems with the system, Chung said."You can kill and commit misconduct but you don’t get fired. ... A lot of the misconduct and a lot of the killings and the brutality that many police agencies and corrections officers have (committed) have really gone largely uninvestigated or without any sort of usual due process,” Chung said. “So who would be on that list, right?”San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Matt Kawahara contributed to this report.Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThree major police unions in California introduced a reform agenda Sunday to improve outcomes between police officers and their communities and “root out any racist individual” from their ranks.The San Jose Police Officers’ Association, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League outlined the plan in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.The proposal comes amid sweeping calls for police reform, weeks...

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Tatiana Sanchez

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3 big California police unions release national reform plan to remove racist officers

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