Mr. Zuniga,

Well written letter, done with the style that I wish more would use. While I don't live in your community, I do appreciate what you are pointing out and that is how a small vocal minority will attempt to undermine the good of the greater group.

Well done!

Big,

I agree with your comments 100% as I experienced working in law enforcement at different levels and departments. It's a very fine line how to keep the public and police from crossing the line. I did notice a division in attitude and behavior in law enforcement. My opinion is law enforcement employees (police officers mainly) are broken up into two categories. The first being aggressive, superior attitude, demeaning, and " crusty " towards the public. The second being undersatnding, helpful, polite, and only aggressive when provoked. While it is understanding why both are the way they are with the type of people dealt with day after day. My concerns are mainly with the first group. These are the ones that exploit their position and need to be realed in a bit. The 60K question is how without making a " whipped puppy " out of them.

I believe all police are truly in the job because they want to help society and people. But they

(law enforcemnet) are people too. We have to respect that good and bad or society will collapse. Good luck City of Antioch, this is a very tough decission.

Anonymous, your yes/no argument is well placed, and what is best for Antioch does come first, but the point being made here is that even the smallest disconnect between citizen and cop will only get wider and more difficult to manage with time unless controlled by a stronger authority.

It is cop culture that needs to be addressed here, that cops expect all citizens to blindly obey and bow down to their self-taught superiority, or be subject to arrest. Cops come to the job fresh from the Academy with an "us versus them" attitude, and it must be trained back out of them before they can be of any real use to the townspeople. The Academy will not do it without the insistence of citizen oversight, and the cops will just chuckle at any attempt to dislodge their foothold once it is established. If you don't own them now, they will, without doubt, own YOU later.

If the people of Antioch are happy with what they've got now, as I have stated before, then I am happy for them and good luck in the future. But if not, now is the time to act.

I think this article has the same bias against the Public as the Public has on Police.

The article says " All Civilian Boards are Incapable "

The Opposite says " All Police Departments are Incapable "

Both are true and false to some extent. Whats good for Antioch is the only question ( not Oakland, S.F. or other areas).

I'm sure if a police board was set up, the City would provide legal advise for them. In addition, there could be prequalifications such as two years of college to apply for the board along with other requirements.

One thing is for sure, It will be controversial, cost money, and divide the community.

BigBaldwin, your example of an intersection is perfect. The poorly placed signs and signals that cause confusion are the CAUSE I'm talking about that initiates change, it doesn't take waiting until there are lots of crashes. In the case of the APD, I'm not seeing evidence of crashes or even driver confusion though, only people who stuff all cops into the same box by saying things like "Cops will do anything you let them no matter how absurd, how lawbreaking, how anti-Constitution they get, just like a little kid---push, push, push until it breaks. It is that personality type that brought them to the kind of work they do. They must be reeled in."

Don't tell me what you think all cops are like, show me what the APD has done to earn the "they must be reeled in" attitude. If there are out-of-control cops in Antioch then I would agree that reform is needed, but I'm not willing to consider the scum that brought this lawsuit as even the slightest indication that there are problems significant enough to warrant a CPOC. If there are other "victims", I would have expected them to join the lawsuit. If they exist, then by all means step forward. What we've seen thus far is generic anti-cop bias.

cause THEN effect seems to think we don't need a proactive approach here. Well...it IS needed. Cops will do anything you let them no matter how absurd, how lawbreaking, how anti-Constitution they get, just like a little kid---push, push, push until it breaks. It is that personality type that brought them to the kind of work they do. They must be reeled in.

If there is an intersection in your city that has poorly placed traffic signs and signals, which cause confusion with drivers and accidents, how many car crashes do you need before demanding the intersection be redesigned? How many bad cops do we need ruining the lives of citizens before a citizen oversight takes control?

cause THEN effect, we need to redesign PD's now before it gets any worse. Sure, there are other cities in greater need of it, but that is no consolation to the next person abused by Antioch PD. Get the work started now for a better future.

www.bigbaldwin.blogspot.com

Truth for all: it is your logic that has run amok. Are you really saying that Antioch should have a CPOC because a cop in DC pulled a gun on a kid who hit him with a snowball? What does that have to do with the APD? Oh, I know: a cop is a cop is a cop and you can't trust any of them. That's a load of crap. Yes, there are PDs that need oversight, are corrupt and unaccountable, and a CPOC MIGHT be a solution for them, but the need has to be established first. There is absolutely no merit to the charges that have touched off the discussion of a CPOC in Antioch, so pursuing it is trying to put a cart before the horse in a siutuation where there appears to be no cart.

When left to their own accord police officers do not police their own, Internal Affairs Divisions are a joke, biased and in most cases corrupt...never finding validity to any civilian complaint against an officer. In cities with police oversght commities, officers think twice before blatantly abusing their power when wearing a badge. In the most corrupt police departments with no accountability and lip service to the public outside intervention by the Justice Department and the Federal Courts usually occurs with court mandated oversight.

Just this weekend in DC an undercover officer was suspended for brandishing and threatening residents that gathered for a snoball fight. One hit the officers SUV, he came out with his gun drawn and threatening the public, without ever identifying himself as a "sworn" police officer, he even egged the crowd on to throw another snoball while brandishing his gun at the crowd....its on both UTUBE and facebook.

Not all cops are good cops and in todays society, more and more abuse their power and treat all the public as criminals!! Hundreds of cases in the bay area alone, many investigated by the FEDS. The power and control of others goes to their head. This along with lowered hiring standards allows questionable individuals to be hired by many Police Departments causing numerous lawsuites later on which some cities simply settle to coverup even bigger problems of graft and corruption within problematic P.D.'s Most get rid of the current Chief and bring in a reformer to clean house.

Without independent outside oversight some Police Departments run amuck, the Code of Silence amonst officers is imbedded in ALL POLICE DEPARTMENTS protecting the abusive and in some cases "criminal officers" who abuse the very laws they are hired to uphold...under sworn oath. Police officers never rat out another officer. It takes an undercover agent to to that...

It is my opinion that all Police Departments should have civilian oversight committees to provide independent findings and recommendations.

Great letter, Mr. Zuniga. A real service to the community. Keep it up!

Good Day Mr. Zuniga,

I was moved to respond to your commentary about the Citizen Review Board currently proposed by the citizens of Antioch. I have been following this story with news articles as I find them, and have referenced them on my own blog, so I am very aware that, at least today, I am in the minority when I say I am in favor of the CRB. The folks of Antioch don’t seem to want the oversight, and I respect their opinion. I just hope that some new life can be breathed into the effort, and a successful bid for equality can be achieved for the citizenry of your city.

While reading about a citizen’s complaints against a police department of any city or town, a typical and predictable counter to the complaint from the PD spokesperson always includes the bullet points you included in your comments, as paraphrased:

1) Citizen review boards are dysfunctional and in turn cost cities millions of dollars

2) Citizen review boards are often staffed by citizens who do not trust police personnel

3) Citizens have a personal agenda and lack knowledge of law and/or police procedures.

4) A CRB will assume complete control of the PD and in doing so, position itself as the supervising authority in all police and personnel matters.

5) …disciplinary matters up to and including termination….

6) Civilian review boards are credited for bringing morale to all-time lows within a police organization, because of the board’s improper decisions.

7) The end result is police organizations are not able to retain qualified police officers.



All these concerns come from one root cause: fear. Police fear all citizens. This is not a healthy psychological base from which to make decisions when dealing with the public. The cops think a CRB will cost everybody money, be staffed by people who don’t know what they are talking about, hate the PD and want to blindly fire them, destroy good cop attitude, and prevent others from becoming cops. Believing any of the above bits of reasoning proves cops just don’t get it. The citizen oversight I advocate will do none of that, but will keep all police employees within a framework of mutual cooperation and respect, which is all the sincere citizen has ever wanted.



Let’s take your points one at a time.

First, Citizen review boards are only dysfunctional if they are hated and feared by the PD itself, and not backed up by the mayor, city council, or local governing body where you live. Cop fear both actively and passively undermines oversight attempts because they just don’t want anybody telling them anything. A cop who cannot take instruction from the people he serves is not in the right frame of mind to protect and serve them. All employees, no matter what the job, need to understand their position relative to who pays them. They are there to do what is asked of them, not what they decide pleases their own desires. Also, the costs-too-much argument becomes moot when a volunteer oversight board is established, as I pointed out in my blog.

Second, the distrust of cops by citizens goes without saying if and when the PD beats, shoots, ridicules, and electrocutes citizens. (Don’t believe that? Just read the papers in this country.) As a cop yourself, imagine a group of assumed authority seekers who have the legal right to murder you for anything or nothing, who constantly break laws themselves, but demand that you completely trust and obey them, and YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THEM WHATSOEVER. Would you feel good about that situation? Don’t blame the citizen when he recognizes the obvious.

Third, LOL! An agenda, you say? Well, if you call simply wanting to be able to drive down the road free of pretext stops and be searched, if wanting to make it from an arrest point to court without getting beaten and electrocuted within an inch of your life, if you want to not be lied about, both in and out of court, if you call that an agenda, then I guess we all have one. But cop paranoia aside, citizens just want the police force they envisioned when the department was first conceived: one made up of their town’s finest, who are dedicating their time and risking their safety for the purpose of protecting and serving the citizen who pays them. And, not knowing about law or police procedures is another red herring. Part of what a cop is hired for is to know police procedures, as the citizens approves them, instead of us. That is part of what cops are paid for, not the rest of us. They shouldn’t fear having to do their job to the boss’s satisfaction.



Fourth, the oversight panel needs the power to hire and fire, but only for the purpose of sculpting the PD of the citizen’s choice. There seems to be a police penchant for understanding only the nightmare scenario when hire and fire is not in the hands of cops. Hire and fire does not mean constant second-guessing of every little move. It is simply having the ability to say to a cop, “enough is enough”. It is simple restraint on an element of authority that now goes unbridled.

Fifth, this is simply hire and fire, and nothing else. Don’t fear that. It is the same for anybody with a job.

Sixth, the morale of the department is and always been the responsibility of the Chief. If the morale is low with a citizen oversight panel, it is more likely because cops can’t continue to exercise their arrogant abuse of citizens with no need to be accountable for it. Citizen morale drops every time another one of us is brutalized. Both morale problems go away with mutual respect.



Seventh, no, no, no, there is no need to fear inability to find future cops. There will always be candidates for the job. Just another fear tactic to make the citizens as fear-filled as cops are. Typical Fox News approach.

One more thing, Mr. Zuniga, if you are looking at a Citizen Review Board as a threat to your business, believe me, most of America is hurting from the recession. We all have to tough it out. But in the meantime, we need a CRB to stop the mushrooming settlements being paid to citizens by their cities and towns because of insane police antics. We need to stop cops from being awarded extra pay to “don and doff”, as in Philadelphia. We need to prevent future cops from locking a handcuffed arrestee in a cruiser with the heat and radio on full blast in all-day New Mexico weather. And we haven’t even gotten into drunk driving. Cops aren’t doing it for us, Jesse, and they never will. We must do it for ourselves.

Bigbaldwin

www.bigbaldwin.blogspot.com