Roundtable: Faulconer's Win; Sex Crimes & SDPD; Surveillance in San Diego

MARK SAUER: I am Mark Sauer and KPBS Roundtable starts now. Joining me at the roundtable today are Dave Maass, Mitch Blacher, and Sandhya Dirks. Meet the new San Diego mayor same as the old mayor, Kevin Faulconer's campaign slogan that he is the same familiar continuation of the Jerry Sanders administration. He is experienced, tested and unsurprising. He is a bulwark against the evil unions and whatever you do, don't call him a Republican. Sandhya, he beat David Alvarez by ten points. How did he do it? SANDHYA DIRKS: The easiest answer to that is one word, turnout. What we were saying all along, turnout was actually somewhat higher overall than it was the primary election. I think I'm hearing at forty-three maybe the end, actually significantly higher the last time for the special election. MARK SAUER: You compare the back to the special election and it's just a fraction. The two went matter does turnout among Latinos and Democrats, district that are have read heavily Democratic members possible for getting Filner elected to be just did not show up. If Republicans across the country are looking to this is a model of how Republicans can win not just in California but nationwide, the take-home lesson is low turnout and run towards the middle. It's very much what Faulkner did, running away from the Republican masthead and towards a pro-gay, pro-everyone stance. MITCH BLACHER: Certainly interesting that this election really involved moderate candidates after Filner and DeMaio, these are very centrist candidates especially Kevin Faulconer. Today he comes out with his list of folks who are going to help with the transition and it's completely bipartisan. SANDHYA DIRKS: He had to be, he could not have one and before he announced he was running I remove talking to him and he said something to me on along the lines of a Republican cannot win the mayoral race in San Diego. The demographics are not there, to witness he had to move to the middle and because he is not just running for the middle, is also going to be facing a majority potentially vetoproof Democratic city Council, he has to govern for the middle as well. MARK SAUER: Dave, what is your take on that? What are they saying elsewhere in the state? DAVE MAASS: I'm not hearing anything else in the state I've been watching but I find it fascinating and I think that is right, this is not a Filner or doughnut program I of contest, Carl DeMaio contest it's interesting looking at the landscape and with Filner and DeMaio, there people that could not be with either candidate, is interesting for it a lot less devices this happened. MITCH BLACHER: You talk about covering this election, you don't have the vet them that you did with the 2012 election by any stretch of imagination, not as partisan as it was. SANDHYA DIRKS: And I was not hearing 2012, I don't have that comparison but I heard that it was very rough. It's politics. In this case you had you did have undercurrents of intensity, you have the Lincoln club and conservative and racist mayor's mailers, there were moments that were undercurrents where he did have a little bit of nastiness. I do think that the city, I think that Faulconer has to run for governor and run for the middle. There is an increase in inequity and a sense that there is a bisecting line and analysts that I was talking to was talking about why turnout was so low in the south of aid contingent and so much higher and more reliable for those north of eight. The gray rather than the brown. It's easier to vote to hold on to what you have than it is to vote to get something that you've ever had. MARK SAUER: Quote speaking of analysts Carl Luna said on KPBS that he called the candidates by the 3W's: weak message, weak campaign, and weak turnout. Let's hear a clip from that. CARL LUNA: Democrats entered the final campaign as a house divided and they were never able to heal that they went to a progressive liberal with Alvarez, they never grabbed back the moderate base, there were bad feelings and they were demonized the party that supported Nathan Fletcher. MARK SAUER: What about Nathan Fletcher? It looked like Mister Filner was going to have to walk out and step out of the way, [ [ CHECK AUDIO ] ] the other shoe and some people said. SANDHYA DIRKS: They can actually represented the city itself as a Republican that turned into a Democrat, that is the treachery that the city is on, he was a metaphor for the city, but that did not end up happening. We can save he would of won over Kevin, it's throwing darts the dark. MARK SAUER: You wonder if some of the labor leaders if they have some buyers are worse because they have shunned away from Mister Fletcher and name recognition and when it found Alvarez and promoted him and a lot of money by then, by resource at this point? DAVE MAASS: Kevin may be a minor buyers remorse but compared to Bob Filner it pales in comparison. SANDHYA DIRKS: And I asked did Filner throw the progressive movement under the bus? He said that he put it back a little bit but the movement is not about one councilman or Bob Filner, with happening in San Diego is going to continue happening politically set out in San Diego, you'll talk stop the demographic change. Those things will happen, and another pundit said to us that David Alvarez may not be the first Latino mayor of San Diego, but it's possible that Kevin Faulconer will be the last white one. MARK SAUER: I thought this was very interesting and of course time will tell, what about Mister Faulconer working with this new council? The Council is likely going to replace him, and he is Republican now it's a fight for split for Democratic majority. It will replace the replace him with a Democrat and that is probably going to be vetoproof, he will have to work it in a glove with Todd Gloria of the less the Democrats. MITCH BLACHER: He has to go to the govern with his campaign and take his bipartisan message, why didn't the vote turnout? He stole votes that would have gone to Alvarez or Fletcher and he will have to govern in the same way, you will have to work with the Council and select all points of view and make decisions that are best for the community as opposed to maybe his political aspirations or what his party tells them to do. DAVE MAASS: Because he came in in a special election, how many times can he serve? SANDHYA DIRKS: Until the end of Bob Filner's term in 2016 and then he can run one more time. DAVE MAASS: That may also push him towards the middle stance. SANDHYA DIRKS: He has to, the next election will be a presidential election, you have a lot more Democratic base turnout, he will have to please Democrats more than anybody else, more than even his own party and he is or to change the politician before, he is much like centers that he is now pro-gay rights, he is pro-bike lane, he has had two of all to keep up with San Diego and I think it's interesting when people say this is how Republicans can win, Democrats better watch out, I think that is a little bit of false advertising because it is not really surprising that a middle road Republican could win in San Diego, that is what San Diego knows and the one time that we went outside and that we got Bob Filner. DAVE MAASS: The conservative Republican is an archetype of city go politics. MARK SAUER: It will be certainly interesting as we move into the presidential year, we will wrap this up and I'm sure we're going to have plenty more as Mister Faulconer takes office on March 3 speaking of dÈj‡ vu San Diego is once centered on a sexual abuse allegations against the peace police officer, in this case it involves women coming forward to choosing an officer to using his power as a cop for sexual satisfaction, remind us of the original case that we're a certain referencing here. MITCH BLACHER: The original case was a police officer treating tickets for sexual favors, he is going to imprisoned for nearly 9 years, if the conviction does not get overturned in which is an effort right now, and part of the story certainly, but he really opened the public eye to what a police officer or a rogue police officer was capable of, not only the physical harm that they could cause her people there that they are specific to protect, but really the financial arm to the city at large, so far there have been settlements of two $2 million and still one of his victims, she claims that she wants more than Monday she wants independent oversight of the police department and this is all going on in the midst of another officer being investigated for sexually sauce to assaulting women. MARK SAUER: I want to get to that in a moment, before we get there, when other thing I want to clean up, you mentioned you made a reference to the original case officer arrival of the string to get this conviction overturned this week and there were some questions at all about victims who testified, between a to us. MITCH BLACHER: Basically there is evidence that were not turnover in the criminal case and that information should have been divided in discovery and this is not able to get a fair trial. MARK SAUER: What did the attorney general's best say with all the stuff came out? MITCH BLACHER: This has been quite a new cycle the past week and a half, we did a story a week ago Monday, about the fact that the city attorney's office was putting this thirteenth and final victim under surveillance, that they had hired a private investigator with public money in order to follow surveillance and track this woman, who has Jane Doe status, she has anonymity based on the civil case and the criminal case. SANDHYA DIRKS: This was the same woman that they made a pregnant earlier that he was not actually culpable because she had bribed him. MITCH BLACHER: They tried to include that in their illegal armed argument in the document patient saying that she was a petty briber, that he tried to she tried to bribe him with her panties, that was made an issue a couple of weeks ago and they took it out of the legal filing. Because they did back off of that, apparently it's hard on the civil side. Try to get some leverage against this, she does not want to send the old settle the they are trying to hardball and it came out and backfired, that is shift the gears and talk about the new case against the idea of what is going on here, you're thinking once burned twice shy, is there a culture the department? How you think you can still do these sort of things? Their allegations at this point self-assembly arrest and charges being made, but officer Christopher Hayes has now been arrested in this case, what are the specifics? MITCH BLACHER: There are seven women who have come forward and made claims that they were either harassed, were physically assaulted by this officer Chris Hayes, in traffic stops. MARK SAUER: That is being investigated in the police department. What was Chief Lansdowne's reaction? MITCH BLACHER: Initially he said that these are just inappropriate search techniques that Officer Hayes used his hands in inappropriate ways in order to search over the close, he specifically said that there was no skin to skin contact, that is contradictory what to what several of these victims have reported. They are saying that there were actual sexual acts exchanged for either intimidation or basically to get out tickets. DAVE MAASS: Which agency is investigating the case? MITCH BLACHER: The San Diego Police Department is and is getting. DAVE MAASS: Two different stories going on here what is the deal? Oh: just a set the process, how this all going to sort out? If is there going to be a trial or civil case? MITCH BLACHER: Officer Hayes is going to appear in court on Thursday where he has been charged. MARK SAUER: That will be a preliminary hearings will see specific allegations? MITCH BLACHER: Sure, and criminal either the high threshold here so at this point this civil liberties attorneys are for me to get that part of the case going. SANDHYA DIRKS: I wonder, I know that this all is pressure about racial profiling at the same time this is happening, between the idea of racial profiling and the idea of also these repeated cases of targeting women, but there's some sense that there does need to be greater oversight or someone to police the police, as that seems like a big absence here. MARK SAUER: Where are we in this? With citizen review board that we never really had a power here, folks have complained for a long time. MITCH BLACHER: That is a great summary of the citizens review board, that organization actually had current and former members come forward, this is a group of people like thirty some and if a lot of people, a lot of voices, and it really does not have any authority, the deal with these cases behind closed doors and make recommendations that the police department can or cannot follow. MARK SAUER: What do these allegations say about the culture within the police of the permit? [ [ CHECK AUDIO ] ] Given stories getting them that as well. MITCH BLACHER: Part of our investigative work on this. Curious what kind of lawsuits and claims have been made against the San Diego did this department, with digging through records there was a case that was reported mildly, two women and female sex crime detectives in 2011 who filed a case for sexual harassment by their colleagues in the San Diego Police Department Sex Crimes Unit, and in that case there are exhibits, that one of the exhibits was an email that was a how man are you test, this was a joking seemingly supposed to be funny email, basically measuring a series of questions and measuring whether not you're a man, certainly something that people could describe as inappropriate in a sex crime unit. Also sexual posters that make light of date rape drugs or sexual posters on the walls in the sex crimes unit. SANDHYA DIRKS: How many female police officers there are what percentage of the force is female? Oftentimes the culture can be altered MARK SAUER: They've even had assistant chiefs that they've made a deal of the diversity and leave leadership. Two treaty have a high level this is achieved now Shelley Zimmerman who is in charge of recruiting. MARK SAUER: Will certainly here or on that and were reporting for ten news here and will shift gears now in the seminal noble novel 1984 George Orwell and quite the same coin the phrase that big Brother is watching you. Turns out that SANDAG is auditioning for big brother these days, and big and SANDAG sense and docket of a inoculated inoculated for enough, and the organization is raising concerns in the subject of surveillance, when a stock for a moment about a case before we head up to San Francisco, that you really broke some time ago, it's been in the news lately and the business of a Mexican this for national giving illegal money to candidates here and campaign for the US specifically in San Diego, tell us about all of that and the story that you did. DAVE MAASS: Two years ago we are in the middle of the Mayor's race and I was obsessed and checking the campaign-finance filings of a city clerks website sometimes 2 to 3 times a day to see what was being said spent and a weird little committee popped up called San Diegans for Bonnie Dumanis, but I started tracking this down, because it seems so strange attitude of this was a shell company owned by a wealthy for national named Jesus by Lozano, and I started calling around his campaign and what does he want that he want to put $100,000 in the body to Mrs. campaign? And they said he'd just like her he dislikes her and that is all I could do at that point, I wanted to move on to the rest the lace but this lingered as a mystery, and two years later outcomes criminal complaints about three guys that were arrested for illegally contributing. SANDHYA DIRKS: And the story remains, we still don't know what he wants. See fourth that is why a keep searching his name every day on Google. MARK SAUER: And we have done this stuff and will do a lot more as this proceeds but I want to ship to the main segment that we're talking about today, before it's interesting though because he doesn't run surveillance companies, it's kind of we're talking about. SANDHYA DIRKS: And with that nice segue will let us talk about SANDAG and the agency that you would not think the state keeping tabs on folks but they are tells about that. DAVE MAASS: Let's explain what SANDAG is, radio they call it the UN of San Diego County where you have all of these municipalities and regional and agencies sending it delegates to this huge governing body that has the ability to side all kinds of major policies from land-use to transportation, but also in public safety and law enforcement and one of the things that SANDAG is very good at, is researching and embracing new technologies and as a sort of nesting ground for new projects, and two of the things that they are working on which our facial recognition devices and on automatic ice is plate renderers. MARK SAUER: How do these work specifically? DAVE MAASS: Automatic license plate renderers, cameras mounted on cars or light poles that are recording your license plate as you go by, we're talking I think about eighty-five cameras, and we're talking about 2 million records a month, and they keep these records between one and two years, and SANDAG is basically sitting on a time machine of everywhere that every driver in San Diego has gone, and is incredibly invasive and it is creating a detailed profile of everybody's whereabouts of the county. MARK SAUER: And no warrants or specific cases on this, and you can connect the dots of every place that person has gone or what he's doing? DAVE MAASS: Or the other way around, see that you wanted to drive a police car and you want to drive circles around the temple or marijuana dispensary or for whatever purpose, begin drive around in circles and to capture everybody in the neighborhood as well. MARK SAUER: And face recognition? DAVE MAASS: That is another program that SANDAG has where they haven't attributed almost to 400 200 mobile devices to law enforcement agencies and the use these as a few different ways, to gather identity and entities in the field ostensibly when they refused to say who they are, and they put the tablet up or the phone up and take a picture and it runs against a criminal database and they try to match it up, with the worrying things about this beyond what it is in itself, is that SANDAG has been talking about installing cameras that can do this in public places and on buses. MARK SAUER: We can also think of very legitimate things for these tools, if there's a stolen stolen car or a fusion of a loose, these can be very effective in use of useful tools for law enforcement, and very varying ways that would help public safety right? DAVE MAASS: It's one thing to have the cameras up and say whatever a stolen car is in place will put the number out there and their cameras will look for the car. MARK SAUER: Rather than keep records or a book, or just the way that cops would in the old days. Manually doing that. DAVE MAASS: Doing that is one thing, but when you do that and keep collecting everybody else's records, that is where becomes of problem. SANDHYA DIRKS: Is this targeted surveillance or preemptive surveillance? DAVE MAASS: They're collecting evidence on everybody. SANDHYA DIRKS: Even if you have or have not done anything. MARK SAUER: Do we know how this is being used or if it has been used? Or so far is it just a massive data dump? DAVE MAASS: I have not seen many good descriptions of what their success rate is on this, they tend to do reports very anecdotal vocally and rather than giving hard scientific numbers, it's hard to say. SANDHYA DIRKS: Are other cities doing similar things? DAVE MAASS: This is a hot technology that is moving all of the placing, Los Angeles is one of the biggest users of this. Someone here is a lawsuit against SANDAG is what the velocity against Los Angeles. MARK SAUER: With these lawsuits will get a public debate going with this and this will get public. Before that is the hope, here is a local entrepreneur who has requested records that SANDAG has on him from this record, they want to know how me points they've collected on him he can understand that maybe they don't want to give him the entire thing. By his own record, he knows where he has been, and they refuse to give to him and say that it is they are allowed to row hold withhold things that are involved in a criminal investigation, but he is not involved in criminal investigation, they are just saying that everyone is involved with the criminal investigation. MITCH BLACHER: That is easy excuse to use, you can always hide behind legal reasons, that is a dangerous thing. MARK SAUER: It really goes to the heart of democracy, and privacy and invasion of privacy. SANDHYA DIRKS: This is cute into a conversation about preemptively collecting data even when you don't have a suspicion of guilt, and I think what freaks people out so much about it, is that we were not told in the same thing is happening, it's an investigative decision without any discussion about it before hand. It just makes you feel dirty. DAVE MAASS: And what we see is they will find a new technology and look through books from long ago. MARK SAUER: We will have to wrap it up there, that wraps up another's week of stories of KPBS roundtables and I would like to thank Sandhya Dirks, Mitch Blacher, and Dave Maass. All the stories that we discussed today are available on our website, I am Mark Sauer and thank you for joining us today on the roundtable.