The U.S. Department of Justice launched a collaborative reform initiative with the Calexico Police Department on Tuesday. It will include three years of monitoring and training for the force.
Calexico Police Chief Mike Bostic said he asked the Department of Justice for help amid ongoing internal and FBI investigations into alleged on-duty criminal conduct.
The Department of Justice usually conducts police department audits in response to court orders linked to issues of racial profiling or use of force.
“I don’t have those issues here,” Bostic said. “I just had a department in dire need of training to become a professional police department.”
Bostic has fired six police officers since his arrival in Calexico last fall. He was appointed police chief as the FBI started its investigation.
Previously, Bostic was assistant police chief at the Los Angeles Police Department, where he led internal cleanups after police scandals such as the Rodney King beating. During his time there, the Department of Justice and US Attorney’s Office monitored the LAPD for seven years in response to a court order.
“In my mind it was a very beneficial process,” Bostic said. “So when I got to Calexico… I on my own called the DOJ and asked them to come in and assist me in rebuilding the police department.”
The Department of Justice will help the Calexico Police Department through its Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, bringing in a group of police chief consultants from major U.S. cities to share their expertise.
The training will be focused on the proper handling of evidence, booking procedures and improving community outreach.
Bostic said he lacked the resources to professionalize the department on his own because of how much training the officers needed.
“This department has had no professional leadership for at least 15 years,” Bostic said.
He said one of the things that most surprised him when he arrived in Calexico was the lack of community policing. He said the Department of Justice will help re-build the community’s trust in the police department as well as community involvement in local security.
Bostic said he thinks the process will be easier at the Calexico Police Department than it was in the LAPD because it is smaller, with only 40 police officers and 10 civilian employees. He said the Department of Justice's initiative with the department will last three years.
He said one of the biggest challenges will be to deal with negative influences coming from across the porous border.
“There’s a tremendous influence of things going on in Mexico sometimes in our own community,” he said. “I’m literally in a sense re-establishing that we’re a city within the United States of America and that we’re ruled by the United States Constitution … All of these illegal games of bribery and extortion, they’re not okay here.”
He said the officers in his department are welcoming of the changes that the Department of Justice has started.
