The city of San Diego has taken a critical step toward expanding citizen oversight of police, nearly three years after voters demanded more accountability for officer misconduct.
The city’s new Commission on Police Practices held its first meeting on Tuesday night.
The 25-member commission is tasked with reviewing cases of officer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths and alleged officer misconduct. The new commission will have the power to launch independent investigations into police actions and subpoena witnesses. However, it will take months for its members to establish those procedures.
The new commission will also have to play catch up. A recent KPBS investigation revealed an ongoing lapse in citizen oversight of the San Diego Police Department. For nearly three years, an interim commission struggled to keep up with the growing number of complaints against officers. The interim group steadily lost members and the City Council declined to appoint replacements. As a result, over the last four months the interim commission failed to gather enough members to have a quorum at a meeting. There’s now a backlog of more than 100 unreviewed cases of alleged officer misconduct.
In spite of these challenges, proponents of stronger police oversight celebrated the Commission on Police Practice’s first meeting. While it cannot punish officers directly, the commission can offer discipline recommendations to the San Diego Police Department. Its investigative powers also promise to increase transparency around critical incidents.
“It is an awesome responsibility,” said Andrea St. Julian, an attorney and co-chair of San Diegans for Justice, during public comment. “We are all placing our trust in you to make sure that the commission becomes everything that the voters voted for.”
St. Julian was the principal author of Measure B, the 2020 initiative that required the city to establish the new Commission on Police Practices. About 75% of voters approved the measure.
The City Council appointed members to the new commission in late May, amid growing criticism that the vision of Measure B had not been realized.
The new commissioners represent a wide diversity of backgrounds and include housing advocates, educators and social justice organizers. Two seats remain unfilled after two appointees did not meet the commission’s qualifications. City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera’s office said in a press release that his office would initiate the nomination process for the empty seats this fall.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the volunteer commissioners discussed why they joined the commission and what they hoped to achieve.
“I have Black children, Black grandchildren, mixed grandchildren and a host of family, friends and loved ones who I want to make sure are protected by the police department and served well by the police department,” said commissioner Clovis Honoré.
Commissioner Dwayne Harvey said he joined the commission to improve SDPD training, policies and interactions with the public.
“I’m here to, honestly, shake some things up,” he said.
Commissioners will have to complete dozens of hours of intensive training in the coming months.
The commission was unable to tackle its entire agenda on Tuesday night and pushed a few key items to its next meeting. That included a discussion about how to handle the mountainous backlog of unreviewed officer misconduct cases it inherited from the interim commission.
Dozens of cases in the backlog have effectively “expired.” Under state law, a police department must close an internal investigation into an officer and issue discipline within one year of launching an inquiry. In most cases, once that one-year window passes, SDPD cannot take any recommendations from the commission.
More than 100 cases in the backlog are “Category I” complaints, which include more serious allegations like discrimination and excessive use of force. Last year, the interim commission stopped reviewing “Category II” complaints, which include allegations such as lack of courtesy and procedural violations. At the time, there were 51 Category II cases in the backlog.
In a last-ditch effort to close out a handful of pressing cases, the interim commission attempted to hold one final meeting last week. But it was unable to assemble enough commissioners to reach a quorum and had to cancel the meeting shortly after it was called to order.
