San Diego's Police Reform Measure Passed, What Happens Next?

Speaker 1: 00:00 Last week city of San Diego voters gave overwhelming approval to measure B, which will establish an independent commission to oversee the San Diego police department. But that is just the first step toward the actual creation of the commission that make up of the new group and funding for its new officers. And investigators is still to be hammered out by the city council and supporters of the measure do not want council members to drag their feet. Joining me is KPBS reporter, Claire Tresor and welcome Speaker 2: 00:30 Claire. Thank you so much. Can Speaker 1: 00:32 You remind us about the new powers and responsibilities? The commission on police practices will have, Speaker 2: 00:38 Right? Yes. So, uh, broadly it will have its own staff and independent attorney and the power to subpoena and conduct investigations into police officer misconduct. And then it would also review complaints against officers and make recommendations on police officer discipline and police policies. And there is an existing community review board, but this commission has several key differences. Currently, the members are all appointed by the mayor, but the new commission would have members appointed by the city council. Currently the lawyers who help the board are part of the city attorney's office, but the new commission would have an outside attorney and staff that are not part of the mayor's office or the police department. And then most importantly, as I said, the new commission would have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents. Whereas right now the board can only review the internal investigations, uh, that are already done within the police department. Speaker 1: 01:35 Has any structure been defined about the setup of the new commission, such as how many members? Speaker 2: 01:41 Well, we do know that it will definitely have a full-time executive director who would then hire an independent attorney and staff to support the commission, but the measure that was passed didn't include any details about how it will be set up. So there's no set number of commissioners and no guidance about how they will be chosen, you know, whether that's one from each district or so on. And that I believe was by design. The measure was a charter amendment to change the law so that the commission would be set up. And then now the city council has to really decide how to do the nuts and bolts of setting up that commission. Speaker 1: 02:19 Now, first thing the city council has to do apparently is dropped an implementation ordinance for measure B what does that mean? Speaker 2: 02:27 Right. And it sounds like that's going to be maybe a lengthy process in Seattle. They have a similar ordinance and that's 170 pages long or, or something like that. So San Diego is really going to have to hammer out, like I said, how many people are on the commission and how they're chosen. Um, and I talked to council member, Monica Montgomery step about that. And she was a, a big supporter of measure B and also working with, um, you know, the primary unions that will be, we Speaker 3: 03:00 Still, you know, we bring them into that process as well. Speaker 2: 03:03 It's important. What she's talking about, there is a potential for a meet and confer process, which would mean meeting with any labor unions who might be involved. Um, and that again, can be kind of a lengthy process sometimes. Speaker 1: 03:16 And are there any initial ideas about how the commission staff should be chosen? Speaker 2: 03:21 Well, no one that I've talked to had specifics about that the only thing that Andrea st Julian whose organization helped pass measure B says was that she wants to be sure that parts of the city that are more heavily policed get more representation. So I said, for example, maybe there would be one commissioner from each council district and she said, sure, but then she would want more commissioners from some of the council districts that have a heavier police presence. And then Monica Montgomery step mentioned reserving a youth seat, a seat for, um, a young person or an activist that, that was important to her. Speaker 1: 03:57 The funding for this commission might have to wait until the next city budget session. But from what I understand, that's not good enough for some supporters. Tell us about that. Speaker 2: 04:07 Right? So this was pretty surprising to me, council member, Monica Montgomery step. So she'll make it a budget priority for the next fiscal budget, which goes into effect in July. But then Andrea st. Julian seemed to have a different idea saying specifically that they didn't want to wait until July. So here's what she said. Speaker 3: 04:27 We are looking for the city council to fund the new commission by the time the secretary of state publishes the new charter amendment so that it will have funding to operate, Speaker 2: 04:41 To be clear. The process she's talking about there will happen within the next few months. So she's really looking for that to happen very quickly. Speaker 1: 04:49 What happens to the present community review board on police practices during this whole process? Speaker 2: 04:55 Well, so they remain in their positions and will continue to serve on an interim basis. So basically they become interim commissioners as the new commission is actually set up and then the council would go about their hiring process for the actual commissioners. And that's important because obviously there's going to continue to be things that need to be reviewed while the process plays out for setting up the commission officially. And when Speaker 1: 05:22 Do you expect the city council might begin the process of drawing up the ordinance to create this commission? Do you think it's a high priority for the new council session? Speaker 2: 05:32 Well, certainly, uh, council member Montgomery step says that it's a high priority for her. There's also the politics going on, where she wants to be the next council president, but so does council member Jen Campbell. So it may sort of depend how things shake out. There's a brand new council. That's going to come into office, uh, in January new council president. So we may have to wait and see a little bit you, what, what their priorities Speaker 4: 05:58 Are once they're in place. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter, Claire Traeger, sir. Claire. Thank you very much. Thank you.