City Council Receives Letter Explaining Why Outside Candidate Is Best Choice for Top Cop

January 26, 2011

To: Mayor Chuck Reed and members of the San Jose City Council and City Manager Deb Figone
From: Richard Konda, Chairperson - The Coalition for Justice and Accountability
Re: Next San Jose Chief of Police

As the City of San Jose goes into the final stages of selecting the next San Jose Police Chief, the Coalition for Justice and Accountability (“CJA”) — a collaborative of dozens of service and advocacy organizations — believe it is important that we share with you which candidate we believe falls most in line with the findings of our extensive four month community input gathering process. As we have shared with you earlier with the submission (both electronically and in print form) of our CJA Community Input Report, we focused our research with the same constituencies that make up the organizations of our coalition — San Jose's impacted ethnic communities. While our effort had the intention of complimenting the City's input effort, our emphasis was explicitly designed and conducted with the communities that have been the most vocal in regards to the broken trust with the police.

In many regards, our report was created directly to inform and bring objective clarity to the decision before you right now. After examining the results of a survey project of 3,000 residents conducted in three languages, the summaries of seven community forums which drew over 1,300 residents, and hearing the personal narratives of different San Jose residents that have come to embody the broken trust between ethnic communities and the San Jose Police (San Jose residents such as Vinh Pham and Art Calderon) we were able to create a community driven criteria we offer for you to use as a guide in this important juncture in the Chief of Police selection process. Here again are our final findings; those we found echoed throughout various input gatherings:

CJA requirements for the Selection of the San Jose Police Chief:

1) Must acknowledge that there has been real (not just perceived) problems with racial profiling, use of force, and arresting practices with the San Jose Police Department, and has exampled both a history that points to his/her ability to deal with this reality and a commitment to work to eradicate these problems.

2) Must display a history of having disciplined officers who have acted improperly and show a commitment to working with and empowering the independent oversight agencies that monitor police complaints.

3) Must be able to articulate why a diverse workforce is vital and have a commitment to diversifying the workforce, especially the command staff, reflecting the many backgrounds of San Jose.

4) Must display a commitment to protecting immigrant communities, including committing to creating clear jurisdictional boundaries with federal immigration authorities to the extent legally permitted to local law enforcement.

5) Must display a history of understanding that those with mental health needs require a specialized response from officers in law enforcement interactions, and will create better and more informed policies for the SJPD when interacting with those with mental health issues

6) Must display a history of working with community members as partners, being open to ideas and suggestions, and will see the San Jose community as important allies in creating a safer San Jose for all. (Full report can be found at: http://www.sjbeez.org/articles/2011/01/11/community-input-report-for-the-selection-of-the-san-jose-police-chief/)

It is important to note that while making our determinations, we found that we were in need of more information on both candidates. Since Chief Batts has more experience as a police chief, more is known of his track record. Given Chief Moore’s only recent appointment to interim chief, our coalition had less of a track record to evaluate his performance by.

While CJA is in the process of doing more community research with allies in Oakland and Long Beach on Chief Batts, from what we have gathered and substantiated so far, we believe he is the most equipped to match these requirements, and the most likely to be able to realize them once in office. Here are some specifics that brought us to this position. Citation of news sources can be made available upon request.

Candidate Choice for Requirements #1 and #2 (Use of Force// Racial Profiling// Working with Oversight Agency): Chief Batts

Given the recent history in San Jose of mistrust between the community and the office of the IPA, the new police chief must demonstrate, in particular, an understanding of the importance of oversight that is independent of the police department, and must possess a record of having facilitated such oversight.

Chief Batts, while leading the Oakland police department, brought in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate an officer involved shooting. By doing so, he has created a track record of responding to two important calls from the community for policing practice involved use of force — acknowledgment there may be a problem and acknowledging that an independent investigation is important to preserve community trust. While Chief of Police at Long Beach officer-involved shooting decreased by 70 percent.

Chief Moore has no record of ever calling for an outside investigation after an officer involved shooting.

Candidate Choice for Requirement #3 (Diversifying Workforce): Chief Batts

Chief Batts would help address the call to diversify the workforce by his appointment. He would draw on his experiences of working with the Long Beach and Oakland police departments to be able to articulate the value of a diversified command staff.

Chief Moore should be commended for also valuing a diversified command staff, as he promoted Diane Urban to Assistant Chief, the first female in San Jose to hold that position.

Candidate Choice for Requirement #4 (Protecting Immigrants): Undecided // Insufficient Information

While in Oakland, in November of 2010, Chief Batts implemented reforms in policing practices involving immigrants. The towing policy change for those without driver’s licenses is widely heralded as one of the most progressive and celebrated models in immigrant advocacy circles. While in Chief of Police in Long Beach Chief Batts developed a reputation of reaching out to immigrant communities.

Chief Moore’s policy improvement for towing cars, implemented in January of 2011, should also be applauded in this requirement of protecting immigrants.

Based on the direction of our immigrant direct services CJA partners, to make a definitive choice, CJA would want to know each candidate's record with regards to: 1) training officers on how to respond to police calls (i.e. loud music, domestic violence) appropriately while upholding their commitment to not perform duties assigned to federal immigration authorities 2) the number of complaints filed against their relative police departments for using racial profiling in the placement and selection of police check points 3) providing the infrastructure needed for community members to report crimes in different languages, anonymously.

Candidate Choice for Requirement #5 (Better serving mental health clients): Chief Batts

While serving in Long Beach, Chief Batts increased the size of the Mental Evaluation Team and required double the hours of training required by the state for officers who come in contact with those with mental health issues. Chief Moore has not enacted any policy changes in regards to dealing with mental health clients while in office as acting chief.

Candidate Choice for Requirement #6 (Partnering with Community): Chief Batts

Chief Batt’s reputation in both Long Beach and Oakland among community organizations is that he has been approachable willing to partner with them.

Chief Moore has comes from a command staff culture that has not communicated well with ethnic communities. Consequently, he not only does not have a point of experience in this arena, he will have to carry the legacy of broken trust that was created under Chief Davis' tenure.

Although the Coalition for Justice and Accountability has not completed its research of both candidates, we cautiously believe Chief Batts possesses the profile that best matches the clearly defined requirements from our extensive community intake process. For now we rely on the CJA Community Input Report to support the fact that our position on the police chief selection is not simply the leanings of advocacy groups, but rather the choice that presents itself based on the selection criteria created by San Jose residents who have come to define the recent issues with police and community tensions.

It is also for these reasons of needing more points of information on both candidates that we strongly recommend that the City Council meeting to question the final candidates be conducted in open session for the community to observe, rather than held in closed session. As the names of the two finalists are public, we see no reason why such an important stage in the process should be withheld from the San Jose residents who will be depending on the best choice to be made for this selection.

The six CJA requirements have been cultivated after months of community input gathering, and offer clarity as to what our constituencies are looking for in our next police chief. We believe the community is entitled to see how candidates respond to the City’s questions, and be able to evaluate their answers based on our requirements.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding these matters.

Richard Konda
Executive Director
Asian Law Alliance