Council Committee to Detail How Public Can Guide Police Reform

At the Pasadena City Council meeting of June 15, Council Member John J. Kennedy and Mayor Terry Tornek outlined plans to bring consideration of police reform and civilian oversight of the PPD before the full council within 60 days.

At the time, Tornek said there would be “more discussion next week and I think every week thereafter” – and that discussion continues Wednesday, when the council’s Public Safety Committee meets by teleconference at 2:30 p.m., with the issue of civilian oversight topping the agenda.

Kennedy, who chairs the committee, told Pasadena Now on Tuesday that he expects an announcement to come out of the session giving at least some details as to how the public will be able to contribute to the process in the coming weeks – with the goal remaining an August vote by the full council on some model of police reform.

“I think we’ll announce (Wednesday) what that effort will look like over the next 30-plus days and making sure that it’s a community-based, transparent effort,’’ Kennedy said.

“(Wednesday) will be an announcement of what the structure (of the upcoming process) is going to look like. … My expectation is, within 60 days, there will be a recommendation to the City Council, hopefully to vote up or vote down or ask for more information – that’s my expectation.’’

Kennedy, Tornek, Vice Mayor Tyron Hampton and Council Member Steve Madison sit on the Public Safety Committee.

Wednesday’s meeting will be live streamed at http://pasadena.granicus.com/mediaplayer.php?camera_id=2&publish_id=9 and at https://www.pasadenamedia.org/watch/.

Members of the public may submit comments of any length up to two hours before the start of the meeting by emailing vflores@cityofpasadena.net.

During the meeting, members of the public may also submit up to 200 words regarding items on the agenda to: www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/public-comment.

Kennedy said he hopes such public input will drive the dialogue going forward — with the goal “to make sure we’re providing the best public safety to the City of Pasadena, and that involves listening to the community, understanding how it wants to be policed and educating our police professionals in a way that they clearly understand that it is community policing that is most effective policing.’’

Like communities across the country, Pasadena has heard calls for police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Floyd, an African-American, died when a white officer, since charged with second-degree murder, kneeled on his throat for some eight minutes as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe.

The death sparked demonstrations nationwide against police brutality and racial injustice.

Pasadena’s Public Safety Committee last considered civilian oversight of the police in 2016, but that process ultimately produced no changes. The PPD remains under the supervision of the city manager.

Calls for civilian oversight in Pasadena date back even earlier than that, to the early 1990s, after the death of local barber Michael Bryant and the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Such calls were opposed by many police chiefs and elected officials.

But Kennedy said he senses a different dynamic now — and that he hopes the recent crescendo of calls for reform will spark the five council votes needed for the matter to move forward in Pasadena.

“The world has changed because of the death of George Floyd and others, but specifically because of the manner in which George Floyd was brutally murdered,’’ Kennedy said.

“Young people are leading the charge all across the world, that says the following: Do we need the kind of policing that we’ve had previously? Are we giving too much money to police departments? And, we need more people who are not sworn police officers engaged in the whole apparatus of policing.

“And so, my expectation is that those voices won’t be silent, those voices will help lead us to a better place in Pasadena and across the nation, if not across the world related to policing.’’

Some local activists have already stepped up with suggestions as to how civilian oversight should look in Pasadena – including a commission of residents, a full-time independent auditor with subpoena power, increased transparency regarding police misconduct and reforming use-of-force policies.

Kennedy, who was at one time deputy chief of police for administrative services – a civilian position – in Richmond, Va., said trust and respect must be key elements of any reform process.

“Policing was an outgrowth of keeping white people comfortable and supporting white supremacy and white privilege,’’ Kennedy said. “It transformed to give the semblance of fairness across the United States, but there was always this tinge of a racist foundation in policing. And often, in many communities, that’s tainted how the police are viewed by the community, and the work of the police officer, individually and collectively, on how he sees or how she sees the community.

“The community doesn’t want an occupying force,’’ he added. “The community wants a partnership with law enforcement, and that’s why I think it’s so critical that we listen to our young people and the people of goodwill who want a different kind of policing to take place in our communities across the United States and in Pasadena specifically.’’

Budget considerations will also be a part of the Public Safety Committee’s calculus in the coming weeks, Kennedy said.

“We know that public safety is one of the most critical areas of our budget — it takes up the most significant part of our budget, and we need to determine if that budget is the right size for our community,’’ he said. “We need to make sure that sworn police per capita is consistent, to ensure that we are not over-policing in the City of Pasadena, whether in minority neighborhoods or any neighborhood.’’

The education of officers and increased local recruitment are other factors, he said.

“We know that the better educated the police officer is, the better police officer they will be. And we also know that we need to weed out anyone who has a predisposition to violence before they even go into the academy,’’ Kennedy said.

“And we also know that we need more local recruitment of our officers. Under the current police chief, John Perez, we’ve seen an increase of local hires, of Pasadena residents, or at least graduates of the Pasadena Unified School District.’’

Kennedy supported civilian oversight in 2016, and continues to advocate for that change.

“As I said previously, the secretary of defense is a civilian, not a sworn military person,’’ he said. “That was set up in that manner for a reason — and there is not a direct parallel, but it is tangential, and there is a parallel between how civilians oversee the Defense Department and how civilians may oversee police departments.’’

He also had praise Perez – saying the current PPD chief is, unlike some of his predecessors, open to reform.

“I think the police department is on the right track in terms of being receptive towards civilian oversight,’’ Kennedy said. “I think that’s healthy. I think the dialogue and the interaction with the community, all areas of the community, in a non-racial, non-biased, non-ethnic manner, in the context of providing fair treatment for all – I think we’re moving in the right direction under THIS particular police chief, John E. Perez.’’

Overall, Kennedy said, he is optimistic as the Public Safety Committee moves forward.

“In my view, civilian oversight of some kind different from today is going to happen,’’ he said. “But it takes five votes for whatever the model ultimately decided upon is.’’

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The Public Safety Committee will also hear a report on fireworks-suppression efforts in the city ahead of the July Fourth holiday – with complaints of illegal fireworks soaring in Pasadena, and nationwide, in June. … In addition, the committee will hear a report from Deputy Police Chief Cheryl Moody on the PPD’s updated use-of-force policies.