Guest Opinion | William Paparian: Public Safety Should Be Our Highest Priority

By way of background, during my 12 year tenure on the Pasadena City Council I was the biggest champion of the Pasadena Police Department. During a time of budget reductions I insisted that our Department be maintained at full strength, that our Officers were among the highest paid in our region and also ensured that our Police Sergeants were treated similarly. I made sure that the weapons training facility in Eaton Canyon, under the watchful eye of our late Range master Jack Preston, was kept open so that our Officers could maintain the highest standards in lethal force training. And when my constituents objected to the noise from gun fire I secured federal funding to install a sound baffling system so that the weapons training could continue unabated.

My legacy on the council lives on in this very meeting that you are having today. I led the move for the establishment of the Public Safety Committee and served as it’s first Chairperson (filling the position that my dear friend John Kennedy now holds) precisely because I believed then, and still do now, that Public Safety should be our highest priority as elected public officials.

As a practicing Attorney in Pasadena for 40 years I am aware of the painful examples of police misconduct that have unfortunately occurred over the years in the Crown City. Some of these examples have even reached to Command Staff of the Pasadena Police Department.

Our current Chief of Police John Perez is doing an outstanding job providing much needed sound leadership to our police department. There’s a photograph of him actually directing traffic for the protest that took place Tuesday afternoon at City Hall and he was quoted as saying:

“Nobody’s going to hijack this event, and take this right, this constitutional right, to make the change they want to see in policing. There is no police officer who has not seen that video, and there is no one who is not bothered by what we see. That’s not what we stand for, that is not our culture.”

The question of whether or not to finally establish civilian oversight of the Pasadena Police Department is going to be a real test of your political fortitude. I know what it means to have the support of the Pasadena Police Officers Association. Along with the Firefighters Union they are the largest single campaign contributors in local elections. Their support can make or break a candidate. I know this well, because I had their support each time that I got elected to the City Council. None of you want to incur their wrath if you are ever planning on running for political office again.

“Fortuna Favet Fortibus” in Latin means “Fortune favors the brave.”

If there was ever a time in your political careers to rise to the occasion and be brave, this is that time. This will not be easy for you to do. But when the history of the current era in our City’s political history and indeed our Nation is recorded you will be remembered for what you do today, tomorrow, and next week on the question of finally establishing civilian oversight of the Pasadena Police Department.

William Paparian
Former Mayor and Council member
Former Chair of the Pasadena Public Safety Committee