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Police Oversight Commission Plans to Monitor Police Department Implementation of Policy Changes in Wake of Shooting Report

Published on Friday, May 19, 2023 | 6:23 am
 

Pasadena’s Community Police Oversight Commission decided Thursday to move forward next month with discussions about the creation of a system to track the progress of the Pasadena Police Department’s efforts to alter some of its policies in keeping with recommendations from the Office of Independent Review (OIR) Group, which recently completed an independent review of the officer-involved shooting of local resident Anthony McClain.

The commission made the decision during its discussion of the results of the OIR Group’s independent review of the McClain case. 

“Our commission wants to agendize in our June meeting which would be focused on our work plan discussions of the project management tool which [Independent Police Auditor] [Richard] Rosenthal presented today on how to track the recommendations, and commitment the department has made to improve its practice,” CPOC Chair Raúl Ibáñez said. 

The OIR Group’s report suggests 27 procedural and policy recommendations for the Pasadena Police Department, including clearly defining the role of police union representatives at officer-involved shooting scenes and the reconsideration of pretext stops by police, particularly for vehicle equipment violations. 

A pretext traffic stop is when a police officer stops a vehicle for a minor traffic violation, but the real reason for the stop is to investigate the driver for a more serious crime. The officer uses the minor traffic violation as a pretext to stop the driver and investigate further.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that pretext traffic stops are legal. The Court has said that any traffic violation, no matter how minor, is a legitimate legal basis for a police stop. The Court has also said that the officer’s motives are irrelevant when it comes to the stop’s legitimacy.

In the OIR’s review report, the final two recommendations stated that the Police department should create a work plan to implement the OIR’s recommendations that have come from the incident to include task owners and a timeline and establish a mechanism to track progress and ensure completion of tasks, including providing regular public status updates on the work plan for transparency and accountability.

During Thursday’s meeting, Pasadena’s Independent Police Auditor (IPA), Dr. Richard Rosenthal, disagreed with the OIR on the last two recommendations.

“This is the one area where I definitely disagree with the OIR. The police department should not be doing this. The IPA and the CPOC should be doing this. This is our role, this is our responsibility,” said Rosenthal. “This needs to be done but we need to be the ones to do that.”

Rosenthal said it is the key role of the IPA to engage in project management and reporting of recommendations and implementation.

“My plan is to use this, not only as a tool to assist the department in identifying outstanding tasks and working with the department in collaboration and identifying people involved in the task, due dates and then publicly reporting to provide the transparency that is required.”

Members of the CPOC expressed mixed reactions to the OIR Group’s report.

“The OIR Group report, it did not tell us anything we did not know,” said Commissioner Esprit Loren Jones. “The stop did not have to happen, Anthony should have not been out of the car and those two things would have kept him alive.” 

“I do appreciate the OIR report particularly because you drew on the community, the police’s perspectives, the department’s perspective, the auditor and our commission,” Alexis Abernathy said. 

Abernathy however said that previous officer-involved shooting deaths could have been prevented if previous recommendations of the OIR Group in years past had been implemented by the Police Department. “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. We have to act in a way that makes a change.” 

Commissioner Florence Annang called for accountability and the firing of the officers involved in the death of McClain. 

“To really look at the root of the problem is to make other people accountable underneath you or was a part of that night and that has not happened,” Annang said. 

Annang added that if the officers involved are not be fired, they might even receive higher pay and promotion in the next few years “but Anthony’s kids won’t have a dad.” 

Meanwhile, Ibáñez said aside from the creation of a tool that will track PPD’s progress in its policy reform efforts, the CPOC will also be discussing at a future meeting the current Police Department pretextual stop policy as well as the use of technological tools that the department is exploring to use.

The CPOC’s recommendations will soon be submitted to the Public Safety Committee and the City Council for discussion. 

A complete and unredacted copy of the OIR report is available on the City of Pasadena website.

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