Political Gumbo: Now is the Time for Transparency

City leaders and community members are once again forced to deal with an officer-involved shooting after police fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in Northwest Pasadena.

This is what we know. Police pulled over a car near Raymond Avenue and Grandview Street on Saturday. According to authorities, the passenger in the vehicle was uncooperative and refused to allow police officers to search him.

At some point, police say the man reportedly ran into the street holding the waistband of his pants and pulled a firearm from the waistband.

An officer saw the gun, and “fearing for both his and the public’s safety, the officer fired his weapon twice, striking the suspect at least once in the upper torso,” according to police.

He was transferred to Huntington Hospital where he died.

It’s unknown if the suspect turned toward them. Perez said it was not immediately clear if the man fired his weapon.

After a crowd gathered, police subdued one man with Taser darts. That man was arrested.

Police then used pepper spray on the crowd. A 10-year-old boy was sprayed.

His mother used her own pepper spray on that officer. She was not arrested.

This is an incident that could define Police Chief John Perez’s time at the helm of the department.

Of course, Perez has decades of experience working for the Pasadena Police Department, but now he must lead the department through the investigations and maintain trust at a time when many white Americans have finally acknowledged the need to deal with systemic racism.

Meanwhile, many local activists are calling for progressive police reform that includes subpoena power.

So far, Perez is sticking to his pledge to be as transparent as possible. On Sunday, Perez told Pasadena Now he would release police-taped footage of the incident, well ahead of the 45-day deadline to release audio and video of lethal use-of-force incidents imposed by the voters.

“We are looking at our body-worn camera, our in-car camera video as well,” Perez said. “So we put all this together and release it to the public as soon as we can. It’s going to be very, very important that the public is able to see the video.”

This is the right move.

Release as much information as can be legally released to the community, including the names of the officers involved in the incident and their status.

The biggest mistake made in past incidents by prior police chiefs and city managers alike has been withholding information from the community during officer-involved shootings and other critical investigations.

So far, Perez has not made this mistake and has gone out of his way to be transparent during critical and non-critical use-of-force incidents.

Local reporters have been allowed to review footage of several use-of-force incidents, including the fatal shooting of Lloyd Nelson.   

Perez also did not shy away after it became known that a Punisher flag had been hanging in the department for three years.

Keep in mind he also decided that local OIS incidents should not be investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, a move previous Chief Phillip Sanchez made after activists continuously called for an outside agency to probe local incidents. It was nearly impossible to get information on incidents after that.

On Saturday, Perez called for continued accountability.

“Anytime we have an officer-involved shooting it is at a time when our community needs to come together, to understand the facts, hold me, as police chief, accountable, to what we put out for the community and ensure that we have video to release to the community, and the facts as well. But these are horrific for our community and tragic for everybody, especially the family who lost somebody they loved very much.”

The community is watching Chief Perez now deliver to us the facts. That’s what matters.