California needs police accountability and information tranparency

The policies and the laws in the State of California currently deny the public and the media all information about citizen complaints against members of law enforcement. Further, the Citizen Review Board for law enforcement complaints also does not disclose any identifying information contained within the complaints made by citizens. Media lawyers from California have litigated the California public's "right to know" this information without success to date. Therefore, citizens and media have almost zero information about incidences of individual police misconduct, emerging trends, or public money which has been paid out as the result of such.

WIth the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, local law enforcement has been upgraded, creating a stronger local law enforcement force with the supplementation of federal funds.

Further, local law enforcement officers are equipped with "less then lethal" weapons and those types of weapons are the direction of the future for "citizen management."

We can see from the unfortunate recent death of Martin Mendoza this week, who died after being tasered following his approach to county Sheriff's for protection against a perceived threat on his life, as reported by the Union-Tribune of February 22, 2007, "less than lethal" weapons such as tasers are not "less than lethal" in many cases. "Less-than-lethal" weapons are the weapons of the 21st century. Their place in law enforcement is guaranteed to continue and be continuously upgraded though the migration of weapons and technologies from the military sector." Less than-lethal-weapons" are the premier weapons program of the Department of Defense presently as well as for the unlimited future.

With the continued arming of law enforcement with "less than lethal" weapons, the potential for more abuses of citizens with these weapons is increased. One of the reasons for this is found in the fact that many "less-than-lethal weapons" are strictly "pain based" weapons which do not leave evidence of their use behind, such as the case in acoustic devices. Therefore, the only "evidence" of such potential abuse of these weapons against citizens is a citizen's report of such incidences. Currently, these reports and all information contained within them are kept from the public

Some of the "less-than-lethal weapons" slated for use by local law enforcement on the horizon include the Active Denial System made by Raytheon, inc. This is mobile vehicular mounted device that discharges blasts of microwaves at people to force their retreat through the immediate experience of intolerable pain. Recently, an Air Force official called for the use of this weapon on US citizen now.The issue of the potential for abuse of "non-lethal" aka "less-then-lethal" weapons has been on going since their entry into the military sector. Warnings of their potential use for torture have been well stated by scientists and human rights organizations worldwide. The current absence of accountability of law enforcement to the public is not in the public's interest.







Law enforcement officers are public employees, and as such, should be accountable to the general public. Further, law enforcement mistakes and misconduct often result in expensive litigation claims which is paid for by the public. The citizen's have a right to know how much of their money has been paid out for such claims and litigation and which officers were responsible for those situations. Other states in the US have laws which respect the media's and public's "right to know" about the record of complaints and court findings against individual law enforcement officers. This has worked well in those states and there is no valid reason for it not to work well in California.

The time has come when the same transparency of information must be available to the California public and the California media. This will help to preserve the public's perception and good reputations of all of the many excellent law enforcement officer helping the public every day by allowing the public to identify the few who do not live up to public standards of conduct. Under an open system of reporting, patterns of behavior which are unacceptable to the public can be noted and addressed by the public. Accountability is a critical element in preserving the health of our democratic system. Law abiding citizens want an effective law enforcement presence, but one that is subject to same the check and balances found throughout the rest of our government. It is critical for public safety and balance of powers. The public and media must have access to all citizen reports of law enforcement misconduct and the disposition of all litigation against local law enforcement. There is no other way available for citizen oversight and assessment of the actions of local law enforcement. Currently, the citizens of California are denied such opportunity. That is clearly not in the public's best interest.

The time has come for Governor Scwartzeneggar, elected officials, and all leaders of law enforcement departments to recognize that it is in the publics' interest for law enforcement officers as public employees to be accountabiltiy to the public. The time has come for the enactment of legislation to that effect. It is sincerely hoped that the respective law enforcement unions will support this constitutionally-sound effort which is in the public interest and whose time has come to bring California law up to the same standards as found in many other states.

R. B. Ross