By MATTHEW RENDA
SALINAS, Calif. (CN) - The Salinas Police
Department needs a major overhaul in its policies on police shootings, has an
ineffective philosophy of community engagement, a lack of transparency and a
fundamental failure to respect and understand the Hispanic members of its
community, according to a Justice Department report released Tuesday.
"Today's report will not only assist
the Salinas Police Department in building trust with community, but serve as a
blueprint to police agencies across the country," said Noble Ray, a former
police chief and current chief of the Department of Justice COPS Office
Policing Practices and Accountability Initiative.
City leaders and officials from the
Justice Department held a press conference in downtown Salinas to discuss
"The Collaborative Reform Initiative: An Assessment of the Salinas
Department," a 192-page report that critically examines the police
department and its policies, outlining 61 findings and 110 recommendations to
reform the department so it functions with more accountability and more
orientation toward community policing.
Ray highlighted four areas for particular
concern during a press conference in downtown Salinas on Tuesday: the
department's officers were ill-equipped to appropriately deal with individuals
suffering from mental health; officers fail to receive adequate training
relating to de-escalation techniques; the department's internal investigation
mechanisms are insufficient bringing into questions its ability to consistently
introduce accountability and the department fails to understand the extent to
which the relationship between it and the community is in disrepair.
Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin said
he initially sought the creation of the report after he saw a significant
erosion of trust between the community and its police department, particularly
after four officer shootings in 2014 resulted in the deaths of four
individuals, all of whom were Hispanic.
"The shootings were very
controversial and resulted in some civil unrest in our city," McMillin
said. "It highlighted, as I think we have seen nationally, tensions
between law enforcement and the communities we serve."
The police shootings in Salinas occurred
toward the end of 2014, during the same period when the nation was riveted by
the widespread protests in Ferguson, Missouri after Michael Brown, an unarmed
black teenager, was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson.
McMillian responded to the report's
findings, many of which were extremely critical of his department, with a
mixture of contrition and defiance.
"Some of what is in this report is
new," he said. "Some of it we disagree with. But much of it we could
have written ourselves. There are no surprises."
McMillan accounted for his department's
lack of community-oriented policing by saying his department suffers from a
lack of resources. His police officers are too busy reacting to serious crimes
to have time to engage community members in way the report recommends.
McMillan also noted that while the report
criticized the manner in which the department investigated police shootings, it
found the four incidents in question were all legally justified.
"I was pleased to find that in the
relatively rare instances when Salinas Police Officers do use force, there is
no sign of bias or disparate treatment with how force is used with people of
different races," he said. "Race and ethnicity make you no more or
less likely to be subject to the use of force."
But McMillan did acknowledge that the
report criticized his departments reporting of use-of-force incidents and the
report further recommends the creation of an independent agency responsible for
investigating such incidents.
The Justice Department also recommends
convening a citizen oversight committee to oversee aspects of the police
department, particularly as it relates police shootings and in-custody deaths.
Ray said the Justice Department will
follow up with the Salinas Police Department to monitor its reform efforts.
"What will happen is that in six
months, we will go over those 61 findings and 110 recommendations and get a
status report as to how the department has set about accomplishing those
findings and recommendations," he said.
In the meantime, McMillan vowed to take
steps toward bridging the divide between his department, its officers and
Salinas residents.
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