Youth RiPS
Council
Content warning for graphic
discussions about police
violence
Victims of Police Brutality In San Jose
Thompson Nguyen
Joseph T ourino
Phillip Watkins
Mirza T atlic
Efren Esquivel
Diana Showman
Francis Calonge
Byron Rosas
Mark Morasky
Scott Dunham
Ronald Aduddell
Andrew Joseph Roberts
Anthony Nunez
Albert Manuel Vasquez
Matthew Castillo
Edrian Rivera
David T ovar Jr.
Elias Mejia
Richard Jacquez
Jennifer Vasquez
Armando Salvatierra
Jacob Dominguez
Francis De La Cruz
Leonel Acevedo
Anthony Guzman Lopez
Our Main Focuses
1. 3.
Police
Accountability
(Gabe and Jaria)
2. 4.
3. Police Relations
& Outreach
(L and Yusuf)
Police
Force/T actics
(Lahari and Ezra)
Alternative
Systems
(Alex and Paula)
Our Values
● Safety: We want to build a community where everyone feels safe. Stop violence - physical (murders by police) and also emotional (gaslighting, re-traumatizing, police don’t know how to interact with marginalized communities)
● Access: Housing, necessities to live, comfort of the home. ● Solidarity: Inspire other people in the community. Also focus on strengthening the relationship between community and police department
Police Accountability
(Gabriel & Jaria)
How is SJ implementing state laws?
What is the timeline?
● SB 2 (Bradford) - Police De-Certification
● AB 490 (Gipson) - Ban Knee to Neck Hold
Have City of San Jose (Office of Administration,
Policy, and Intergovernmental Relations) to add
the following bills to their priority list for support
sign letters of support for & lobby
● AB 1947 (Ting) - T o redefine Hate Incidents as
Hate Crimes in Local Law Enforcement
● AB 988 (Bauer-Kahan) - Mental Health
response Act
State
Advocacy
Lobby for S. 2103
“ Accountability for Federal
Law Enforcement Act”
Allows individuals to use federal
law enforcement officers &
makes federal law enforcement
agencies liable for the conduct of
an officer, regardless of whether
the officer has a qualified defense
Federal
Advocacy
Community Accountability
● Incorporate Community Groups into the
auditing process
● Have the police chief position be a
elected position made by the people of
San Jose
○ Money raised must be from grassroots
campaigns.
○ Align with mayoral race
○ Santa Clara already does this
○ Increase accountability of the police chief
○ Must have certain qualifications to run
● Increase budget transparency, detail
what is in the budget
○ What are the descriptions of the budget
Auditing
Independent Auditing Office
separate from Police Youth Auditing Group
● Current RiPS Youth
Council serves as base
model
'image: Flaticon.com' .
Police Relations/Outreach
(L & Yusuf)
Current Police
Outreach
SJPD is currently involved and
responsible for various
Community services not just
enforcing the law
- Crossing guards
- Safety Education
● “TEAM Kids program allows patrol
officers to visit elementary schools
with 6 weekly visits… The primary
goal of the program is to support
crime prevention and youth safety
with an emphasis on gang
prevention education.”
○ SJPD Website
● “Crime Prevention Specialists are
also involved in a variety of youth
and school based programming…
present[ing] violence reduction,
drug and gang
awareness/prevention”
○ SJPD Website Community Services
The Focus on
Crime Prevention
● “Gangs function as a socializing
institution when other institutions fail”
● Poor family support structure
● “Protection, fun, respect, financial
opportunity, influence from a friend, and
pop culture”
○ (Decker & Van Winkle, 1996; Howell, 2010).
● Street gangs attract youth because it
meets a youth’s social needs
○ (Esbensen et al., 1999)
Understanding
the root causes
of gangs
(Edvaldo 2021)
NOT
Race or
Personality
Traits
Flipping the Script
Police relations are framed in a way where
the burden of compromise and acceptance
is placed on the Community
Remove police from community events,
replace with private security without
armistice
Increase advertising of already public
meetings, so more community members are
aware of important decision making
'image: Flaticon.com' .
Outreach
without
conformity!
Youth Outreach
● We must divest from jails and carceral systems.
○ “If keeping youth out of prison is our priority,
then the District Attorney and San José Police
Department should be removed entirely. [from
the equation]” (valle 2019)
● Invest in behavioral health services for students
○ Remove SROs and SJPD from all SJUSD
campuses and events (private security for
events)
○ Educate youth and their families on their rights
■ Public Defender Workshop
LGBTQ+ Community Relations
● SJPD currently has an LGBTQ+ Community Liaison
● Anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination persists during police interactions ● Proposed Solutions:
○ Training police officers on how to interact with members of the LGBTQ+ community with LGBT Youth Center rather than just Billy DeFrank ○ This training must involve face-to-face discussion with members of the LGBTQ+ community to provide personal accountability for officers ● Graded assessment in the understanding of LGBTQ+ history, biases, and gender identity (implemented during the screening and/or training process) ○ Employ LGBTQ+ supportive orgs to create curriculum
○ Increase funding for creation and/or expansion of LGBTQ+ friendly spaces and resources (more on this later)
BIPOC Relations
● Most SJPD officers don’t reside in the city of San Jose. ○ There is an overrepresentation of
white individuals in the police
force.
● Impacted families Roundtable
○ Emphasis on the voices of
impacted families by carceral
systems
● Re-Allocation of officer identities to
identity specific areas keeping
diversity and ethnic clusters in mind
Differing Racial Makeups Between the City of San Jose & SJPD:
According to the April 2020 United States Census, the following is the recorded racial breakdown for the City of San Jose: 37.2% Asian, 31% Hispanic or Latino, 25.1% White,
2.9% Black or African American, and 7.9% two or more races As of July 09,
2021, the overall
Department, as
well as each rank
within the
Department,
was made up of
the following
self-reported
ethnicities:
Police Force/T actics
(Lahari & Ezra)
Mental Health Response
● Mental Health Rapid Response T eam
○ Only certified mental health
professionals are deployed rather than
SJPD
■ Can redirect caller to a mental
health team
● Increase resources to help officers respond
appropriately if action needs to be taken
○ Should also be a part of training
● Increase outreach to help San Jose
residents know about the resources
available to them
● Will be talked about further later
Response to the Unhoused
● Other cities have clinical therapists
approach individuals & try to help without
violence
○ Example: Long Beach department’s
response includes service providers,
health officers, and park
superintendents
● Redirect caller to community partners
that can provide housing & necessary
support
○ ~20% of unhoused individuals have a
severe mental disorder
Increase Focus on Human Trafficking
● Educate officers about the key
indicators of human trafficking
● Provide community services & social
welfare agencies to assist the victim’s
recovery journey
○ Dispatch appropriate professionals
to help the victim open up about
what they are experiencing
● Increase transparency in the use of
funds that SJDP and Human Trafficking
T ask Force is receiving to improve their
activities regarding human trafficking
* Many victims are
undocumented
immigrants or have
other barriers that
hinder them from
expressing their
emotions
'image: Flaticon.com' .
Demilitarizing &
Decreasing Police Brutality
● Redistribute the SJPD budget to fund various
trainings & screenings
● Intervene to stop other officers who are using
excessive force and report them to a supervisor
(Ex: Las Vegas Metro PD Policy)
● Have first aid kits and immediately render
medical assistance to anyone in police custody
who is injured or who complains of an injury
(Ex: New Baltimore PD Policy)
Training with
an emphasis on
alternatives to
using weapons
and physical
brutality
1. Demilitarizing &
Decreasing Police Brutality
● Use minimum amount of force to apprehend a subject,
with specific guidelines for the types of force and tools authorized for a given level of resistance (Ex: Seattle PD Policy)
● Utilize de-escalation tactics (verbalization; creating distance, time and space; tactical repositioning, etc.) whenever possible instead of using force (Ex: Seattle
PD Policy)
● Ban chokeholds, strangleholds (i.e. carotid restraints), hog-tying and transporting people face down in a
vehicle (Ex: NYPD Policy)
Intervention
& Prevention
From Police
Officers
2. Demilitarizing &
Decreasing Police Brutality
How can we redesign body cameras to capture the
perspectives of the officer and civilian?
● Police not have access to footage (in auditing area)
● Wider lens
● 360 body camera footage
● Improving quality - battery length, reliability of on & off button (officers cannot turn off body cameras
until end of shift)
How can we protect people from being falsely
incriminated with body cam footage?
● Camera should not be covered at any time
● Allow access to body camera footage to the general
public
.
Redesigning
body
Cameras
3. Hiring/Recruitment
Plain View Project
● Launched by Philadelphia lawyer Emily Baker-White,
● Examined the accounts of about 2,900 officers from eight departments across the country and an additional 600
retired officers from those same departments.
○ “1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that
threshold — typically by displaying bias, applauding
violence, scoffing at due process, or using
dehumanizing language. ”
● Conduct mental health screening tests to assure that
upcoming officers are not coming in with any chronic
mental illnesses that can affect their work
An in-depth
screening of
the officers
and conduct
mental
health
screening
tests
4. Hiring/Recruitment
● Require graded Ethnic Studies & Cultural Awareness
○ Ensures officers have competent cultural awareness
● T each about the culture they will be assisting in the city ○ Helps those they are interacting with feel more
comfortable
● Police paid for associates degree & bachelor’s degree to get on the force (reallocate money and resources towards
initiating programs like these)
● Screen officers for records of racism; homophobia;
transphobia; violence against gender minorities & monitor their personal opinions as well so another facebook group doesn’t occur
Reform the
Diversity &
Inclusion
Training
Ethnic
studies,
college
degrees,
mental
health
5. Alternative Systems
(Alex and Paula)
Basic Needs
Mental
Health
Support
Food &
Clean
Drinking
Water
Shelter,
Clean
Bathrooms
Safety:
Physical,
Emotional,
Spiritual
Connection
with
Friends,
Family,
Loved Ones
Access to
Education
Affordable
& Affirming
Medical
Care
Reliable &
Affordable
Transportation
Provide court testimony
Police:
“Crime Fighter”
Determine legitimacy of
immigration documents
Analyze laws
Conduct interviews
Research and refer clients
to community resources
Direct traffic
Mediate interpersonal
conflict
Patrol neighborhoods
Provide mental healthcare
Write detailed reports
Administer First Aid
Provide event security
De-escalate crises
Educate children
Conduct sobriety tests
Antonio Guzman Lopez
● 911 call: [Lopez was] acting erratically “with some sort of knife … stabbing the air and doing a bunch of crazy
stuff. ”
● “Based on reports from officers and witnesses, Lopez
was acting strange, suggesting he was mentally unstable or under the influence of drugs”
● Officers approached with guns drawn
● When Lopez tried to run, Officer van der Hoek shouts
“shoot him, shoot” at Sgt. Santos, who shoots two
bullets into Lopez’s back
● DA office claims what the officers did was justified
Mental
Health
Rapid
Response
Team - PP5
What:
A full-time mental
health team not
involving police
officers
Who:
Rapid Response
T eam would be
made up of units of
at least one trained
mental health
professional and
one nurse/medical
person both
unarmed
Why:
Reducing number of
police interactions
reduces amount of
police brutality
How:
Centered in
restorative justice,
harm reduction, &
community building,
this team will reduce
the load on police
officers and increase
the overall wellbeing
of local communities
Mental Health Rapid Response Team
1. Make sure the person is physically safe and unable to hurt themselves or others
2. With consent from the client, connecting them to resources to meet their basic needs- do they need a therapist? Safe housing? Affordable meds? How can we prevent this situation from happening again?
3. Follow up: staying in touch, connect people affected to free counseling and/or therapy, building long-term relationships w/ community members
4. We need to expand our existing response teams, having them readily available, accessible, and safe
Decriminalizing
Drugs/Harm
Reduction - PP15
The criminalization of drugs leads to police
involvement in what is a HEALTH issue, not
an interpersonal one
1. Decriminalize drugs- minimizing
police initiatives to arrest drug users
2. Provide harm reduction supplies
(sterile syringes, disposal for used
syringes, naloxone, etc.) in public
places
And this is just
the
beginning…
● Undocumented Immigrant
Protection Programs -
● School counselors equipped for
mental health crises
● After-school programs for K-12
aged youth
● Fair and affordable housing for all -
● Food pantries
● Library programs
● Mental health service centers
● Support for families and children -
PP14
Reallocation of
Existing Monetary
Resources
2020 SJPD budget:
$446 million
The Cost of Misconduct
“ … in excessive force and wrongful death civil
settlements… between 2015 and 2020. The San Jose
Police Department, which has only about 1,000 officers, paid about [$17.5 million], according to data obtained by KTVU.” (Kukura 2020)
If we have enough in the police budget for military
grade weapons and helicopters, surely we have enough
to invest in the people of San Jose.
We can create a world where people don’t have to
worry about meeting their basic needs, and we can all
meet our fullest potential.
Thank you!