Name: Sarah Bowers
Comment - 07/21/2025 08:16 PM: ( No Vote )
General Public Comment: Using SB2 As Excuse for No Civilian Oversight Commission for Police is Uneducated and Erroneous
Despite the violent, racist history of Torrance PD, Torrance City Council members refuse to even survey Torrance residents to hear their viewpoints on a civilian oversight committee for the police. Chief Hart and the City Council members refused to create a civilian oversight committee with the excuse that SB2 provides oversight.
Aside from being a disgusting excuse (why any city wouldn't want local oversight is beyond my understanding), this rhetoric is used erroneously and in an uneducated manner. I attended a workshop about SB2 with legal experts who have said so.
SB2 does not create a state civilian oversight committee. SB2 creates a process for officers to be decertified. The created SB2 decertification committee under POST's auspices encourages local entities like police departments to have oversight committees because the SB2 decert committee will work with the local oversight committee. The SB2 decert committee is not designed to take the place of local oversight committees.
The city council's wrongful and uneducated excuse of using SB2 as a reason not to create a local oversight committee is erroneous for other reasons. 1) The SB2 decertification committee is not an all-civilian committee. 2) The committee's decision can take a long time to decertify a police officer, allowing killer officers to continue to work in the meantime. 3) The SB2 decert committee may not choose to decertify a police officer, but local civilian oversight can still discipline the police department in ways SB2 decert may choose not to. 4) All the best practices of 21st Century Policing (yes, in the 21st Century Policing handbook) say that civilian oversight committees for police should be local.
General Public Comment: Gross Lack of Oversight for Torrance PD Torrance City Council Members and Mayor have continued to do nothing about the racism and corruption in the police department. You have continued to purposely avoid holding the police accountable, despite them killing Christopher De'Andre Mitchell four years ago, spray painting swastikas on cars, and then participating in a vile racist texting thread that included talk of killing Black people, even children. 30 officers were involved in this texting thread. That is quite a large portion of your department.
Then, Torrance City Council members refused to even survey Torrance residents to hear their viewpoints on a civilian oversight committee for the police. Then Chief Hart and the City Council members refused to create a civilian oversight committee with the erroneous, uneducated, and just incorrect and false belief that SB2 replaces all need for local oversight (see comment above). Then Torrance City, despite claiming to be fiscally prudent, continues to pay millions of dollars for Torrance PD misconduct charges and litigations. But still refuses to create an independent civilian oversight committee.
The City Council then dared to "honor" Chief Hart as being "instrumental" in 21st Century Policing, even though he did not create or help create an independent civilian oversight committee like the DOJ's 21st Century Policing guidelines say.
Instead, he created an "advisory" committee as lip service to "accountability" even though he himself handpicked the advisory committee members and the committee members have no power to hold him or the department accountable, thus making the "advisory" committee pretty meaningless.
All of this lip service to public safety is a sham and you know it. Do something about the racist legacy your police department has besides paying lip service. Hold them accountable. Create an independent civilian oversight committee for Torrance PD that will have the power to hold them accountable.
3. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS #1 (Limited up to a 15 minute period) This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items under the Consent Calendar or items that are not on the agenda. Under the Ralph M. Brown Act, City Council cannot act on items raised during public comment but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed; request clarification; or refer the item to staff. Speakers under Orals are limited to either Oral Communications #1 or Oral Communications #2 and no longer than 1 minute per speaker. If presenting handout material to Council, please provide 11 copies to the City Clerk before speaking. 1 PUBLIC COMMENT REPORT FOR
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Chief Hart and the advisory committee talk about "trust-building" with the community. How do they intend to create real trust when no one is holding Torrance PD accountable for their actions? Trust cannot be made without accountability and responsibility. Create an independent civilian oversight committee for Torrance PD that will have the power to hold them accountable.
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