Sheriff Villanueva is discussing the issue of Body Cam's with the Compton City Council right now. Again puts blame on the County Board of Sups for the delay. States if there are no more delays, the soonest he could implement Body Cams, if approved, is October.
Sheriff says rollout would take 18 months to upgrade all stations IT for the necessary infrastructure. 5 newer stations were already fitted because according to Sheriff, the County Board wanted one in each district with body cams, and they already had the IT infastruture to do so
Council Member Emma Sharif get's Sheriff Villanueva to push Compton to the top of the priority list for installing body cams.
Earlier, Sheriff tells Council that if they wanted to pay, he could get body cams in the Compton Station ASAP, to which Mayor Aja Brown reacted in dismay of Sheriff asking for Compton to pay, given the Sheriff is not paying rent for their facilities.
Asked by Mayor Aja, what Sheriff is doing to change the culture, Alex says he had started looking at different policies before George Floyd. One example is that he stopped recruiting out of state officers and focusing on officers from the county.
Sheriff is looking at training programs for officers to engage with the community and making better decisions. Only a small part of the force has participated but looking at more training. "It's a long process." Speaks of working towards balancing self accountability & policing.
City Attrn: Damon Brown asks, "why the difference between how a police is dealt with a crime vs a civilian." Sheriff says they do when it's off duty. Most common example is Dom. Violence, 5 cops have been fired. But on duty they can't compel an officer to testify against themselv
In regards of transferring out bad cops, Mayor points out that Internal affairs, who handles these cases, is run by more officers and that's the problem. When investigations are completed it is not shared with the city who is paying them to be there. . . .
Sheriff says that they also can not transfer out bad officers openly because it is deemed a "punitive transfer." Goes against police rights.
Att Damon Brown asked why Sheriffs were patrolling Gardena during the Andres Guardado incident, Sheriff says it's the unincorporated part they were patrolling. Sheriff clarifies county pays for patrolling the unincorporated areas, not Compton.
Sheriff says they removed the chokehold from an option for deputies and bumped it into the lethal force category as well as strengthening language in their use of force policies.
@threadreaderapp unroll
Councilwoman brings up the deputies have been harassing the Dalvin Price family in retaliation after the incident where he was beat up. Sheriff says he "is going to assume the Captain" has started an inquiry, collecting documents to verify if there is any legitimacy to the claim
Sheriff says there should be separate inquiries for each separate incident of deputy harassment of the Dalvin Price Family.
Mayor Aja says she received video of 12-15 officers shutting down the street and home. She questioned Captain Clark who said she was not aware of this, "So who is running this show?" declares Mayo Aja, who says this is not the first incident of deputies not following protocol.
Captain Clark says she did a follow up of deputies of harassing Dalvin Price's street. She says she took a complaint. Adds that patrol deputies patrolled the street because of graffiti saying "187 F12" Deputies legally towed 2 cars. Mayor responds "out of all the streets?"
Captain Clark says they were also in the area looking for more camera footage in regard to the use of force incident on Dalvin Price.
City Att. Asks why deputies involved in excessive force against are still in the field, especially when in another incident an arrestee yelled "I can't breathe." Captain Clark they do not remove them because of excessive force & that cameras did not show the fight beforehand.
Sheriff Clark says excessive force is not acceptable and is thoroughly investigated before taking deputies off the field. Council responds, "investigate does not hold its weight in water, we want is accountability." Mayor asks how many have been held accountable? wants receipts.
Mayor brings up Deputy reckless driving. Villanueva says they remove those from driving and assign them as partners. Council responds, "You can remove them from driving but you can't remove them for excessive force? I'm confused."
