Fullerton has started to get it right.  The city has hired an independent consultant to investigate the death of Kelly Thomas.  This decision shows the city understands that the investigation must not only be independent but also go beyond -- far beyond -- potential criminality. It needs, for instance, to address how the police department trains officers to identify and deal with mentally ill and homeless persons, and how it investigates instances of alleged excessive force.  Many questions need to be answered, and we hope and expect that the independent investigator will be vested with the full authority and resources to answer them.
The investigation of police conduct is fundamentally about public accountability.  The citizens of Fullerton have vested their police officers with the power to carry and use weapons and to employ deadly force in their service to society.  But the citizens must trust that their officers will use that power responsibly, and that trust -- maintaining that trust -- requires a meaningful system of accountability.
So, if Fullerton wants to get it completely right, it should establish a civilian review board.  A full and independent investigation should occur as a matter of course in cases like this; it should not depend on the public outcry or the request of a city official.  Citizens are entitled to an ongoing mechanism to oversee police practices, not just a one-time response to a high profile incident.
Hector Villagra is the Executive Director of the ACLU/SC.

A comprehensive report released today by the ACLU of California and sent to officials in every county across the state urges local jurisdictions to fundamentally shift criminal justice policies toward “smart-on-crime” alternatives to incarceration. The new report, Community Safety, Community Solutions, offers guidelines and tools for county governments scrambling to implement the Governor’s new public safety realignment legislation, AB 109. The bill requires counties to take on new responsibilities for low-level non-violent offenders. Those inmates will no longer be sent to state prison beginning October 1.

This public safety realignment, intended to improve public safety and ease severe prison overcrowding while saving the state money, comes at a time when California is facing unprecedented challenges. State and local governments continue to struggle to close record budget deficits, making deep cuts in core programs including public safety, education and social services. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the state to take immediate action to address its unconstitutionally overcrowded prison system, so overburdened that it is jeopardizing the health and safety of inmates and staff alike.

The state is counting on AB 109 realignment to reduce the prison population by more than 30,000; most of those sentenced after October 1 for non-serious non-violent, non-sex offense felonies will be subject to local jail custody or alternatives to incarceration rather than being sent to state prison. AB 109 instructs county governments to utilize evidence-based alternatives, such as drug treatment, mental health services, job training and educational programs, all shown to reduce recidivism and cost less than jail time.

“High rates of recidivism mean more new crimes and more new victims,” said Hector Villagra, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California. “We have to hold individuals accountable for their behavior while addressing the underlying reasons that currently lead so many low-level offenders right back to prison and jail.”

AB 109 requires each county to develop its own implementation plan. The ACLU report proposes a 12-step plan to counties for successful realignment planning and implementation to control costs and maximize the potential benefits of AB 109. The 12 step plan includes urging counties to adopt new programs like pre-arrest diversion and to revamp immigration enforcement policies to reduce costs and lower jail populations.

According to the ACLU, AB 109 realignment is a step in the right direction but will not be enough to solve California’s over-incarceration problem. In addition to its 12 step plan for counties, the ACLU is calling for meaningful state-wide sentencing reform including the reduction of low-level drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and for a state sentencing commission to evaluate and reform California sentencing policies.

The ACLU of Southern California is calling for an end to Secure Communities (S-Comm), a federal immigration enforcement program that threatens public safety, undermines civil liberties and leads to deportation of people with minor offenses and no criminal convictions at all.

S-Comm requires local police departments to share fingerprints of arrestees with immigration authorities. Although the program purports to identify serious criminals, in practice it refers anyone booked into police custody, including crime victims and non-criminals, for transfer to immigration authorities.

“The fatally-flawed Secure Communities program must go. The program eviscerates the time-honored trust between local police and immigrant communities,” said Hector Villagra, Executive Director of the ACLU/SC. “The federal government has no business strong-arming states and localities into accepting a program that undermines public safety, encourages racial profiling, and consumes vital resources.”

The announcement will be made during a Monday evening hearing on S-Comm, part of a series of hearings DHS is holding across the country on the future of the controversial program. The ACLU and other civil rights groups have said that ICE cannot fix S-Comm by anything short of termination.

“DHS formed its Advisory Committee on Secure Communities in response to widespread criticism about S-Comm’s impact on communities,” said Villagra. “Yet the limited scope of its mandate, the lack of transparency about the times and locations of field hearings, and the fact that its recommendations will not be binding on DHS all underscore the continuing lack of accountability that have plagued S-Comm from the start.”

A growing number of jurisdictions – including New York, Illinois and Massachusetts – have formally demanded to opt out of S-Comm. But on August 5, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would override the states’ decisions, and that state permission was not necessary for DHS to operate the program. Isaura Garcia, a 20-year-old Los Angeles resident, was wrongly arrested by the LAPD after she called 911 seeking refuge from her abusive boyfriend. She will attend Monday night’s hearing.

“After what happened to me, I have no trust or faith in the police,” said Isaura Garcia. “So long as Secure Communities is in my community, I am less safe because I will never again call the police.”

In Los Angeles, S-Comm dramatically undermines the purpose of Special Order 40, a city policy adopted in 1979 to ensure that LAPD does not engage in immigration enforcement and immigrant communities feel safe reporting crimes to the police.

The DHS Advisory Committee on Secure Communities was formed in response to widespread criticism about S-Comm’s impact on communities.