GASCÓN RELEASES PROPOSED REFORMS TO ENHANCE LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY
LOS ANGELES – Today, George Gascón’s campaign for District Attorney released a policy paper outlining his proposed reforms to hold law enforcement accountable and increase transparency.
“Too often police use force because they can and not because they should,” said former District Attorney and Assistant Chief of the LAPD, George Gascón. “The unequal and excessive application of force against communities of color undermines police legitimacy and community safety. This is a national crisis that has created a chasm between law enforcement and the communities they’re sworn to serve and protect. We have a lot of work to do.”
The proliferation of cell phones, body-worn cameras, and cameras in patrol vehicles has led to a sharp increase in the number of videos and images depicting violent police encounters that have both validated community outrage and forced the nation to finally confront these injustices. George Gascón has an unparalleled understanding of these issues; he began his career in law enforcement walking a beat for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division and personally faced difficult encounters as a police officer in which he could have used force but chose not to. Later in his career Gascón taught use of force policy to new sergeants—one of the most critical levels of supervision and oversight in a police department—and subsequently made disciplinary decisions related to officers who had inappropriately used force as a police chief in both progressive and conservative American cities. Finally, as a District Attorney, he made criminal charging decisions related to officers who used excessive force.
Gascón strongly believe that law enforcement officers who serve our nation and support our communities deserve our gratitude and respect. The vast majority of these brave men and women serve with honor and integrity and treat people with dignity and equality. On the other hand, policing practices that are harsh, unjust, or unfair undermine police legitimacy, the public’s trust, community safety, and the moral authority of the criminal justice system. Decades of research have shown that lower levels of trust in police significantly decrease the likelihood that people will report crimes or cooperate with the police. Gascón’s approach to law enforcement accountability is firmly rooted in the belief that policing must be fair and just in order to enhance our collective safety.
These policies and guidelines were drafted with assistance from Gascón’s policy committee. The issues covered are many, but the proposed policies and guidelines include:
- Adoption of a County-wide deadly force standard that allows lethal force to be used only when necessary and as a last resort, ensuring a strong implementation of Assembly Bill 392.
- Confronting racial disparities in policing by convening a blue-ribbon panel to conduct a comprehensive study of racial disparities across LA County’s justice system, analyzing aggregate data and policies of County law enforcement, with inclusion of affected community members and community input.
- Collaborate with law enforcement across the County to make police officer misconduct records accessible to all of the public, not only those who request them.
- Establish a County-wide “do not call” policy, including a registry of disreputable law enforcement officers.
- Establish County-wide standards for police body-worn cameras and in-car video systems that take into account the public’s trust, privacy concerns, and regulatory restraints.
- Create and lead a County-wide Police Sentinel Event Review Board.
- Create an Independent Investigations Bureau and hire and train attorney specialists to enhance its ability to investigate and review all officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths and to investigate and review all other excessive use of force cases.
- Establish an Open Data Unit that will make data and information publicly available about police stops, arrests, uses of force, deaths in custody, homicides, hate crimes, law enforcement officers killed or injured in the line of duty, lawsuits, civilian complaints, and other key areas on the DA’s website.
- Make the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office’s policies and procedures public and call for all Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies to do the same.
- Advocate for changes to state law that would give the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) the authority to decertify law enforcement officers who have engaged in serious misconduct; that would allow the Commission to participate in the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) National Decertification Index (NDI); and that would allow officers to voluntarily and permanently surrender their license.
- Adopt a policy of no retaliatory charging of individuals or their family members for speaking out against the police, and indeed no aggressive charging for First Amendment activity.
- Adequately staff the District Attorney’s Wrongful Conviction Unit and build collaborations with local law schools, like Loyola Law School, that already have these programs to right injustices of the past.
Click here to read full report.
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George Gascón grew up in Los Angeles after his family immigrated from Cuba. An army veteran, Gascón served as a Los Angeles Police Department Officer for 30 years, rising to the rank of Assistant Chief of Operations. In 2006 he became Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, where he stood up to the hateful and anti-immigrant policies of then Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In 2009, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Gascón Chief of Police. Newsom turned to Gascón again in 2011 when he tapped him to be District Attorney to fill the seat vacated by an outoing Kamala Harris who had been elected Attorney General. During his tenure Gascón implemented reforms that are being duplicated across the country while overseeing violent crime and homicides drop to rates not seen in 50 years. After being elected to two terms, Gascón returned to Los Angeles to care for his elderly mother and to be closer to his two daughters and grandchildren in Long Beach. Gascón is married to Fabiola Kramsky, a three-time Emmy Award winning journalist and recipient of the “Premio Nacional de Periodismo,” the highest recognition given to journalists in Mexico.
For more information about George Gascón go to www.GeorgeGascon.org.