Additional Richmond police oversight recommendations move to negotiation stage

RICHMOND — Recommended changes meant to boost transparency for the Richmond Police Department will head to the negotiation table, sparking support from those grieving a recent police killing and pushback from the police union president who said the real issue is a lack of mental health support statewide.

The city’s Community Police Review Commission, a nine-member civilian oversight body formed in 1984, brought forward seven recommendations for the City Council to consider during a meeting Tuesday night.

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Councilmembers unanimously voted to move the recommendations along to the meet and confer process during which the city and the Richmond Police Officers Association, the union representing sworn staff, will negotiate on the policies.

The council also unanimously adopted a new training program for the commission, requiring new members to complete at least 8 hours of training within the first six months of their appointment. The training curriculum would cover a wide range of subjects from implicit bias and best policing practices to the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act and constitutional rights and civil liberties.

The recommendations approved by the council Tuesday include extending the complaint filing period from 120 days to one year from when an incident occurs; changing the standard of review from “clear and convincing evidence” to “preponderance of the evidence;” expanding the types of complaints the commission can investigate and review; allowing for anonymous complaints to be filed and to redact complainants’ and witnesses’ names from public documents; giving the commission subpoena power for documents and other evidence; requiring the Confidential Investigative Officer complete an annual report; and making all non-confidential records and reports automatically available on the city’s website instead of requiring the public to file public information requests.

“These seven proposals are not out of the blue proposals. These are things that many other cities are using,” said Councilmember Claudia Jimenez, who also acts as the council liaison to the Community Police Review Commission. “It’s not something to come up and do a political show here. It’s about a response to the community … which is we continue to believe that police accountability is important to the city of Richmond.”

The council’s decision was met by applause by public speakers who attended the meeting carrying signs and spoke about the need for greater police officer accountability and a stronger oversight body.

Many pointed to the Aug. 4 death of Angel Montaño, a 27-year-old U.S. Marine shot and killed by Richmond officers, as a prime example of why better oversight is needed.

Two officers, Colton Stocking and Nicholas Remick, shot at Montaño when responding to a home on the 400 block of First Street after receiving a call that Montaño was threatening his brother and mother with a knife.

Remick was also one of the officers behind the fatal Feb. 4 shooting of 51-year-old Jose Mendez Rios, who officers said charged at them with what appeared to be a knife but was ultimately found to be a sheath.

“The need for real accountability is needed now more than we’ve ever needed it before,” said Andrew Melendez, a member of the city’s Community Crisis Response Program Advisory Board and organizer with the public safety advocacy group Reimagine Richmond. “The killing of Angel by RPD officers is a reminder that the system set in place to hold officers accountable right now is not enough.”

Alternatively, Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association, accused “activists groups” like Reimagine Richmond of scapegoating officers who he said were doing a dangerous job mental health professionals would not have been deployed to handle.

While he said officers are open to accountability measures, Therriault also said the key issue is a lack of mental health resources and laws that would force an individual into treatment, potentially preventing violence from occurring.

“I want to talk about one of the most glaring failures of California today because it’s not the police. It’s the state’s broken mental health system. We live under laws that make it impossible to compel people into treatment,” Therriault said.

Therriault also advocated for requiring new commissioners to participate in a police ride-along as part of their training, but the council decided to leave ride-alongs as optional given that some may feel uncomfortable or unsafe participating.

Rather than divide the community further, some speakers said the changes could improve trust between the community and police department and urged officers to see the proposals as an opportunity to build a stronger connection with the community.

“People are afraid of the police, and I don’t make presumptions of character. I’m not here to say that the police officers and RPD are bad people,” said Ryan Kazen, a Richmond resident and teacher with local nonprofit The Practice Space. “What I am here to say is that people are concerned and police officers have the power of life and death literally in their holsters.”