City leaders seek answers about new police policies | March 18, 2022 | Palo Alto Weekly | Palo Alto Online |

Palo Alto Weekly

News - March 18, 2022

City leaders seek answers about new police policies

City Council directs department to draft response to latest audit, which includes dog attack in Mountain View

by Gennady Sheyner

After botching a response to a medical call in Barron Park in 2019, the Palo Alto Police Department gave assurances that it had modified its policies to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

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Email Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner at gsheyner@paweekly.com.

Comments

Posted by felix
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 15, 2022 at 9:10 am

felix is a registered user.

I was glad to see some Councilmembers refused to be silenced by Ed Shidada who shamelessly tried to stifle public discussion of the contents of the IPA's report and questioning of the IPA's.

As was pointed out by Councilmember DuBois, Council had specifically tied semi-annual releases of IPA' oversight reports to Council meetings with our IPA's so they could, for one thing, discuss matters brought up in the current report.

Will staff never stop trying reverse, revise and control the actions of our elected officials? It is an ongoing problem.

We now must be extremely vilgilent in the sort of report the PAPD will now be required to do to state what recommendation of the IPA it is taking, what policy changes it thus makes due to this, and what recommendations it rejects and why.

That Chief Jonsen and Assitant Chief Binder stated (see the video when posted) that the PAPD accepts nearly all the IPA recommendations. This is not true and should be noted by any hiring panel, Shikada, the Council, etc. as its assumed Binder will apply for the Police Chief's job. This is not is not true and disqualifies him to lead the PAPD.

If this is mistaken and IPA recommendations have nearly all been taken by the PAPD in the years you have been there, then prove it to us and the Council and press.


Posted by ALB
a resident of College Terrace
on Mar 15, 2022 at 12:03 pm

ALB is a registered user.

What is the city manager afraid of? Ed Shikada pushed back after the council wanted to learn of police policies that were required after the failed call in Barron Park.
Training, imagination and ethics are needed
going forward. Thank you Mayor Burt and fellow council member Tom DuBois for your excellent work on this issue.


Posted by MyFeelz
a resident of another community
on Mar 17, 2022 at 8:43 pm

MyFeelz is a registered user.

This lack of transparency is of deep concern to me, as a member of the disabled community. The incident that occurred in 2019 could have easily been me -- but with a different outcome. I once had a CVA that made me combative and unable to speak. Being voiceless and rendered "out of control" physically, had Palo Alto police been at the scene, I am most certain I would have been tasered, or subdued by their dogs, or hogtied with zipties or any number of inappropriate things they do to people who cannot speak for themselves in the midst of a medical emergency. I am franky scared shi*less of police for reasons just like this -- not because I'm a criminal but because I can't predict what my brain might do at any given moment. Knowing ahead of time that this is MORE LIKELY TO HAPPEN IN PALO ALTO, to be abused by the police when what I need is HELP, I seriously need to evaluate relocating to a more people-oriented community where the police are servants of the people -- not their masters.


Posted by MyFeelz
a resident of another community
on Mar 17, 2022 at 8:45 pm

MyFeelz is a registered user.

ALB -- they are afraid to be accountable to the people they serve.


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