Advocates call for greater oversight of law enforcement in San Mateo County

In the wake of rising high-profile deaths of civilians at the hands of police, the pressure is mounting on law enforcement to address fractured relationships with the community—and San Mateo County is no exception.

During a panel on Monday, July 11 called, "Building Bridges Between Community and Law Enforcement," local leaders and officials met over Zoom for a frank discussion on the role and limitations of policing in modern society. 

"We have the same issues with police here," said Heather Cleary, CEO of event co-sponsor Peninsula Family Service. "We have racial disparities in policing, we have populations fearful of police and we have incidents of police encounters that have led to unnecessary deaths."

In 2018, three San Mateo County men were killed in Taser-related incidents with the police, including Chinedu Valentine Okobi, a 36-year-old Black man who was stopped by sheriff's deputies while walking in Millbrae and died after being Tasered, beaten and pepper sprayed. 

At the panel, there was a resounding call for law enforcement to enact greater civilian oversight and seek solutions within the community rather than resorting to what critics described as heavy-handed and outdated policing practices.

"After the summer of 2020, there was a lot of enthusiasm from both the community and law enforcement to make changes," Cleary said, referencing the protests against police brutality after the murder of George Floyd. "But the systems change that the community was asking for has not yet materialized. We have not done the work to fully reimagine public safety."

These calls for greater checks and balances on local law enforcement aren’t new. Fixin’ San Mateo County, a local grassroots organization whose goal is to create civilian oversight of the sheriff’s office and establish a county inspector general, has been meeting regularly and organizing action since May 2021.

Malissa Netane-Jones, executive director of Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, moderated the event, which featured Nick Jasso of Fresh Lifelines for Youth, former San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer, Redwood City Police Chief Dan Mulholland and Jefferson Union High School District Trustee Kalimah Salahuddin.

More than 80 people, including representatives from local police departments, government offices, community housing, and health and cultural organizations, attended the online event, which Thrive Alliance organized.

Cleary introduced the panel by describing San Mateo County as a microcosm of a nationwide reckoning with law enforcement.

Echoing Cleary's concerns, Salahuddin, the first panelist, called on listeners to take a critical look at the traditional role of law enforcement in society—and how it has targeted some more than others.

"The system creates different outcomes for different people. And this is not by chance, it's by design," said Salahuddin. "Unless we're ready to be disruptive to the system, the same inequities will keep going."

Salahuddin, a mother of two, said she gets stopped by police so often that her daughters are afraid to drive, opting to pay for Ubers instead. This disproportionate policing of people of color, she said, contributes to fear of police.

"We've been saying repeatedly that we don't feel safe. We don't feel safe," she said. "We as Americans have bias. All of us have bias. So are we acknowledging, when those biases come to bear, the harm that it can cause? That our bias in these institutions can change lives and sometimes end lives?"

Jasso, a lifelong San Mateo County resident, also expressed fear of law enforcement. And was emphatic about one thing in particular: having any police officer, including student resource officers, on school campuses is dangerous. 

"When it comes to making our communities safer and when it comes to rebuilding relationships with police and with our young people, I think the first thing that has to happen is police need to get out of schools," he said.

And he should know, he said. From playing baseball with the Police Activities League to getting in trouble at school, Jasso's interactions with the police started early. However, while he watched his white peers get off with suspensions, Jasso said his behavior landed him in juvenile hall. 

"It's well-documented across California, across the United States that my story of school resource officers leading to arrest is not unique," he said. "It is harmful for our young Black and brown communities."

School resource officers are typically armed law enforcement officials with arrest powers who are responsible for maintaining safety and preventing crime at schools. However, having officers of any kind on campus invariably leads to more student-police contact and, as in his case, incarceration, he said. 

Not only can campus arrests create stigma and shame, "they decrease our chances of graduating high school, which decreases our chances of going to college, which increases our chances of being incarcerated as adults," he said. "The student resource officers definitely serve in the school-to-prison pipeline."

Manheimer, who grew up "on the streets of the Bronx," said she sought a career in law enforcement to do good for her community and agreed that this was a moment for deeper reflection on the role of the police. However, she called the research into efforts to reform or defund the police "conflicting."

"A lot of folks have very litmus-polarizing opinions about what that change and that reform should look like," she said.  

When it comes to modern practices like stop and frisk, using less lethal weapons and replacing campus police with school resource officers, she said it wasn't always clear whether they did more harm than good. Like Salahuddin, she called for quantitative analysis of the efficacy of these policies to "co-produce safety" with the community. 

"We need to come to facts and get past the emotion and frustration," she said.

Pushing back, Salahuddin criticized many modern policing policies—such as stop and frisk—as the root of the problem. Not only steeped in bias against marginalized groups, she said, but these policies also conflate policing with safety.

"For me community safety does not include a removal of our humanity. Stop and frisk removed humanity," Salahuddin said. "Maybe there's less crime, but it is not safe."

Salahuddin said the policies result from a growing divide between the police and the policed. She called on law enforcement to reconnect with their constituents and collectively reimagine what safety looks like for a community.

"Most of the people who are enforcing these laws don't have any lived experience of the communities in which they're policing," she said." Let's really look at: How are we holding up systemic oppression? And look at it through the lens of the community and try to see their lived experience." 

Echoing Salahuddin, Jasso urged law enforcement to seek input on better campus safety practices from the community.

"We need to create a formalized youth advisory council for young people to meet with peace officers here in San Mateo County," he said. "Those that are closest to the problem are also closest to the solution."

Mulholland agreed with the need to bring youth into the conversation around rebuilding trust with law enforcement. Using a recent example from Redwood City, Mulholland spoke specifically about the increase in police activity around youth behavior in downtown Redwood City.

"What began as low-level gatherings, boisterous behavior by youths, littering and unsafe stunt riding on sidewalks," he said, "evolved into taunting and harassing of community members, fights, fireworks and vandalism."

Tensions escalated in late spring, he said; there was fighting with the police, and arrests were made. 

In response, the police department organized several listening sessions with the public. At first, Mulholland said he got defensive and wanted to respond with a more traditional, "heavy-handed" response. Over time, however, he came to realize that "it was vital to listen" and that his "experiences as a white male police executive were very different from those shared by community members."

Ultimately, he said the police department decided to work collaboratively with community leaders and organizations to develop a one-year pilot program to engage

The Action, Create and Engage (ACE) Plan, he said, "aims to nurture positive relationships between community leaders, youth and police." Though the effort is still in its early phases, Mulholland said he's encouraged by the outcomes so far, including what he described as "reductions in disruptive behavior."

"It takes a village to improve community safety," he said, calling on more community members to step up as volunteers or mentors to the youth. "Together we're making a positive difference for our youth, for our families, for our businesses."

Jasso, who asked the community to see "kids as kids," approved of the Redwood City Police's efforts to support youth with resources rather than discipline.

"You don't blame the fish for being sick in the dirty fish bowl, right?" he said.

Salahuddin shared his sentiment, closing with a call for more humane, community-based public safety efforts.

"I want to be policed in the same way other communities are policed. I want my outcomes to be the same," she said. "I would like my humanity to be seen."

Watch the full recording of the event, "Building Bridges Between Community and Law Enforcement," here.