Before leaving office, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo seeks police reforms
SAN JOSE – With less than a month left in office, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has picked a fight with the city's Police Officers' Association over the investigation of officer misconduct that could reverberate through city politics for years to come.
"We're past the point in which we can continue to believe Americans will simply assume the police should police themselves," Liccardo said during a press conference at City Hall.
The mayor is proposing a plan in which some of the responsibility for investigating allegations of police misconduct would be shifted from the department's internal affairs unit to the Office of the Independent Police Auditor.
Liccardo said the change would result in investigations are more thorough, transparent and trusted by the public.
"This is not to disparage the work of the Internal Affairs. But it's clear that the world is moving on from this model, and San Jose should be leading and not following," the mayor said.
Sean Pritchard, President of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, said the plan was ill-advised and accused the mayor of political grandstanding as he leaves office.
"The mayor's got this completely wrong. This a last-minute power play on his part as he tries to walk out the door. He is really trying to essentially rewrite the law," Pritchard told KPIX 5.
Under the current system, the Office of the Independent Police Auditor reviews internal affairs investigations but lacks the authority or staff to directly investigate cases of misconduct. Current Independent Police Auditor Shavin Nurre said that system unfairly weights the scales of justice in favor of the police.
"[Internal affairs is] the entity that takes the facts and the evidence and applies it to the law or the duty manual and comes up with an analysis. Whoever controls that process has a lot of power. So, it would be beneficial for us, we think, to be able to step into some of those cases," Nurre said.
It is unclear if the police union would have to agree to the additional oversight. The mayor contends the POA's agreement is not necessary to move forward with the proposal.
The leadership of the POA is vowing to fight the change -- possibility with a lawsuit.
"We are prepared to protect our officers' rights at all costs. If that means we end up in court, we end up in court. We'd prefer to sit down, like we have in the past as I've mentioned," Pritchard said.