A lot has changed in 10 years — but not intransigency on citizen reviews

This is a response to a recent Close to Home, "No easy answers on police shootings" by Michael Miller, an ex-police officer who is now an attorney representing clients in "officer involved shootings"(his description).

The first of Miller's statements that must be challenged is "there will always be such deaths."

If Miller's main argument is that the killing of possibly innocent citizens or people in psychological distress is not preventable, then a coalition of local concerned groups and individuals that has formed this year should just go home and relax since it is all so inevitable. We don't think so.

Instead, we believe that there are many needed changes.

First is some kind of civilian oversight. Ten years ago we had a similar spate of "officer involved killings" and we protested so strongly that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights came to our community to hold special hearings.

These hearings resulted in a release of a report in 2000 which strongly sided with public concerns.

Not a single recommendation from that report (still available) was implemented by law enforcement or the politicians that defend them. This in itself is shameful.

So here we are, 10 years later, in exactly the same position. The sheriff and chiefs of police are different, as are many of the politicians who oversee them, but the attitude is the same.

In essence, law enforcement and elected officials don't want citizen input, reports are purported to be "unavailable" and advocates for change are basically told to go home and trust in our "leaders."

The supposed investigations that the authorities claim are so thorough are just the opposite. The county sheriff "investigates" the cities' police forces and the cities "investigate" the county. These "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" reports are slow in coming and then kept secret. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that this arrangement does nothing to inform the public, yet Miller chooses to call it a "microscopic analysis."

He then proceeds to tell us that most people who go into law enforcement do it to "help people."

Oh really? That contradicts the many studies that have shown that authoritarian and aggressive personality types are drawn to this profession. There are also several well researched reports about the use of steroids in cop culture making those already aggressive types even more aggressive. No doubt there are people who go into law enforcement for the right reasons, but the fact that rogue cops are protected and not weeded out taints the whole profession.

This year most of the "officer involved killings" were not committed on people in the commission of a crime. They were people, including a 16-year-old child, who were in some form of mental distress.

Miller closes his column by stating that if we, the people, do want civilian review boards then it should happen but that there should be no "decision making" by this board. In effect that throws us a bone with no teeth to chew on it. At present most CRBs are easily manipulated by the way they are established and the powers they are not given.

Because of the state Legislature's recent failure to correct last year's California Supreme Court decision on further limiting the public's access to police records, CRBs are now more ineffective than ever. So Miller's gracious offer to let us have a CRB is nothing more than an attempt to pacify. We need for our representatives at all levels to take this situation seriously and to uncircle the wagons and address our concerns. The answers may not be easy, but they are doable if our politicians show some backbone .

Mary Moore is a Camp Meeker resident and is working with several groups to build a local COP WATCH movement. Karen Saari is a Bodega resident and was the head researcher for the Stolen Lives Project.