This Sacramento man upset police so much they won’t be in the same room with him | Opinion

For whatever it’s worth, (and it doesn’t seem like it’s worth much) the Sacramento City Council will hear the Annual Report of the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission at its meeting on Tuesday night.

A little more than a month ago, the Sacramento Police Department stopped meeting directly with the Sacramento Police Community Police Review Commission, whose mission is to “ provide community participation in reviewing and recommending police department policies and practices.”

Opinion

Given that the cops won’t meet with the citizen commissioners, it seems far-fetched any of the commission’s recommendations will be accepted, or even reviewed by Sacramento Police.

Since March at least, Assistant City Manager Mario Lara has liaised between the police and the commission charged with giving them community input.

I asked city and police officials why City Manager Howard Chan decided Lara would meet with the commissioners instead of actual cops. Tim Swanson, a city spokesman, said the decision is “within the City Manager’s authority to determine how staff are deployed to the various City Council boards and commissions” and that Chan “makes these staffing decisions based on what he believes will produce the most effective and efficient results.”

That is an answer to a question, but not the one I asked. Why was this decision made?

Police Review Commission Chair Keyan Bliss knows why. Lara told Bliss in a March email that police wouldn’t be attending commission meetings because of him.

“The “decision was...based on (Bliss’) conduct at a City Council meeting where (he was) observed to interfere with the work of the police department and refuse to promptly comply with lawful orders by the Police Department and in accordance with directive to clear Council Chambers,” Lara wrote to Bliss in an email.

Said Bliss: “They have said publicly that they won’t attend our public meetings anymore and they were willing to meet with any commissioner who is not in active defiance of law enforcement.”

I think it’s because certain city officials have a long-held grudge against Bliss.

A controversial commissioner

Bliss was appointed by District 4 councilwoman Katie Valenzuela in 2021 — herself a controversial member of the city council for her progressive politics. Since his appointment, Bliss has faced numerous calls for removal from public officials, including by former councilman Jeff Harris, who attempted to get him booted from the commission after Bliss publicly said that Harris was “as racist as Jim Crow” in September 2022.

The larger point here is that the commission does good work and is needed. Bliss can be blunt, but he’s not wrong to demand more accountability from city cops. The Police Review Commission was established in its current form in 2016 in response to community demands. It ostensibly provides recommendations to the mayor and City Council on bias-free policing and strengthening community-police relations.

Lara referred to a City Council meeting in late February, where Mayor Darrell Steinberg ordered the chambers cleared due to disruptions from pro-Palestine supporters. Bliss says he left the meeting mere minutes after the directive without incident and was not detained by police for his actions that evening.

I wasn’t aware the city and police required immediate compliance without protest or even the slightest delay? It explains why I was handcuffed at a late March meeting, covering another protest that shut down council chambers.

The city and police presumably saw Bliss’ actions as deeply disrespectful, and will not engage with him further. In doing so, they are punishing the entire Police Review Commission, and ultimately, punishing the community.

“None of the actions cited by (the police), which occurred in (Bliss’) personal time, violated any law or rule for City Commissioners,” wrote Councilwoman Valenzuela in a statement. “The Sacramento Police Department is charged with respectfully interacting with the public — they cannot be allowed to only do so with people who agree with them.”

Commission to provide police oversight

The commission has, according to Bliss, issued more than 170 recommendations to the Police Department, yet only one has been formally approved by the City Council: Requiring the police to use deadly force as a last resort.

An investigation by the commission into the police’s implementation of recommendations for 2018 and 2019 showed that less than ten had been fully implemented, despite the police department reporting it had implemented more than twice as many.

Since last fall, the Sacramento police’s Professional Standards Unit and the Police Review Commission, including Bliss, have been meeting every other week to discuss the backlog of the commission’s recommendations. The group had finally gotten through a review of its 2018 and 2019 recommendations with the help of these meetings and had three more years to go when police liaisons suddenly stopped attending.

“The only reason we learned about the police department disengaging with us (was) after the police had a no-show at our public meeting,” Bliss said. “They just stopped coming. They abruptly canceled the morning of.”

Swanson said the City Council approved a “governmental affairs position for the police department, and it is expected that this person will eventually staff the (Police Review Commission) meetings as well.”

Meanwhile, Police Chief Kathy Lester is poised to ask for an additional $28 million for its budget in the upcoming fiscal year, an allocation that is already at an all-time high, bringing the department’s funding to more than $250 million total. In a March 2024 survey, Sacramento taxpayers said the police department was the No. 1 line item they wished to see face cuts in the city budget.

The problem starts at the top

“What does it say about a police department that can’t sit down in a room, or even in a Zoom meeting, to talk to community members, especially ones appointed by council members? What does that say about their ability to do the job? Are they picking and choosing who they protect and serve?” Bliss asked.

What about me? I’m a homeowner in the city; do I deserve protection even though I’m criticizing the police? What about the people who question the police budget at community meetings? Should they be worried?

The police are supposed to protect and serve everyone — not just the people they like.