By Mengyuan Dong. Bay City News.
San Mateo County publicly discussed the possibility of establishing an oversight committee for the county Sheriff's Office for the first time during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.
The County Attorney's Office and Fixin' San Mateo County, a local grassroots organization that advocates for oversight of the Sheriff's Office, provided presentations on potential models and benefits of oversight, followed by comments from supervisors and the public.
The discussion came in the wake of Assembly Bill 1185, which passed in the fall of 2020 and took effect in 2021. The legislation allows California counties to create citizen oversight boards and suggests research, transparency and community engagement within the process.
To date, AB 1185 has had limited enforcement. However, seven counties, including San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sacramento, have implemented some form of alternative oversight generally consistent with AB 1185 messaging.
“Today, we’re really taking the first step as a board to look at our options and what other communities have done,” said Supervisor Dave Pine.
David Silberman, the county's Chief Deputy Attorney, presented three existing models created by other counties.
Model one represents a form of inspector general, which focuses on investigating specific incidents and allegations of excessive force and discrimination against the Sheriff’s Office. Model two requires an inspector general and an advisory commission, both active and independent. That model is used in Sonoma County, where the commission is called the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach. Model three creates only a control board without an inspector general.
While it's still taking time to determine which model works best for the county, Fixin' San Mateo County Chairman Jim Lawrence stressed the urgent need for an oversight system.
“If we have some type of oversight that provides best practices … if we could eliminate one of those deaths, I think we should do that,” said Lawrence, who reminded the board of people who have died due to law enforcement.
A monitoring system would especially help better protect racial minorities, said Nancy Goodban, the organization’s executive director, during her presentation at the meeting. According to the organization’s data, black people are nine times more likely to be arrested than white people in San Mateo County, and Hispanic people are twice as likely to be arrested.
There has been growing interest in oversight at both the regional and national levels since the death of George Floyd in 2020. At least 220 counties and cities have some form of civilian oversight in the U.S., Goodban noted.
Public comments during the meeting supported the idea of creating an oversight system. Many residents said an oversight board would help repair the strained relationship between the sheriff and communities.
The proposal also garnered support from 16 current and former mayors, as well as several city councils, town halls and 23 community organizations, according to the Fixin' San Mateo County report.
Although the board called the discussion a study session without making an official decision, supervisors unanimously expressed their willingness to move forward with the idea of establishing a third model oversight commission without an inspector general.
Supervisor Warren Slocum, one of the proposal’s sponsors, said his team planned to travel around the county to hear from residents about oversight and then bring recommendations back to the board. He also hoped to involve the new sheriff, Christina Corpus, who won’t take office until January 2023.
Oversight has been a focus of discussions in other Bay Area counties. The Marin County Board of Supervisors gave the green light to forming entities to provide independent oversight of the county Sheriff’s Office in August, while the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors rejected the idea of creating an independent oversight board in the same month.
You may be interested in: Million Dollar Strategy to Avoid Evictions in San Mateo County Announced
