By Mengyuan Dong. Bay City News.
San Mateo County publicly discussed the possibilities of establishing an oversight committee for the county Sheriff's Office for the first time during the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
The County Attorney's Office and Fixin' San Mateo County, a grassroots organization that advocates for oversight of the Sheriff's Office, gave presentations on potential models and benefits of oversight, followed by feedback 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 citizens' oversight boards and suggests investigation, transparency, and community participation in the process.
To date, AB 1185 has had limited enforcement. However, seven counties, including San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sacramento, have implemented some alternative form of supervision in general alignment with AB 1185 messaging.
“Today, we really take 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 Principal Deputy Attorney General, presented three existing models created by other counties.
Model one represents a form of the 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 committee, both active and independent. That model is used in Sonoma County, where the commission is called the Independent Office of Enforcement Outreach and Review. The third model creates just a control board without an inspector general.
While it still takes time to determine which model works best for the county, Fixin' San Mateo Borough President Jim Lawrence stressed the urgent need for a monitoring system.
“If we have some kind of surveillance that provides best practices…if we could eliminate one of those deaths, I think we should,” Lawrence explained, reminding the board about people who have died due to law enforcement.
A monitoring system would especially help better protect racial minorities, Nancy Goodban, the organization's executive director, said 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 both regionally and nationally since the death of George Floyd in 2020. At least 220 counties and cities have some form of civilian oversight in the US, Goodban noted.
Public comments during the meeting supported the idea of creating a monitoring system. Many residents said an oversight board would help mend the strained relationship between the sheriff and the communities.
The proposal also garnered support from 16 current and former mayors, as well as various city councils, town halls and 23 community organizations, according to the Fixin' San Mateo County report.
Although the board considered the discussion a study session without making an official decision, the supervisors unanimously expressed their willingness to move forward with the third model of establishing a supervisory commission without an inspector general.
Supervisor Warren Slocum, one of the sponsors of the proposal, said his team planned to travel throughout the county to hear residents' views on supervision and then bring recommendations to the board. He also hoped to involve the participation of the new sheriff, Christina Corpus, who will not take office until January 2023.
Oversight has been the focus of discussions in other Bay Area counties. The Marin County Board of Supervisors gave the green light to the formation of 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 a board of independent supervision in the same month.
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