SAN JOSE, Calif. — In what could be a major shift in law enforcement attitudes, some of California’s largest police unions unveiled plans Sunday for a reform agenda to find racist officers and “root those individuals out of the law enforcement profession.”
In full-page ads in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, the Mercury News and the East Bay Times, the San Jose Police Officers Association, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League announced the national reform proposal as thousands continued to march in the streets to protest the May 25 police killing of George Floyd as well as others who police have killed in the last two weeks.
“No words can convey our collective disgust and sorrow for the murder of George Floyd,” the unions said in the advertisement. “We have an obligation as a profession and as human beings to express our sorrow by taking action.”
Paul Kelly, president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, said in an interview that union leaders are sensitive to criticism that the announcement is a face-saving tactic, reported the Mercury News.
“We don’t want to be the roadblock in change,” he said Sunday. “The days of unions trying to block reform and new policy are gone. We can’t continue to say the stats don’t show” a problem. “ ’You have a bad apple.’ That rhetoric has to stop.”
Kelly said while he has never encountered a racist colleague in his 27 years at the San Jose Police Department, police across the country must start talking honestly about the issue. He said changes will not work if they are made with police chiefs and politicians.
“We still believe in the Thin Blue Line, but who we want on that line with us is our community,” he said. “That is who we serve.”
Copying from the San Francisco Police Department, the police unions are calling for an “early warning system” to identify officers that might need more training and mentoring, according to the Mercury News.
The three unions also called for ongoing and frequent training of police officers to build and refresh their skills to improve police and community outcomes similar to California Senate Bill 230 as well as mandating a transparent publicly accessible use-of-force analysis website similar to the San Jose Police Department.
