By Nancy Perry
SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Justice released the second phase of a report on the policies and practices of the Sacramento Police Department (SPD) on July 8, which builds on an earlier report issued in January 2019.
The reports collectively look into a range of SPD’s policies and practices following the shooting death of Stephon Clark by SPD officers in March 2018.
The latest report advances a series of recommendations after a review of use-of-force incidents involving SPD officers between 2013 and 2018, as well as further review of SPD’s policies and practices regarding bias prevention, personnel complaints and investigations, early intervention, data management, officer discipline, recruitment, hiring and retention.
Since the initial report was published, SPD has adopted many of the California DOJ’s recommendations, including a recent pledge to stop the use of carotid restraints.
Some of the key findings and recommendations in the report released this week include:
- Revise SPD’s use-of-force policy to more closely reflect the meaning and intent of Assembly Bill 392, which redefined the legal standard for authorized use of force in California.
-
Emphasize de-escalation techniques in all use-of-force training.
- Conduct a comprehensive study in an effort to understand the causes of apparent racial disparities involving SPD’s stops, arrests and uses of force.
- Expand partnerships with mental health and social welfare professionals in order to increase the SPD’s capacity to better respond to individuals in crisis.
- Transition SPD’s K-9 deployment strategy from “find and bite” to “find and bark.”
Read the report in full below.
California DOJ Report on Sacramento PD by Ed Praetorian on Scribd