San Jose Inside

The current issue before the city council about hiring additional police officers is one that I am not sure is as cut and dried as it may appear. It shocks me to hear that Chuck Reed is “verbally tussling” with anyone, let alone Nora Campos, who sounds for all intents and purposes like someone that could get under your skin in a hurry about this issue. Crime is up; therefore, more law enforcement officers are needed. However, is it really that simple?  Chuck Reed agrees, but wanted to add only 25 officers so that other programs are not cut.  Nora Campos says that we still need more.  I am not totally convinced of either one.

There is much to be concerned about in San Jose these days. We have seen this before in the early seventies, when the vaunted SJPD of today was not quite that organization. It was undertrained and poorly led. Its relationship with the minority community was fragile and the composition of the force did not reflect the makeup of our city. That all changed with the selection of Joe McNamara as chief in 1976, and his particular brand of leadership. 

A simple fact that is often forgotten—though it should not be so—is that we have the finest police department in the nation. Such things do not just happen. We have worked hard to keep that description. Chief Rob Davis has continued a tradition of excellence and community relations that began with Joe McNamara in the seventies. This is a succession of competence that needs to be recognized.

Police officers are entrusted by the public with an awesome responsibility: the power of life and death. In a city of one million it is inevitable that officers will use weapons in the course of their duties. It’s part of the job and something that is accepted by the citizens whose laws are enforced by the police in their name. Any time an individual officer decides to use any weapon—whether gun, baton, Taser, fists, boots, or karate—that results in death, the act must be just and justified. It seems to me that the best way to assure the public that their law enforcement representatives are making correct decisions in applying lethal force according to the circumstances, and are operating within the law in doing so, is an automatic oversight enquiry by an independent auditor who reports to our elected representatives.

Recently Canned Shock-Jock to Take Over as Department Spokesman

In response to recent allegations that San Jose police officers use excessive force in a disproportionate amount against Latinos and African-Americans, San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis announced late Thursday, in a hastily thrown together news conference, that the department had hired shock-jock Don Imus as its new spokesman and public relations liaison to smooth things over.

The four murders that took place over the first weekend of December brought Chief Davis before the public to call for enlarging the force. According to the chief, his department was stretched so thin to cover the investigations of the rare spate of killings that he had to draw officers and detectives from other duties. He wants to hire 600 additional people over the next five years and boost the force by 35 percent. But, as Scott Herhold pointed out in his column last week, given the high cost of each member of the force, can the city afford to acquiesce to the chief’s request?

The presence of police downtown is becoming more and more of an issue after the recent shootings.  Most people who live or work in central San Jose consider the presence of police officers in their neighborhoods to be an unmitigated positive. They are disciplined, courteous, respectful, and a deterrent to unpleasant occurrences—all in all, something that law-abiding citizens desire.