San Jose Inside (https://www.sanjoseinside.com)
San Jose’s newly named police auditor resigned this evening following community reaction to the disclosure that his brother is a San Jose police officer.
Chris Constantin was appointed to the $169,000-a-year post last week in a closed session meeting of the San Jose City Council.
He succeeded Barbara Attard, whose contract was not renewed after she sought expanded powers to review investigations into complaints of police misconduct.
POSTED APRIL 14; UPDATED APRIL 17: IPA appointee’s brother is a San Jose Police officer, a fact not revealed at the time of his appointment. More inside.
San Jose City Council unanimously voted to appoint city hall insider Chris Constantin as the city’s new Independent Police Auditor. Constantin currently serves as the Senior Program Performance Auditor in San Jose’s City Auditor’s Office, where he’s overseen recent reviews of police and other public safety programs.
A Historic Window of Opportunity is Open to Improve Police and Community Relations in San Jose
The November 18, 2008 public hearing regarding the suspiciously high and racially disproportionate drunk in public arrest rate was revealing, heart-breaking and inspiring. Anytime City Hall becomes converted into a place for everyday people to bear witness, to pull out their crumpled hand written notes that described stories that were before only shared over kitchen tables, to give testimonials that show how distant policy can be cut through by the deeply personal, San Jose becomes a more considered and inclusive place.
The president of the San Jose Downtown Association, the group that represents downtown San Jose business and property owners, has called for the establishment of a police advisory commission. Though his position has not been officially endorsed by SJDA’s board, Art Bernstein says it is consistent with the objectives of the group’s advocacy arm.
San Jose needs “a body in between the police and city council so that every time there are issues of concern to the community, it doesn’t take a city council meeting,” Bernstein told Fly. A “citizen’s advisory group” would fill that role best. In an OpEd in Sunday’s Merc, Bernstein cites recent initiatives to charge downtown businesses for policing costs and notes that police have become “more aggressive with permit compliance, code enforcement and the closing down of some of downtown’s bars and clubs.”
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.
The fatalities included a 34-year-old San Jose man was riding a Harley Davidson on Sunday when he crashed into a Chevrolet Silverado towing a trailer on State Route 152 at Ferguson Road in unincorporated Santa Clara County.
Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies have not identified any of the victims, or any suspects in the incident that occurred on July 25 at a house party in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Morgan Hill.
A 2019 mass shooting at the festival left three dead, including a13-year-old San Jose girl, with 17 wounded and hundreds traumatized. July 28 is the deadline to apply for victim compensation aid.
Mateusz Dzierbun, 48, of Fremont, had just stabbed his 9-year-old son to death last summer when he attacked the responding officer.
Police said Anthony Joseph Ramon, 25, of Gilroy, was arrested by Morgan Hill Police on July 9 on suspicion that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl at a YMCA summer program at the city’s Aquatics Center.
