Staff recommends that the City Council consider the Policing and Community Engagement (PCE) Committee’s recommendations; provide additional comments and feedback; and adopt the attached resolution accepting the Committee’s recommendations for transformation and next steps. Staff further recommends as part of the next steps to create a framework for establishing work teams to implement the recommendations.

The PCE Committee, at the direction of the City Council, convened over 8 weeks to conduct a series of community listening sessions to assess community attitudes on policing in Union City. Community feedback overall conveyed a general satisfaction with the Union City Police Department (UCPD), which is positive given the high level of frustration observed around the country. Community feedback also indicated areas of concern and improvement as it relates to policing in Union City. This report summarizes the Committee’s findings and recommendations for transformation, including next steps.

Goal C: Institute forward-thinking business, land use development, housing, social services, and public safety strategies that promote community growth and innovation.

Strategy 13: Align public safety services with community needs based on a data driven decision-making approach.

On Monday, May 25, 2020, George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis Police. This sparked national and global protests and demonstrations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to condemn racial injustice. In the days following George Floyd’s death, the City took several preliminary steps to address the impact of these events on the community, including:

• Public statements from Police Chief Jared Rinetti and Mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci condemning the actions that led to George Floyd’s death.
•  The City held a virtual town hall meeting, which included Mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci, Reverend Jerome Brown, Police Chief Jared Rinetti, and Youth and Family Services Counselor Adrian Valdez.
• The Mayor signed the Obama Foundation’s Commit to Action pledge for U.S. mayors, which calls for four actions related to police use of force.
• A website was subsequently created by the UCPD to respond to community questions regarding these Commit to Action policies, as well as the policy requests that are outlined in the #8cantwait initiative.

The following are the four actions from the Commit to Action pledge:

• REVIEW your police use of force policies
•  ENGAGE your communities by including a diverse range of input, experiences, and stories in your review
•  REPORT the findings of your review to your community and seek feedback
•  REFORM your community’s police use of force policy

On June 9, the City Council agreed to form a joint committee of the City Council and  Human Relations Commission to create and implement a community engagement plan regarding policing in Union City. Vice Mayor Emily Duncan and Councilmember Pat Gacoscos were appointed and unanimously approved by the Council, with Vice Mayor Emily Duncan leading the committee.

On June 23, City Council approved the appointment of three Human Relations Commissioners to serve on the committee: Melissa Shuen-Mallory, Michele Wms-Smith, and Jonathan Pettey. The committee was named the Policing and Community Engagement Committee (PCE Committee). Reference staff report here: 

https://unioncity.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=2548&MeetingID=402

The PCE Committee met for eight virtual teleconference meetings from June to August 2020. In the course of that time, the PCE Committee heard from 15 community members in a series of listening sessions to gain an understanding about how people felt about policing in Union City. These listening sessions included members of Union City’s faith-based community, New Haven Unified School District, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, community-based organizations, community advocates, and the Union City Police Department (representing different rank and file levels of the organization). In addition, more than 20 public comments were received through the committee website (www.unioncity.org/pcecommittee), via e-mail, and during Committee meetings.

Five meetings were streamed on Facebook Live, and reached an average of 950 people per meeting. All meetings were recorded and are available on the PCE Committee website. In addition, all meeting agendas and written feedback are archived and available for review on the PCE Committee website.

The PCE Committee is now presenting a list of findings about policing in Union City based on a summation of community feedback and a set of recommendations for transformation.

Community feedback overall indicated general optimism and satisfaction about the UCPD, which is positive given the high level of frustration observed around the country. But, for the purpose of improving and transforming, this report summarizes the concerns expressed.

Summary of Concerns about Policing in Union City

• Mistrust of police and inherent fear of police, particularly by youth, exists in our community.

•  Community sentiment that the Union City Police Department should accept its history of poor community relations and past practices on racial profiling and use of force in order to bring closure to the community.

•  Community perception that officers lack compassion.

• Unconscious Bias in the community, including by police.
  • E.g. misuse of 911 system; anecdotal evidence from several presenters

• Lack of community engagement by the Union City Police Department and police meeting community where they are.
•  Police report lack of funding to carry out the community-oriented policing and problem-solving program (as they once did).
• Mental health responses do not require police officers; police officers wear too many hats.

Recommendations for Transformation

Accountability and Transparency

1.  Collaborate with Federal, State, and Local partners to implement a database for police officers that are terminated from other law enforcement agencies for unlawful behavior and/or department policy violations, including the development of a de-certification process.
2.  Implement a community reporting dashboard for police use of force and calls for service data (including a breakdown on race and age for traffic stops, arrests, and other police activity).
3. Implement a community reporting process to validate how police recruiting and hiring reflects the demographics of Union City.

Hiring and Training

1.  Increase the frequency of implicit bias, diversity, cultural sensitivity, mental health, crisis intervention, and de-escalation training and develop a community reporting process.
2. Partner with the Fremont Police Department to ensure racial sensitivity and awareness training for dispatchers.
3. Recruit and hire police officers that reflect the demographics of Union City.

Mental Health & Social Services

1.  Develop new response standards for dispatchers for mental health and family disputes that involves social services, behavioral health, and other community resources.
2.  Expand the Youth and Family Services model to include response to mental health, crisis support and homelessness.
3. Implement a crisis intervention strategy, which may include a mobile crisis response team. Partner with Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Fremont Mobile Evaluation Team (mobile mental health response team).

Community Policing

1.  Develop and implement a community policing model that integrates the community policing philosophy into every police officers’ job and builds trust/security/safety in the community.
2.  Develop and implement an approach for how UCPD engage with youth in our community and in our schools.

Next Steps

The PCE Committee recommends that the City Council accept these recommendations as an initial step and form work teams to develop implementation plans of each topic area, including:

1.  Accountability & Transparency,
2.  Hiring & Training,
3. Mental Health & Social Services, and
4. Community Policing.

To accomplish this task, staff recommends that Vice Mayor Duncan work with the Police Chief to develop a framework for the establishment of work teams.   Staff further recommends that each team be made up of members of the Human Relations Commission, the community, and staff. The work teams would create implementation plans for their topic areas that would be reported back to Council for their review and approval.

Staff recommends that the City Council consider the Policing and Community Engagement Committee’s recommendations; provide additional comments and feedback; and adopt the attached resolution accepting the Committee’s recommendations for transformation, including next steps. Staff further recommends that Vice Mayor Duncan work with Police Chief Rinetti to develop a framework for the establishment of work teams that would be made up of members of the Human Relations Commission, the community, and staff.   The work teams would create implementation plans for their topic areas that would be reported back to Council for their review and approval.

Staff will return to the City Council in November on the work team formations for the Council’s approval.