Potential changes in policing welcomed by local law enforcement academy and activist group
CHICO, Calif. — The topic of policing has been a controversial topic for years, more so in 2020 than ever before. Butte County groups involved with policing are responding to new recommendations from Governor Gavin Newsom's policing advisory team that are attempting to change the way police and demonstrators interact.
The recommendations, presented by former Palo Alto police chief Ron David and activist Lateefah Simon, include a communication-first approach between police and demonstrators. Further, avoiding enforcement of low-level offenses, minimizing militarization and use of weapons, and requiring local law enforcement in direct contact with demonstrators to wear and activate body cameras are also key recommendations.
These recommendations are now in the hands of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to implement. POST drives all law enforcement academy curriculum in California, including at Oroville's Butte College.
Don Beasley, Public Safety Education, and Training Center Director for Butte College, says the changes are not far off from what their academy teaches officers-in-training currently. The defining difference comes in how they teach the use of non-lethal weapons, such as tear gas and batons, to control rowdy protestors during demonstrations.
“Other than the fact that they’re going to modify the tools that we use during crowd control, this is all stuff that we’ve been doing all along,” says Beasley. "We're just going to follow what POST tells us to do. For example, if there's going to be prohibitions on that, that is what we will train.
The recommendations are a welcomed change for Concerned Citizens for Justice (CC4J), a group of Butte County residents calling for changes in local policing. Margaret Swick, cofounder of CC4J, says these recommendations align with what the activist group has been fighting for for years.
“It’s thrilling to know that the governor is on board with us, that police officer standards and training are on board with us,” says Swick. “Now as a community, we have to come together and say to our police officers ‘it’s time to make that change.’”
It’s unclear if and when these changes will be put into motion, but to CC4J, they’re changes that will allow police and citizens to interact in more human ways.
Recommendations related to the new use of force laws will be released in the coming weeks.
