Redwood City town hall focuses on policing

Mulholland, who led most of the discussion, candidly expressed he felt defensive when initial criticisms of the police force began to arise. 

“When I initially heard the things that were said about this organization I got very defensive. I wanted to have a bunker mentality. ... It was admittedly hurtful and difficult to hear but I knew that in that place in my heart that was not a place to communicate with this community. ...This exchange really calls me to stop, reset and better understand where I need to come from as your police chief,” he said. 

Nationwide, activists have called for local governments to “defund the police” and for the implementation of a collection of policies under the #8CantWait initiative by Campaign Zero, a U.S. based research organization aimed at developing policy solutions to end police brutality. 

The campaign requests for police departments to implement eight policies requiring the use of de-escalation tactics, providing a verbal warning before firing a firearm, exhausting all nonlethal force options before using deadly force, establishing a force continuum restricting what types of force can be used in specific situations, and comprehensive reporting of any instance in which force is used. 

Three additional policies include banning chokeholds and strangleholds, banning officers from shooting at moving vehicles, and requiring officers to intervene when excessive force is being used by another officer. Mulholland said the Redwood City Police Department adheres to most of the initiative requirements or is in the planning stages to do so, noting action is being taken at the state and county level to also implement policy changes. 

“California has a very strict set of guidelines that we have to adhere to. ... Many of those things were already in place in the Redwood City Police Department. Many of these issues have been addressed and are in place in California. But it’s caused us to also do a deep dive in our own policies,” said Mulholland. 

He conceded to the point his department, like most nationwide, is equipped with machinery that could incite fear in the community such as a military-grade vehicle given to the force by the federal government. But he pushed back on demands to demilitarize police units noting the term is too general and could include anything from firearms to the everyday bulletproof vests officers use. 

“The term military grade can mean very many things. We have boots that we wear that are military grade, we have flashlights, we have communication equipment,” said Mulholland, who also noted the department is planning to address concerns of the military-grade vehicle. 

In the public comment period, there were shared feelings of disappointment with the structure of the event as there was not time for additional questions from live participants, as expressed by Dez Fraizer, a 20-year-old organizer who helped lead the city’s Black Lives Matter demonstration. 

“It appears that the purpose of this dialogue is to provide the community with perfect answers to these questions rather than listening,” he said. “I want to emphasize we aren’t looking for sexy answers and we’re really here to feel heard, seen and valued and I haven’t felt that energy just yet.”

He asked for participants to consider the current moment in time, living in a pandemic and what he called a civil war or race war that many are fighting against to dismantle a system that was not created for people that resemble him, he said. 

“I want to be clear these controversial issues are not going anywhere any time soon if we do not heal these wounds and take that time that is necessary,” said Fraizer. 

Another speaker, Dario McCarty, criticized officials for increasing the police budget while many are calling for a reduction in funding. The city’s budget received heightened criticism during Monday night’s City Council meeting as well for an over $2 million funding increase being given to the Police Department and a salary increase to both the city manager and city attorney. 

“This idea that we’re going to increase the police budget and that’s going to somehow fix things while we’re at a time when we have people who are literally living paycheck to paycheck and at a time our community is hit by coronavirus. ... quite frankly it’s abhorrent and I think you guys should be ashamed of yourselves,” said McCarty. 

Diaz, who noted during the town hall that the city is facing major revenue losses and will have to address the deficit in the coming months, also said staff is working on proposals to bring to the council by October in regards to services being requested by the community, adding some proposals would apply to policing. 

Although the public expressed concern over the structure of the town hall, Mayor Howard assured participants that plans for additional panels and town halls are in the works. The city received more than 300 questions submitted before and during the meeting and answers will be published on a FAQ page through redwoodcity.org, the city’s website.