Manheimer’s moment in the BLM movement

Faced with just such expectations during her recent tenure as the interim police chief in Oakland, Susan Manheimer tried to shift the discussion to what she calls “reimagining” the police.

Harsh scrutiny of police conduct, and how that might be expressed in city budgets, is nothing new to Manheimer. Her 37 years in law enforcement include 17 years in the San Francisco Police Department, commanding substations in the city’s Tenderloin and Bayview neighborhoods; 19 years as the San Mateo police chief; and 10 months, ending in February, as the interim Oakland police chief. She arrived in Oakland as the city was experiencing 15 homicides in a single month and officials wanted to cut the police budget by 50%.

In a reflective mood, and saying with a laugh, “I’m much more hip and woke since I went to the East Bay,” Manheimer concurs that a deep re-evaluation of police priorities is warranted. But it also requires a rethinking of what a community expects from its police, and its leadership.

Over decades, police have become the primary response to every kind of social disturbance. Just like a person with a hammer sees every problem as a nail, those charged with responding to crime are likely to see every disturbance as criminal.

“We are not the best response to mental health, homelessness, youth out of control,” Manheimer said. The answer is increased training, starting at the police academies, in crisis intervention in which law enforcement is trained to distinguish between a mental health crisis and criminal activity. Manheimer long has advocated partnerships in which police are paired with trained clinicians. She tried to implement such partnerships when responding to homeless encampments.

Increased training and additional support from nonsworn personnel require money and the challenge facing cities is whether to shift funds from police budgets or to spend more, an option many cities do not have. The other option is to move funds from elsewhere in the budget, but a case could be made that cutting funds to “quality of life” programs only worsens the stress on those most in need of refuge.

But the “defund the police” debate is not focused on mental health. It is focused on police conduct, or, rather, misconduct. Manheimer tried to make the case that police shootings have been, and remain, rare, but that the presence of body armor cameras has “magnified” these instances. Black Lives Matter advocates argue that cameras — worn by police or held by witnesses — actually exposed how common and widespread police shootings are.

Manheimer said the key is neither to dismiss those genuine concerns, nor to dismiss the need for effective law enforcement in those communities where alienation from police may be common.

“My experience over time is that the people who need the police most want the police in their communities and they want a police that makes them feel safe,” she said. “Let’s talk about how we make our Black and brown and indigenous communities feeling safer, including with the police.”

All of this requires leadership at the top. Police conduct, like police budgets, reflect the elected leadership of a community and, presumably, the priorities and attitudes of the community. Police departments throughout the country are remarkably inconsistent about what is tolerated by their officers. “You may have jurisdictions like Oakland, where they have very low tolerance for any misconduct and that ends up with severe discipline that, in another state or in California, may not even be disciplined,” Manheimer said. “At the end of the day, people set expectations for their city councils.”

BOOKER GETS IN: Half Moon Bay’s Steven Booker, business representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has jumped into the race to replace termed-out Don Horsley on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. Menlo Park Councilman Ray Mueller and San Carlos Mayor Laura Parmer-Lohan also are running. … The ever-eager Supervisor David Canepa immediately endorsed Booker. … By the way, Manheimer, oft-rumored as a candidate, says she’s not running for sheriff or “any political office. … I really want to get back to being a grandmother, catching my breath” and serving several state, national and international law enforcement organizations.

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.