By Dom Felix, Intern
The struggle for independent oversight of police continues. After 21 months of negotiations between the Mayor and the Police Guild, the voters are not any closer to it than they were after passing Proposition 1 way back in February 2013.
On November 1st, City Legal and The Police Guild released a Tentative Agreement (TA) that they and Mayor Condon claimed fulfilled Proposition 1. On November 9th, The Center for Justice (CFJ) reported, “The mayor’s spokesman confirmed that the city did not even negotiate with the Police Guild for independent investigations into citizen complaints.” Since Mayor Condon claims the TA fulfilled Proposition 1, and his spokesman claims they never even asked for independent investigations into citizen complaints, it makes one wonder what independent oversight means to the Mayor.
On November 11th, the City Council unanimously voted to reject the TA. Now the difficult work of crafting and passing an ordinance that will fulfill Proposition 1 and give the Ombudsman the power to investigate citizen complaints must begin. This issue has become a never ending saga that will require citizens to have a long attention span to see through to the end.