Ex-Mayor Urges San Diego Chief to Review Policy on Shootings

Former Mayor Maureen O’Connor, emerging from seven years of near total silence on civic issues, pleaded with the police chief Wednesday night to review the Police Department’s rules on the use of deadly force in the wake of outrage among some African Americans over the fatal shooting of ex-pro football player Demetrius Dubose.

“I know this community,” O’Connor told Chief David Bejarano at the end of a two-hour public session in which dozens of African Americans complained about alleged police abuse. “I respect this community. What they are saying--not only do you have to listen, you have to take action. You need new protocols on the use of force.”

O’Connor, who left office in December 1992 after serving two terms, said she was shocked at the level of anger displayed at the sometimes rowdy community meeting. She had waited in line for an hour while Bejarano heard a litany of complaints and denunciations.

“These are good people,” O’Connor said during her turn at the microphone, “but they’re frustrated, they don’t trust [police], and they’re angry. . . . I don’t think you can wait a couple of days. I think you should begin tomorrow.”

In an interview later, O’Connor said that “the politicians should spend a lot more time on this issue before it’s too late.” She criticized current officeholders for not attending the session.

O’Connor declined to take sides on the issue of Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst’s ruling that two officers were justified in shooting Dubose during a July confrontation in the Mission Beach neighborhood.

Bejarano, unflappable even when several members of the Black Panther party commandeered his microphone, told reporters after the meeting: “We’re open to change. For the last 18 months we did an extensive review of our policy on force, but we’re always willing to look at other options, other ideas from other places.”

Bejarano noted that officer-involved shootings have declined in this city of 1.3 million: from 18 in 1997, to eight in 1998 and five in 1999. “We seem to be moving in the right direction,” he said.

A spokesman for Mayor Susan Golding, contacted for a response to O’Connor’s comments, said Golding decided several weeks ago to institute a review of the deadly force policy but opted to wait until Pfingst finished his review of the Dubose shooting.

Although Pfingst has decided that no criminal charges will be filed, the shooting is being reviewed by the department’s internal affairs division. A protest rally is set for Friday at 1 p.m. outside police headquarters.

The department’s policy on deadly force conforms to that of most other departments: that force is only to be used when an officer fears for his own life or the lives of others. But African Americans contend that officers are quick to use more force against blacks than against members of other races.

“You should develop a policy that would allow all of us to be treated as white women,” one activist told Bejarano.