Oceanside Shaken by Mayor’s Charges of Police Racism

This racially diverse city’s first African American mayor has set off a political storm only days after taking office by complaining of “deep-rooted racism and sexism” in the Police Department.

Mayor Terry Johnson’s allegation, made first in a speech to an African American civic group in San Diego, prompted City Council members and homeowner groups to defend the Police Department and its reformist chief.

But some minority activists have said that Johnson’s comments reflect their own concern with what they call continuing resistance by white officers to the Police Department’s attempts to recruit and promote minority officers.

Johnson, a two-term City Council member before being elected mayor last month, said he regrets saying that Chief Michael Poehlman, who is white, may need to be replaced by a minority or that the department may need to be disbanded and law enforcement duties in this city of 160,000 given over to the Sheriff’s Department.

But he said he stands by his comments about racism and sexism.

“I said some things that I regret--out of frustration,” Johnson said Tuesday. “But I think there is too much resistance to our attempts at diversity. I’m just saying things that others feel but are afraid to say.”

Race has been a particularly volatile issue in the 162-officer department serving this city 40 miles north of San Diego.

In recent years, five white officers filed a grievance alleging that they were denied promotions because of their race. And when a minority sergeant was given a promotion, a white sergeant filed a grievance. Those claims are pending.

Then in October the department’s ranking minority officer, a lieutenant, filed a $5-million claim alleging that “there exists a climate where minorities are made to be scapegoats for the shortcomings of white officers, [and] employees of color are not respected.” The city settled the claim last month for $23,500.

In 1995 a jury awarded $1.2 million to two Oceanside officers who sued the city because fellow officers were allegedly spreading rumors that they were having an affair. The female officer said the rumors were part of a sexist pattern in the department.

In 1995 a jury awarded $190,000 to an officer who said he was discriminated against because he is Samoan.

Even without issues of gender, race and ethnicity, the Oceanside Police Department has seen more than its share of tumult, as City Council members and neighborhood activists criticized the department and its leadership. The department had six chiefs in 15 years before Poehlman was hired in 1995.

Johnson, 48, an electrician, said factions within the police officers’ labor union are dedicated to blocking the city’s diversity program. The Oceanside Police Officers Assn. did not back Johnson in the recent election, in which he defeated five candidates.

The Oceanside Police Officers Assn. issued a statement calling Johnson’s comments disappointing. The statement added that the union “will settle for nothing less than fair and equal treatment of all police employees, without regard to cultural, gender and ethnic differences, regardless of majority/minority balances.”

In a city that is 43% minority, the department has 27% minority officers.

Poehlman said he remains committed to hiring minorities and is eager to talk to Johnson about his concerns.

He noted that he recently hired an African American captain from outside the department. Also, the city is hiring an equal employment opportunity officer to field discrimination complaints from employees and expand diversity sessions.

“When I was hired in 1995, I told people that I was committed to changing the culture of the department,” Poehlman said. “But I also told them it would take at least 10 years.”

Alice Brown, a member of the Seaside Neighborhood Task Force, said many residents “are quite irate” at Johnson, particularly for his criticism of the chief.

Brown said many credit Poehlman for the city’s sharp decrease in crime and for shaking its onetime image as a honky-tonk spot for off-duty Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton.

“We don’t have any more problems than any other police department,” Brown said. “Our biggest worry is that Mike Poehlman will start interviewing in other cities because of this.”

But Rob Howard, a community activist and vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said that although progress has been made since the department was virtually all white, it is premature to think that racial animosity has been eliminated.

“I know there are still dinosaurs in that department,” Howard said. “And dinosaurs don’t change very fast.”