Oxnard Responds to Complaints of Racial Profiling

Responding to complaints of racial profiling, a committee of Oxnard police officers and residents is putting together a wish list for improving law enforcement’s relationship with the community.

Suggestions by the Subcommittee on Racial Profiling range from having a diversity expert lecture police to asking religious leaders to speak to residents about their relationships with officers. The panel is an offshoot of Police Chief Art Lopez’s 3-year-old Community Advisory Council.

Lopez asked the eight-member subcommittee to design a cultural diversity class that will be required for all department employees, possibly as early as late summer.

“We brought the issue before the community council as something we need to work on collectively and come up with solutions,” Lopez said Thursday, a day after the group met at the main Oxnard Library.

The subcommittee was formed in February after several residents complained to state and federal officials that officers were singling out possible suspects based solely on race or ethnicity.

While no claims of profiling have been substantiated against the police force, a lawsuit is pending in federal court over the death of Robert Jones, a 23-year-old black man killed by police last August.

Jones, who had complained of profiling by Oxnard police, was shot to death inside his home after his mother called police to help get her knife-wielding, distraught son to a hospital.

A decision by the Ventura County district attorney on whether the police shooting was justified is due by the end of the month, Lopez said.

The chief has denied that profiling occurs but said that he strongly believes his officers need more training about what constitutes racial profiling, as well as cultural diversity and sensitivity.

“Is there enough training?” Lopez asked. “There’s probably never enough.”

In the wake of profiling complaints against police agencies across the state, the Commission on Police Officer Standards recently finished designing a four-hour racial training program.

The panel’s cultural diversity course would be offered in conjunction with the state commission’s profiling class. Both will be mandatory for officers and run a total of eight hours.

At the meeting, guest speaker Erylene Piper-Mandy said racism must be addressed by both residents and police. She is a diversity expert from Compton who is expected to help design the curriculum and teach officers.

“Both sides have to keep talking to each other and looking at the issue from both perspectives or we will continue to misinterpret each other,” she said.

Piper-Mandy cited a study that asked several racial groups what they most wanted from police. White respondents, she said, answered “law and order” while blacks and Latinos said “fairness and respect.”

“I think this is an important message to share with officers, and that is that many members of minority groups don’t feel as if they get what most of white America seems to get--and that is respect,” said Sgt. Marty Meyer, a subcommittee member.

Harry Cortez, a civilian telecommunications manager for the Navy, said he agreed with Piper-Mandy’s suggestions but also wants the committee to find a way to educate residents and children on how to get along with police.

“Whatever we can do is going to help because we need some damage control and need it in a hurry,” said Cortez, also a subcommittee member.

Lopez said the city has a clergy council that he hopes can help the subcommittee draft ideas on how to teach and preach to the community about forging better relationships with police officers.

He is also considering talking about the issue with elementary and junior high students who have been attending a series of symposiums to discuss safety issues in the community.

“We need to reach out to educators, clergy--anybody that has a podium to talk to people about this,” said Manuel Munoz, publisher of the bilingual weekly newspaper Vida, who attended the meeting.