Pasadena’s civilian police oversight commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on a framework that would give it a repeatable process for reviewing new police technology before the department adopts it — and on the same night, apply that framework to three technologies at once: traffic-reconstruction drones, AI-assisted report writing, and energy-assisted breaching tools.
The Community Police Oversight Commission, known as CPOC, will consider the framework for permanent adoption as part of an updated Fiscal Year 2025-26 Work Plan covering four objectives. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11, in Council Chambers at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Ave., Room S249.
An ad hoc committee — Vice Chair Selina Ho and Commissioners Lawrence Lurvey (lead), Phillip Argento, Faisal Rashid and Paula Verrette — built the draft Technology and Equipment Policy Review Framework and presented it in April. Anticipating that the department may acquire traffic-reconstruction drones, the committee picked drones as the test case. The commission then adopted community priorities for drone use covering safety; privacy and civil liberties; authorized purpose of deployments; evaluation and accountability; data security; and transparency and community benefit. Staff emailed those priorities to Chief Eugene Harris and department command staff on April 22. The same framework has since produced community priorities for energy-assisted breaching and AI-assisted report writing, both also on Thursday’s agenda.
CPOC is strictly advisory. Its positions, including approval of its own work plan, are not binding on the Pasadena Police Department or the City Council, which retains final authority over department policy and operations. The commission’s mission under Chapter 2.60 of the Pasadena Municipal Code is to enhance, develop and strengthen community-police relations and to review and make recommendations on department operations to the chief of police, city manager and City Council.
The work plan’s three other objectives are further along.
On commissioner training, an ad hoc committee — Chair Jones with Commissioners Paula Verrette (lead), Teddy Bedjakian, Raúl Ibáñez and Donald Matthews — developed five training pillars and drafted Rules and Regulations amendments that the commission adopted with minor edits in March. The amended rules could not be heard at the City Council’s Public Safety Committee in May and are now scheduled for its June 17 meeting.
On public accountability, a committee led by Commissioner Faisal Rashid, with Commissioners Phillip Argento, Lawrence Lurvey, Latoya Patillo and Ted Smith, has worked with the city’s Department of Information Technology — including Senior Business Systems Analyst George Nguyen — to build a master tracking tool for commission recommendations on the Microsoft Power BI platform. A live demonstration was presented at the May 14 meeting, and staff is working to post the tracker on the commission’s website.
On crisis response, a committee — Chair Jones, Vice Chair Selina Ho and Commissioners Latoya Patillo (lead), Donald Matthews and Ted Smith — is evaluating department policies and training for calls involving people in mental-health crisis or experiencing domestic violence. The committee has focused first on mental-health response, drawing on call-for-service data, a January roundtable with eight local mental-health and social-service organizations, and a draft report titled “Providers’ Perspectives on PPD’s Response to Mental-Health-Related Calls.” It is awaiting the Independent Police Auditor’s “Review of Pasadena Police Department Behavioral Health Calls,” expected at the July meeting.
For more information call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.
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