Watching the Watchmen: Police Oversight Faces Scrutiny

The role of City Commissioners has risen to the forefront after a member of the Pasadena Police Officers Association publicly aired his grievances against the City’s Police Oversight Commission (CPOC) during public comment at a City Council meeting. 

The conversation stems from comments by members of the PPOA. Aaron Villicana said officers are leaving the Department due to attrition and better pay in other Departments, another officer pointed to discourse with the Oversight Commission. Kyle Hazen said that while oversight can be viewed as a positive, it can become a deterrent when discourse from the Oversight Commission is perceived as hurtful, inflammatory, or even dangerous. This level of scrutiny drives officers to seek employment with agencies that do not subject their every action and intention to such intense examination, scrutiny, and bias. 

In at least one public incident, a member of the Oversight Commission received a cease and desist letter after he used the word “murder” to describe the death of a man killed by police officers involved in a local officer-involved shooting.

The officers were never charged with a crime.

“The comments made by officers are likely in reference to a specific council meeting where I described the death of a Pasadena resident, at the hands of police, as ‘murder,'” said Commissioner Raúl Ibañez. “To that point, my knowledge of legal technicalities is limited, so, at the time, I did not know that the term ‘murder’ was deemed as technically inaccurate—I even had to consult with lawyers, who initially were also under the impression I had been using accurate language. And after consultation, I now know that the more appropriate term to have used was ‘killing’ or ‘homicide.’ And I have refrained from using the word ‘murder’ since.”

Ibañez made the statement at the May 13 City Council meeting. He addressed the City Council after several Councilmembers questioned what the CPOC had been doing and voiced opposition to a City Charter reform item that would have allowed the Independent Auditor to become a monitor. 

“I’d like to remind you for three straight years there were residents out here berating you, cussing you out, asking you to fire a City employee that murdered one of our residents,” Ibañez said. 

Ibañez’s statement came the same night Pasadena Police Officer David Llanes complained about the behavior of Chair Esprit Jones. Llanes accused Jones of being “combative, belligerent, and unprofessional” while serving as chair of the Commission. 

“Every time as an organization we’ve reached out the olive branch to say let’s try to accomplish something together. That branch has been taken and slapped us in the face,” said Llanes. 

Jones did not respond to a request for comment regarding this story.

Llanes’ comments led Councilmember Gene Masuda to also call for an investigation. 

“I’m concerned about what he said, and I think we need an investigation to make sure [commissions] are being run the correct way,” Masuda said. 

“The purpose of the Community Police Oversight Commission is to enhance, develop, and strengthen community-police relations, and review and make recommendations regarding the ongoing operations of the police Department to the chief of police, city manager, and/or city council. 

“The CPOC was intended to provide oversight to the Pasadena Police Department,” Mayor Victor Gordo said. “I am very concerned that individual members appointed by the City Council are using their position to unfairly attack police officers by making public statements that are unfounded, inaccurate.” 

But Gordo also said that Councilmembers should pay attention to their commissioners. 

“Making unfounded and baseless derogatory statements about officers and the Department run contrary to the purpose,” Gordo said. “If the statements attributed to the Chair and other members are true, the appointment of those commissioners should be reconsidered.”

Ibañez disagreed with Gordo’s statements on Tuesday. 

“Since the Police Department got what they wanted, why are we revisiting this, and why of all people is the Mayor of our City revisiting this? Pasadena’s Commissions were created to amplify community voices and empower collaborative efforts with constituencies,” Ibañez said. “Therefore, Mayor Victor Gordo saying Councilmembers should, ‘reconsider’ the appointments of commissioners, based on unsubstantiated claims by the police Department, is not only damaging to Pasadena’s democratic principles, but it further hinders City staff’s ability to have the tough, respectful, and needed conversations to ultimately work alongside Pasadena’s most vulnerable communities. It is very disappointing to see Victor consider abandoning best government practices to further escalate silencing City Commissioners. I think we as Pasadena are better than this, and our Mayor is better than this.”

At the May 13 meeting, Councilmember Tyron Hampton inquired about the training of City Commissioners. 

“The City does ethics training for all commissioners and individual training for particular commissioners,” City Attorney Michele Bagneris announced at that meeting. 

The City is scheduled to resume citywide commissioner training in ethics training.

Council Concerns

Hampton told Pasadena Now last week that commission appointments are not the sole responsibility of a single council member, but of the full City Council. 

“The work of a Commissioner, like the work of a Councilmember, is a privilege,” said District 1 Councilmember Tyron Hampton. “With that privilege comes a level of expectation and responsibility. Respect and dignity should always be at the forefront when dealing with community members and city staff.” Hampton said it is the responsibility of the City Council to ensure that Commissioners have the appropriate amount of training to fulfill their roles effectively. 

The City Attorney’s office is responsible for ensuring that commissioners receive the necessary training and for enhancing that training annually to make it more robust. 

“I believe that there is more work that can be done to ensure that our Commissioners treat people with dignity and respect,” Hampton said. “The Council may need to update our policy in that regard. Once Commissioners have received the appropriate training, if there are Commissioners on any Commission violating decorum, they should be removed by the City Council.”

“I propose working with the city attorney’s office to update the training policy for our Commissioners. It’s important to note that Commissions are advisory in nature, so they do not have the ability to hire, fire, or create policies that would be detrimental to the community and staff.”

Hampton used a community process via Zoom to select Jones to the CPOC.

“The Council must foster productive conversations at the CPOC without stifling them,” said Councilmember Jess Rivas, who nominated Ibañez to the Commission. “Conversations on critical incidents involving injury and death caused by our officers are some of the most fraught conversations we have in the city, but they are also the most necessary ones. Restricting speech by removing Commissioners is a drastic action that would have a chilling effect on these important and necessary conversations. Such calls to restrict speech via removal do not make sense as a first response as we help guide the new commission into maturity.”

The Beginning

The Oversight Commission has worked to establish policy on the cell site simulator and worked with the Department has also revised its body-worn camera policy. 

Locally, calls for a civilian police Oversight Commission date back to the early 1990s after a jury acquitted the four LAPD officers who savagely beat Altadena’s Rodney King in 1992, sparking the LA riots. After the riots, local residents Meta McCullough and Karen Hooks Roon led the charge for an Oversight Commission. 

However, those calls fell on deaf ears at Pasadena City Hall. 

The debate received more attention one year later after the officer-involved death of popular local barber Michael Bryant, who was killed following a police pursuit. Police from Pasadena, San Marino, and Los Angeles pursued Bryant to a Highland Park apartment complex. According to police, Bryant fell into a swimming pool. According to reports, officers from Los Angeles and San Marino struck Bryant with batons, but Pasadena police have said their officers only helped carry Bryant to a police car. While he was in the pool, officers with the LAPD shot him with a Taser stun gun as he stood in the pool, hogtied him, and placed him on his stomach in the back of a San Marino patrol car, according to LAPD accounts. Bryant died shortly afterward of asphyxiation and cocaine intoxication.

The issue returned after the officer-involved deaths of Maurice Clark and LaMont Robinson, who died 10 days apart in officer-involved incidents in 2004. 

The issue came back for debate once more in 2012 following the officer-involved shooting death of 19-year-old Kendrec McDade. 

The City Council finally voted to empanel an Oversight Commission in 2021 in the wake of the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd at the hands of several police officers. The African-American motorist was killed by police after he was accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. An officer placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes during that incident. Floyd’s death led to protests around the country, including several in Pasadena. 

Councilmembers John Kennedy and Jacque Robinson had pushed the City Council to consider oversight several times, but at that point, the City Council was resistant at times to even discussing the issue. 

“There was not a majority political will to even discuss the matter at a public forum,” Robinson said. “Much less make the effort to appoint a community-based commission for oversight. Pre-2020 there wasn’t a diverse choir of voices pushing for the issue. Since George Floyd… seeing the humanity in people that have been treated unjustly by the police is more accepted now.”

At the same time, there were calls to prosecute the officers that killed George Floyd, there were also calls locally to charge Psasadena Officer Dumaguindin in the Anthony McClain case. McClain was shot and killed by Dumaguindin after a traffic stop near La Pintoresca Park. 

For more than a year, locals called into the City Council, which was meeting virtually during the pandemic, demanding the firing of the officers that “murdered” Anthony McClain. 

In 2022, the District Attorney’s office concluded there is insufficient evidence to prove the officer did not act in “lawful self-defense.” Dumaguindin was disciplined for not turning on his camera and was forced to take part in an 8-hour Axon Academy training session and a written reprimand.