New laws make police misconduct records public and keep fired officers from being hired elsewhere, but the Antioch police texting scandal leads some to question whether more is needed.
in a private Facebook group dubbed 10-7ODSJ — police code for a fire alarm or prowler — where one remarked “black lives don’t matter” and others shared a “Sharia Barbie” meme depicting a Muslim woman with a black eye and “stoning accessories.”on an Instagram account they called @crimereductionteam — one featured a White woman “cop that just wants to fight crime” surrounded by leering Black men labeled as criminals, command staff and police overseers.
As with the Los Angeles messages some 30 years earlier, the Antioch texts only surfaced in the context of a criminal probe. The FBI and county district attorney had been investigating alleged excessive force, fraud, bribery and drug distribution among Antioch and Pittsburg officers. Agents found the texts dating back to 2019 after seizing officers’ personal phones in January 2022, and a judge ordered their release to attorneys this month. Otherwise, the public likely would not have known.
A follow-up bill, SB 16, in 2021 broadened disclosure requirements involving the use of force and added misconduct findings about unlawful arrests and searches and — most importantly in the cases of Antioch, San Jose and Oakland — prejudice or discrimination. Now, it is possible for officers’ racist remarks and actions to become public, assuming their department discovered the wrongdoing first.
was aware of the Instagram account started by an officer fired after a fatal shooting, but it didn’t begin an investigation until months laterPointer and John Burris, a longtime Oakland civil rights lawyer who represented King in his civil lawsuit against LAPD, said cities have other tools at their disposal to root out racist cops. They can audit officers’ department cell phones and other electronic equipment.
Burris said that disciplinary follow-through is key. Another recent California law, SB 2 in 2021, disqualifies officers fired for serious misconduct from being hired as police officers. California was one of only five states that didn’t decertify problem cops until it passed the law in the wake of the George Floyd murder and protests. The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s report on the Antioch scandal specifically mentions the new law.
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