SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Following five recent incidents of officer misconduct or inappropriate behavior on the San Jose police force, city officials have announced a seven point plan to address the problem.
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Chief of Police Anthony Mata and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo introduced the plan Wednesday in a press release, stating that they are ready to enact change to strengthen the force.
"We've conducted thousands of hours of training in a variety of things such as LGBTQ+ competency, de-escalation, mental health crisis response," Assistant Police Chief Paul Joseph said. "We have tens of thousands of more hours of training that we've planned for our officers and really the only hurdle to doing that quicker is staffing and budget constraints."
In addition to input and feedback from the community, Mata will be initiating other efforts to increase scrutiny on background checks and provide more training for officers, including supervisors.
The seven point plan includes: selecting an outside party to conduct a review of the department's background and hiring process; increased random drug and alcohol testing; implementing a department wide wellness check-in; introducing an officer wellness app; helping supervisors better identify mental health struggles in officers and staff; reviewing more body cam footage and allowing an officer's name to be disclosed to the public if their termination is due to a crime.
"We currently are looking at over 450 different recommendations from various audits, consultants and studies of the department or recommendations that others have made to make us better," Joseph added. Moving forward, he will be overseeing the plan.
Within the past few months, one San Jose police officer has overdosed on fentanyl, a second was arrested on suspicion of DUI, a third was accused of trading a meth pipe for information, a fourth is facing an indecent exposure charge and a fifth is on leave after shooting a 20-year-old man, K'aun Green.
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