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Just over a week ago, the Mountain View Coalition for Police Reform and Accountability (MVCPRA) was formed in response to a truth that the brutal murder of George Floyd and many others before (and even after) him have laid bare yet again: The institutions that were set up to dehumanize and keep power out of the hands of Black Americans cannot be the institutions that protect our communities and people. We joined MVCPRA because we have a firm belief in addressing public safety, health, and social issues with non-punitive and community-led restorative measures.
This year, $44.8 million of our tax dollars will fund the Mountain View Police Department. Although Mountain View police seem to be making a true effort to be “kinder and gentler” than average, it is not enough. At its root, police work is violence work. Over the past decades, governments have tasked police with addressing issues such as drugs, mental health crises, and homelessness. The shift of these issues onto police’s plates has criminalized poverty instead of preventing it. What if social workers, physicians, teachers, and psychologists — people who don’t have a gun in their waistband — were the ones responding?
Currently our police department pays Lexipol, a privately held company based in Texas, to write its policies. Lexipol’s policies are written to protect police from civil liability rather than aiming to protect the civil rights of the residents of Mountain View. MVCPRA is urging the Mountain View City Council to establish an independent, citizen-led commission to audit and rethink our policing policies and budget.
In a letter to the Mountain View Voice published on June 13, MVPD Chief Max Bosel claimed that in the last year “just 26 calls total resulted in use of force.” That’s good. But it begs at least two questions: 1) Is this statistic true? There is no independent auditing of police interactions. 2) Why does the Mountain View proposed budget for fiscal year 2020-21 include requests for funding 30 new patrol rifles? This is just one example from the $44.8 million being proposed to fund MVPD. Our money would be better spent on programs, people and tools to uplift our community.
Although this will not be an easy or comfortable process — returning power to the people — we are optimistic that the people of Mountain View can come up with non-punitive ways to address issues of poverty, mental health, homelessness, sexual violence, and drug abuse. We shouldn’t rely on the police to perform all these functions – it criminalizes vulnerability. Let us instead prevent crime by working with people to address their needs. Let us reimagine public safety.
Leslie Zeiger and her daughter Ana live in Mountain View.
The Voice accepts guest opinions of up to 600 words and letters to the editor of up to 300 words. Send signed op-eds and letters to letters@mv-voice.com by 5 p.m. Monday and noon on Tuesday, respectively.
The Voice accepts guest opinions of up to 600 words and letters to the editor of up to 300 words. Send signed op-eds and letters to letters@mv-voice.com by 5 p.m. Monday and noon on Tuesday, respectively.
The Voice accepts guest opinions of up to 600 words and letters to the editor of up to 300 words. Send signed op-eds and letters to letters@mv-voice.com by 5 p.m. Monday and noon on Tuesday, respectively.
Were can I find a list of who all your members are?
Will you come out publicly right now and state if any current city council member and the current group of people who are running for city council, are members or are having or had any type of input or discussions with your group?
Does Lenny Siegel have any type of involvement in any way with your group, past or present.
Most of the money spent for Mountain View police is for personnel. MV Police have a local union that endorses candidates for city council. So do members of our fire department. In fact, according to Transparent California, in 2019, the highest paid city employee in Mountain View was not the city manager or city attorney or police chief. It was a police sergeant with total compensation of $468,488 including over $175,000 in overtime. The second highest paid employee in 2019 was the President of the local firefighters’ union ($462,784 including over $160,000 in overtime). That same union president joined current mayor Margaret Abe-Koga on campaign pieces in support of Measure D on the March 3 ballot. That measure would have changed provisions of Mountain View’s local rent control law ( part of the City Charter). Voters rejected Measure D 2-1.
Holy cow, you Lenny-obsessed people are truly deranged. When will Margaret Abe-Koga and Lisa Matichak rein in their toxic online fanbase that they’ve encouraged and allowed to fester for years?
The vast majority of the budgets cover salary, overtime and pension payments. 10-20-30 AR15’s to replace aging equipment is but a splinter on the banister of the overall budget. It’s a rounding error.
If you would like to know where the vast majority of your money goes, hit up Transparent California.
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/mountain-view/
..btw
About 17,000 rounds of ammunition fire, you’ll have to check springs and barrel,etc. At that point, a decision is made to repair or replace. Weapons training consumes many rounds of ammunition. Like your cell phone, it’s better to replace than repair (more cost effective), all things being equal. I’m guessing most do not have a 20 year old cell phone, washer, dryer, or refrigerator. Proper weapons training is “Extremely” important and MVPD is a very well trained public safety agency. I’m shocked MVPD have taken this long to replace these rifles. Please don’t send an officer into harms way with their salary and a 20 year old weapon when required to take down an active shooter. For what we pay our safety agencies, I would expect modern equipment.
I went to the recently advertised-in-MV Voice- Mask giveaway hosted by the MVPD at Shoreline Ampitheater a couple weeks ago. I rode up on my bike. I was told, “no walk-ins.” “Whaddaya mean –I need an appointment?”
“You must be in a vehicle!”
Now, what is the difference between handing someone a mask right there in front of you on a bike, and handing one to someone rolling down their window so you can? And I thought the idea was to distribute as many as possible to keep as many members of the community safe as possible. Guess I was wrong. Felt totally like a second-class citizen as I rode away, wondering, how many OTHER folks coming over here today on their bikes (or walking) are gonna hear this same crap? “Bike friendly city”- hah!
MVPD- underwhelming in their “authority.”
@Mark: What’s your point? The police department needs to be overhauled so masks can be distributed better?
@Silvia. It’s evidence the MVPD seperates the citizens by class, where those wealthy enough receive the benefits of the “kinder and gentler police force, while marginalized communities will receive the brunt of violence from police. Turning down citizens because they need to possess a car to receive a mask is a show of the class enforcement of the MVPD.
Our ploice department is one of the best around. They have a great record of keeping the community safe and acting with respect. We should support then I’m there efforts to serve and protect our great community.
rule:
Our goal is to continue to help keep our community safe. Again, due to our limited quantity, we are only giving up to four masks to each vehicle to help ensure that those who are able to drive through later on in the day still have an opportunity to receive a mask. There will be no walk-ups allowed.
Is the police really the high priority problem in Mountain View? Of course, everything can be improved, but I worry that a tendency to make the police a scapegoat will make more difficult to recruit good peace officers and will undermine the vitally important trust between the police and the population it serves.
What kind of nonsense is this, mountain view police is great. Leave this rage against police and stick with facts, most budget goes for personell and you’re upset offer couple pieces of equipment? What’s next, give police water guns?
I think many are missing the point here. Yes, most of the MVPD budget goes to salaries. But before we can get into the real work of phasing out cops and reallocating funds to the community, a great first step would be stopping more militarized weapons from entering Mountain View. Chief Bosel said the original AR-15s purchased 20yrs ago have never been used and now the MVPD wants to not only replace rifles that have never been used, but increase their stock. Cutting new AR-15s from the budget such a small ask and yet the MVPD and city council voted to defer funding rather than scrap it from the budget altogether. Why?
What specifically are the issues? The headline says “Needs to Change” but gives us no clear indication what the current supposed problems are. What is currently wrong that needs fixing besides things in the budget you don’t seem to like, and stats you question. Who cares who writes the policies. The real point is: do you agree with them or not? Which policies are OK, which do you have an issue with?
I don’t know, it just seems to be painted like some major issue, but there is no substance to this article. If you want to fix something, a list of real, specific problems would be a good start.
We should consider our race and class before saying the MVPD is great. If you are white and/or relatively well-off you likely will not have a negative experience with the police; However, Black, brown and poorer residents might have negative experiences with the police as is being uncovered throughout our country. An independent, citizen-led commission would be great because it could get input from these underserved residence and make recommendations for the city without the bias of police supported city council members. If they find nothing needs to be changed then that would be great and we could rest assured that all is well in Mountain View. But what if we are overlooking ways we can make our city more equitable? Now is the time to reexamine our own community to make sure we are truly the best we can be.
“non-punitive ways to address issues of … sexual violence,”
Really? And what will you do if someone sexually violates you? What will be your non-punitive way?
That is very disappointing to hear about mask distribution being tied to cars. What difference does it make whether someone walks up or drives up? Some MV residents don’t own cars, or the one car in their household might be in use by an essential worker that day. Plenty of people bike and walk around Shoreline for recreation.
If you’re afraid of hoarding, ask them to show ID and write down their name. That should be as good a deterrent as, say, writing down license plates. Do you have means to prevent two-car households from hoarding eight masks by making two separate trips? No? Then let the bikers have a couple.
The vast majority of police departments are excellent. Like teachers the percentage of what you would call “bad cops” are less than 2 (that’s two percent) – very few.
The only objection I’ve got over police departments is the pay. They make a LOT of money. Compared to teachers they’re close to being millionaires. I worked for the San Jose Police Department for a very short time back in 1992 and with overtime I made more money than I’ve ever made in my life – and that was as a student and a rookie.
Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto police departments are top drawer in my humble (and possibly slightly prejudiced) opinion – having been there – done that.
We expect our police to be social psychiatrists addressing the impossible twists and turns of emotional irrational and often violent citizens. At the same time we ask our police to enforce unnatural laws against Society. Laws that go against all natural notions of freedom and Liberty. This puts our police in an impossible position. Asking our police to enforce a grotesque, unscientific, unnatural and untenable WAR on Drugs is like asking them to uphold and enforce slavery. The War on Drugs is not only an aberration to our nation it is a constant abuse to all policing Nationwide. How much do you pay a person who supposed to be a psychiatrist and a thug at the same time?
@Fred,
Are you upset that police interferes with your drugs distribution business?
Drugs kill almost 70 thousand people in US each year. Sorry if war on drugs causes some inconvenience to you.
It is time to change the old way of policing and reevaluate every single thing the Department does. Why do we need a militarized SWAT team in Mountain View? If we need it, we can call the Sheriff’s Office, under mutual aid, they will provide it for FREE. Why are police officers handling homeless outreach? Did I miss something, did we send them all to school to obtain a degree in Social Work? When they graduate the Police Academy, they come out as Police Officers not social workers. Why are Police Officers doing work that civilians at about half the price, can do the same job, if not better in some circumstances.
I am sorry, stop the grandstanding City Council. Ask the right questions, and you will get the right answers. Don’t ask questions you have been fed by the Chief and Deputy Chief.
I agree with an earlier comment, how do we know that only 26 encounters resulted in the “use of force”? Really? How many officers in the “code of silence” (that we all know exists) said nothing when they saw something questionable? Ask the Chief, how many times has an officer come forward and said “my partner did this, and I was not comfortable with it”, how many in the last 5 years. That should tell you something right there.
If this Chief can’t become modernized in his approach to Policing, then get rid of him. Remember, he is an at-will employee. He makes a shit load of money, and needs to be held accountable.
“The institutions that were set up to dehumanize and keep power out of the hands of Black Americans cannot be the institutions that protect our communities and people.”
So, are you claiming that the MV Police Department was established with the goal of dehumanizing black Americans and keeping power out of their hands? That would seem to be a pretty inefficient way of doing it, since the city’s website states that Black/African Americans make up 0.5% of the city’s population. I’d imagine that the effect on Hispanic/Latinos at 21.7% would be a more relevant concern. But, it does illustrate the nonsensical nature of your Opinion.
“At its root, police work is violence work.”
1) What the heck is “violence work”? Do you mean violent? Regardless, I’d disagree because…
2) Police work “at its root” is about enforcing the laws that our democratically elected City Council approves. There is nothing inherently violent about that.
A “Coalition” is an alliance of groups for combined action. Which are the groups that have joined to form the MVCPRA or did you just give yourself that name to sound more important?
Yes, the MVPD currently do a good job, and Mountain View is fortunate overall. However, “doing a good job” doesn’t mean that they couldn’t do better. The many highly publicized deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in the past several years has clearly identified that some police are biased and will take advantage of their role in law enforcement. So why not challenge the MVPD to create and implement even more progressive policies that will benefit everyone who lives in Mountain View – regardless of the color of their skin or their ethnicity? Think of the many professions that don’t accept “good enough” as a standard for their employees and the resulting technological inventions, scientific breakthroughs, athletic achievements, process improvements, etc, etc. Let our police department reflect the spirit of our community with openness, a desire to improve, and a commitment to transparency.
When is MVCPRA meeting? how is it organizing? will their meetings be open to the public. To be completely honest, I love my hometown but I have no idea what policing is like here. If there’s room for improvement, I want to be a part of it. How can we support what MVCPRA is trying to do?
@Ian Are you daft? You guys sound like the peasant in Monty Python’s Holy Grail telling King Arthur about the “violence inherent in the system”. They were not using car ownership to separate people based on class! They were only allowing drive ups because someone got it in their head that keeping people in cars was more “socially distant” than riding bikes or walking past each other. To be honest, I think the concept that bikes or walking would be less safe is silly, but it had NOTHING whatsoever to do with “class”.
It’s scary to think that residents of Mountain View are pushing to cut funding to our police, outsiders can push for less police in their own city’s
I think we need more police not less
When my wife and I walk we see drivers almost running us down. All the interactions I have had with the police have been good, yes I am of European heritage.
If true, I learned something from this guest opinion. Why is our city’s police policies written by an independent company in Texas?!? How much did that cost? What does a company in Texas know about our community, our culture and what OUR policing policies should be?
@who are your members: city council meetings are addressing this in their next few meetings. i suggest if you would like to find out more, go to their website.
@roger and samual: almost all of my interactions with MVPD have been bad…i’m actually trying to think of one that wasn’t…hmmm…ok…once…out of about 9…i’m brown…and see above…there is a citizen led coalition which has just been put together. mountain view coalition for police reform and accountability (MVCPRA) and human rights coalition HRC,
@Just me: identifying the problems as profiling of black and brown folks, unnecessary excessive force, out to protect their own interests…i could go on…
@factold: nothing wrong with a 20 year old weapon…especially if it’s rarely used! how many rounds does it take to train? 4 days of dry fire and one day of live ammo and you’re dialed it. at least, that’s the way we did it in the u.s.m.c. i wonder if those weapons are still in service…jeez, that was 40 years ago…
@mark: i understand what you’re saying. they are closing off castro street, yet want people to attend a mask giveaway but only in cars?
@concerned in MTV: chief bosel is actually open to an outside, independent agency looking into policies, procedures and problems the MVPD is experiencing.
@james thurber: i agree that it’s not a “thankless job”…how else does your employer say “thanks”…buy you lunch? no. we all like hearing “there’s gonna be a little extra in your paycheck this week”. but these surrounding areas, yes, when a “public servant” can make nearly $10k per month after retiring from a 20 year job, it’s not thankless.
it’s a good thread with different viewpoints…
It seems like what the MVCPRA is advocating for is pretty clear and reasonable here: a citizen-led commission to audit budget and policies and provide recommendations. Citizen oversight of government is a good thing.
This matters for two reasons:
1. Police spending makes up 30% (the largest single chunk) of the General Operating Fund. This is where a lot of our tax dollars go and we should care how it is spent.
2. Though most Mountain View residents have had neutral/positive experiences with our police department, it’s not true for all residents, especially for black and brown residents (several stories were recounted at the last city council public forum). Those are our neighbors and we should care about their experiences as well.
I think there’s always value in looking at what we’re doing and asking if we can do it better.
Lastly, there are a couple people asking for the membership list of MVCPRA. I’m not a member, but I have been a member of political groups, and I would feel very uncomfortable with that request. It’s perfectly reasonable in future city council elections to ask the candidates whether they are involved with the group, but rank and file members shouldn’t be asked to “name names”.
The authors of this piece lack context. We live in a society where 36,000 people die of gun violence every year. Over 100 killings by gun occur each day in the U.S. Of this violence, the police are expected to deal with all of it. Yet only 1.4% of the deaths are done by officers. Some of the others are officers killed in the line of duty.
To say that the police department doesn’t need rifles is naive. What if there is an active shooter incident in a school in Mountain View? Who would respond? The shooter is like the kid at Sandy Hook and has 5 guns and plenty of ammo. So the best response is with a rifle, to stop the shooter from killing others. That rifle can’t be locked away in a vault somewhere. It has to be available to the responding officers in order that it be used if possible to avoid their getting shot themselves.
The problem with this mythical citizens oversight commission is that we have that already with the elected city council. Non elected residents wouldn’t necessarily do a better job. In fact, they’d probably do worse.
Other countries have police who carry no weapons while they patrol. That wouldn’t work very well here. Too many guns out up to no good. Every cut to the limited police department here is liable to spur still more citizens to arm themselves for protection. What oversight commission will watch them?
Glad to hear community voices challenging the self-policing status quo. Glad some budget items are being questioned by the community, if items like the rifles are justified, let’s hear why and why they’re needed this year.
I wonder if this issue will be addressed, SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT OF STATE LAWS:
Given the fact that the City Council and the City Police encouraged violating criminal code while hosting the “CHAMBER OF COMMERCE” Arts and Wine Festivals for years. THE CHAMBER SELLS ALCOHOL DURING THIS EVENT EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY. I believe there is a law against public drinking, please read this:
9.66.010. Alcoholic beverages—Drinking and open containers in public.
(a) It is unlawful for any person to drink any alcoholic beverage upon any public right-of-way (including the street, parkstrip, sidewalk and public property up to the private property line), lane, alley, public park and other public property unless the consumption of alcoholic beverages is expressly permitted for that location pursuant to a permit or ordinance and the consumption is in conformance with the terms of that permit or ordinance, or except as may be otherwise authorized by the city.
(b) It is unlawful for any person to possess any can, bottle or other container of any alcoholic beverage which has been opened, or a seal broken, or the contents of which has been partially removed, upon any public right-of-way (including the street, parkstrip, sidewalk and public property up to the private property line), lane, alley, public park or other public property unless the consumption of alcoholic beverages is expressly permitted for that location pursuant to a permit or ordinance and the possession is in conformance with the terms of that permit or ordinance, or except as may be otherwise authorized by the city, or the possession is expressly allowed by a preemptive state law.
(c) It is unlawful for any person to drink or possess an open container of any alcoholic beverage while upon any private parking lot open to the public unless expressly permitted by the owner or operator of the private parking lot in conformance with a permit or ordinance or as otherwise authorized by the city.
(d) This section is intended to have no application to situations which would invoke application of state laws, including, but not limited to, restrictions on the drinking, possession or storage of an open receptacle containing an alcoholic beverage while a person is in a motor vehicle upon a highway (California Vehicle Code Sections 23121, 23122 and 23123), or restrictions on the possession of an intoxicating liquor by a person under the age of twenty-one on a public street or highway or on any public place or in any place open to the public (California Business and Professions Code Section 25662). (Ord. 2505-95 § 1).
This is a clear example of CITY AND POLICE CORRUPTION RIGHT IN OUR FACE.
It chooses to benefit one group of people who are violating the law by not enforcing it, and going after those they do not want to be in our city. This is just another example of the City ignoring the State laws like it does regarding housing.
The next event that happens, if I observe the City or the Chamber of Commerce selling Alcohol and promoting public drinking, I will contact the Sheriff’s office and have the County Police arrest the City Council, the City Police and the Drinkers.
The City Council and the Police will be accessories of the violation of the laws and will be accountable to it.
Just an observation. The Wine sales must be discontinued, as well as beer etc.
@the businessman: perhaps, the city council should look at adjusting the current legislation to account for “open containers” to extend where the streets are cordoned off. as you pointed out, it’s pretty much the same, isn’t it. changing legislation to be more conducive for the citizens instead of enforcement of ambiguous legislation makes more sense to me.
@longresident: the committee established by the city just lacks credibility. it’s like the complaint department at macy’s. who does the committee report to? the city? doesn’t sound like a good way to provide objective oversite.
anyone interested, please go to the city council meeting tonight on Zoom.
In response to MV_Voter you said:
“@the businessman: perhaps, the city council should look at adjusting the current legislation to account for “open containers” to extend where the streets are cordoned off.”
BUT THAT MEANS THAT WHAT I SAID WAS RIGHT. AND THE CITY IS CRIMIALLY LIABLE FOR VIOLATION OF THE LAW. They must CEASE until said adjustment has been enacted by the Governor. You said:
“as you pointed out, it’s pretty much the same, isn’t it. changing legislation to be more conducive for the citizens instead of enforcement of ambiguous legislation makes more sense to me.”
The law is NOT ambiguous, it is VERY CLEAR. You just want to imply ambiguity because you know the law has been broken by the “text defined” actions and the “text defined” locations of the crimes.
It just was not exposed until now. NOW the City has a REAL PROBLEM on its hands, if it prosecuted anyone else for this crime, than they violated the California and U.S. Constitution’s equal enforcement of the laws. This is clearly what happens here and EVERYONE knows it.