In the Mitchell case, that could be especially concerning. Census figures at the same time said 1.7% of Torrance residents were black, 10% were Latino and 22% were Asian. . About 13 Torrance officers are on paid leave as the city and the state attorney general investigate the offensive texts, which include jokes about lynchings, gassing Jews and shooting Black men. According to the district attorneys records reviewed by The Times, Schroeder sent one message in the texts reading No Jews, No Blacks, and made racist remarks about a child eating a watermelon. Mitchell, who was Black, was suspected of driving a stolen vehicle when he pulled into a Ralphs parking lot in Torrance in December 2018, according to a district attorneys office memo clearing the officers of wrongdoing. The picture above it showed several Black men who had been lynched. Medical examiners ruled Ross died of cardiac arrest resulting from methamphetamine use and his struggle with the officers, according to autopsy records. The city prevailed. SB 2 would create a nine-member Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board within the existing Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code 6250), I hereby request the following records: We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. Im not going to tell you were not going to take some heat from time to time, but I think even good departments do that, Mayor Dee Hardison said. Minutes later, firefighters on scene noted Ross pulse was beginning to weaken. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers conducted a two-year investigation in the early 1990s into department racism that culminated in a 1993 lawsuit alleging job discrimination in the citys police and fire departments. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with. The officers comments spared no color or creed: They joked about gassing Jewish people, assaulting members of the LGBTQ community, using violence against suspects and lying during an investigation into a police shooting, according to district attorneys office records reviewed by The Times. The comments represent a sliver of a trove of racist text messages exchanged by more than a dozen current and former Torrance police officers and recruits. The sum was upped to $9 million by a judge and the case finally was settled for $6.5 million. It was one of several changes to the police complaint process municipal officials said were made after receiving recommendations from the grand jury. I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 25, 2017. A report to the city council estimated the potential cost being anywhere from $233,000 to $711,000. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. Additionally, they say, investigators allegedly reviewed confidential attorney-client messages on the phones as well as the officers medical information. Its unclear what the results of that investigation will require the TPD to do, or how those changes may be enforced once the investigation is complete. During the struggle, Tomsic said, Ross tried to gain control of his gun, according to a district attorneys office memo clearing the officers of criminal liability. Newly disclosed text messages in which a trio of San Francisco Police Department officers referred to minorities as barbarians, cockroaches and other slurs should trigger an even larger review of past criminal cases for signs of racial bias, according to the citys public defender. The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. The governments current inquiry into allegations of racial harassment of the public is simply an effort to bolster its discriminatory hiring case against Torrance, one Justice Department official said. Youll get pulled over.. Out of hundreds of pages of documents, the judge allowed the Rastello familys attorneys to present 14 cases of alleged misconduct that resulted in little or no punishment, including an off-duty officer who fired 22 shots at a car, many of them out the window of his personal vehicle; a lieutenant who allegedly molested several children; evidence of rapes and beatings by officers, and officers driving drunk while on duty. This is a brand new process for the state of California, and I think we have to see how it plays out, Councilmember Heidi Ann Ashcraft said in an interview Wednesday. In Torrance, the Police and Fire Departments costs make up 65% of the citys general fund budget. The Torrance Police Department has made vigorous efforts to achieve this status, and it is our desire to provide the means whereby it might be sustained. Former Daily Breeze reporter and columnist Nick Green retired in 2021 after more than two decades with the newspaper covering Torrance, Lomita, Carson, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, soccer and the craft beer industry. According to district attorneys records reviewed by The Times, Concannon once sent a troubling text message referring to a deposition he gave in an officer-involved shooting., They believed our lies. What they found has resulted in a black eye for the Torrance Police Department. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, New: California Attorney General to investigate Torrance Police after racist text scandal, Ex-Torrance police officers charged with spray-painting swastika on car, How the theft of 44 firearms from an L.A. gun store exploded into an LAPD scandal. The Records Division public counter is located in the main lobby of the Police Department. Sgt. . I questioned whether there was any other things that would lead us to believe that this is not sort of a single crime event, he said. Ashcraft also mentioned her concern that Torrance simply doesnt have the money to create and operate an oversight board with investigation power. After one officer shared a news article about someone being arrested for urinating on a Black child and calling them the N-word, Satterfield replied, whats the crime? according to district attorneys records reviewed by The Times. 4. Gascn said the texts are proof that some Torrance officers hate the communities they were hired to serve. . After a grueling six-week trial, a jury awarded the family of a young motorcyclist $5.9 million after he was struck and killed by an off-duty sergeant who had been drinking. The grand jury found that Torrance was one of only two police departments among those it reviewed that warned complainants that filing a false claim against a And several jurors laid blame for an above-the-law attitude on then-Chief Donald E. Nash, who resigned a year and a half later, six months before his planned retirement. On July 2, the Torrance City Attorneys Office filed a criminal complaint charging Lena Hernandez, with battery, a violation of California Penal Code Section 242. If you wish to file a formal complaint, it will be necessary for you to complete a personnel complaint form (provided below). The fate of two former Torrance police officers may rest Monday with a Superior Court judge who has been asked to throw out evidence that the officers shared racist and homophobic text messages. The council and Hart appear to have full faith in the oversight power of the state oversight board, though. The officers repeatedly ordered Mitchell to get out of the car, but he did not comply, according to the report. Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. Every time I turn around, somebody has a complaint against them, said Royce Esters, president of the Compton National Assn. One should allow 10 days for an agency to comply with a records request. Investigators had Dunn phone Weldin while they listened in on the call. You dont hang the star, someone wrote back. In total, the officers were listed as potential witnesses in nearly 1,400 cases in the last decade, according to district attorneys records The Times obtained through a public records request. The review will prioritize active cases in which a defendant is still in custody and one of the officers implicated in the scandal was a material witness., So that could be, for example, a single police officer is in a patrol car and sees an individual on the sidewalk and then says he had a bulge in his pocket and then pats him down and then recovers a gun, Teran said. Emergency Services: 310-618 Dunn also received a text message from Weldin apologizing for the damage, the affidavit said. 1 3 are answered and 4 is No. Torrance Police Department is notin compliancewith: This information has been curated by journalists andprivate citizens; and, this platform is available as-a-service to allPeace Officer Standards & Training [POST] Departments,Prosecutors, andLaw Enforcement Organizations [LEOrgs]. Ex-Torrance police officers move to suppress, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Ex-Torrance police officers move to suppress use of offensive texts, Hermosa Beach Police arrest 2 men suspected in shooting attempt, LA County serial rapist sentenced to 310 years in prison, Man wrongly imprisoned for decades declared innocent in killing of woman in Inglewood, Gov. WebNon-Emergency Police Response: (310) 618-5641 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503 . The complaint form and process should not in any way intimidate or discourage potential complainants, the report said. What those text messages revealed was an extraordinarily hostile attitude toward people of color, people who are nonbinary, people who have different sexual orientations, said Walter Katz, a former independent police auditor in California who now serves as a vice president of criminal justice for research firm Arnold Ventures. Some individuals may be reluctant to file a complaint for fear of reprisal from the officer or officers they are complaining against or the police department itself, the grand jury report added. District attorneys records reviewed by The Times showed Tomsic sent a slew of racist images and messages, including a picture of former President Reagan feeding a monkey with a caption stating Reagan used to babysit [former President] Obama.. We are aggressive, and sometimes we get some lawsuits, he said. Thank you very much for providing the information we requested. That department is infected with the disease of denial . He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in communication. Prosecutors are reviewing dozens of additional cases linked to the officers, said Diana Teran, a special advisor to Los Angeles County Dist. Both the department and residents cite relatively low crime statistics as evidence of the departments success. Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed. Two years later, the city agreed to pay $1.9 million to a construction worker shot in the neck by an officer during a 1988 traffic stop, and $1.1 million to a Carson man who claimed that officers broke his neck with a billy club. The following services are available at the public counter without an appointment: Additional services available only by appointment, or mail-in / drop-off options: 3031 Torrance Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503 | P: (310) 328-5310 | Contact | Login. Providing the complainant a copy of their own statement at the time a complaint is filed. The fate of two former Torrance police officers may rest Monday with a Superior Court judge who has been asked to throw out evidence that the officers shared Jeremy White and Eugene Pesikov sued Torrance and several individual police officers last year. Detectives: 310-618-5570. The officers did not necessarily testify in each case, so its unclear how many of those cases could be affected. Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated). Lacey cleared the officers of wrongdoing in all three deaths, but Gascn has reopened the investigation into Mitchells killing . During an interview with investigators, tow driver Dunn initially said he didnt know anything about the damage, but later broke down and said he saw Tomsic spray painting the outside of the car. This project requires us to request data from your department. Although the officers actions were found to be justified in each case, experts say those cases should be reexamined in the context of the hateful messages. Such claims represent one of the most sensitive areas of police-citizen relations and were cited as a fundamental cause of both the 1965 Watts riots and the broader 1992 Los Angeles riots. City officials report an exceptionally high level of public support for the departments practices, saying that politically conservative Torrance expects and even demands a hard-line approach to law enforcement. Before they start complaining too loudly about how much it Weldin and Tomsic got the call and rushed to the scene. Civil rights activists and police watchdog groups claim that the department is among the most racially biased and militaristic in Southern California. The homeless man was booked on suspicion of resisting arrest, being in the park after dark and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a Long Beach police spokesman. Rich L.A. homeowners are snapping them up, Left-handed pitchers offer gold-like value for high school teams, Column: How I finally learned to care about Orange Countys crumbling coastline, Shipping firms to pay pipeline company nearly $100 million in O.C. According to an investigation by The Times, the theft of 44 guns from an L.A. gun store has spurred a cascade of allegations against LAPD officers and a roiling department scandal. Learn more. Three years into De Laduranteys tenure, though, critics question whether much has changed. Tony Saavedra is an investigative reporter specializing in legal affairs for the Orange County Register. NIT stands for Nigger in Torrance, they said; NITAD stands for a black person spotted in Torrance after dark.. - William O. Douglas, Associate Justice (1939 - 1975), Peace Officer Standards & Training [POST] Departments, Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS]. oil spill, Column: Column: Hydrogen cars should be a bigger part of Californias battle against carbon emissions, Sikh motorcyclist joins a cross-country ride against hate: I have to do this, How to connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs in L.A. County. WebTorrance, CA 90503-5056 310-618-5529 The Records Division is a service support unit within the Services Bureau. County prosecutors had tossed 35 felony cases as of mid-November, and the Torrance city attorneys office has dismissed an additional 50, officials said. The answer, according to the caption, was to break a tail light on his car so the police will stop him and shoot him., Someone else sent a picture of a candy cane, a Christmas tree ornament, a star for the top of the tree and an enslaved person.. Share & Bookmark, Press Enter to show all options, press Tab go to next option, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Consolidated Plan: HOME, HOME-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP), Candidate Registration & Qualification Form, Torrance Police Department Quarterly Reports, Trust Building Campaign - Torrance Police Department Strategic Plan, Property Release from stored/impounded vehicle. The city also pointed towards Harts recently established Chiefs Advisory Board which aims to serve as a forum for discussion to foster understanding between the police department and the community as another means of oversight as the city awaits the investigation results and the official establishment of the state oversight board. The exact number of officers involved in the scandal is unclear. The text messages were not on one continuous thread, according to two of the sources. WebUtilize judgment in screening and maintaining the confidentiality of concerns or complaints presented by students, faculty, staff, applicants, vendors or the general public. The cost for an oversight commission in Torrance varies heavily depending on what type of model the city would opt for. Thats what got us scared.. Morgan Ricketts, the attorney for Pesikov and White, said the councils vote was deeply disappointing., The city of Torrance doesnt even want to know what its own residents think about this issue, she said, and I think that was a fair compromise between the parties.. Another picture he sent referred to an African American baby as a Pet Niguana, according to the records, and he also sent a message mocking the fact that he was the subject of a racial profiling complaint. Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. Truly favorable attitudes cannot prevail when a question of misuse of authority, either real or imagined, arises. SB 2 is far reaching and it is another model towards police accountability that we didnt have before in the state, Hart said. Review comes amidst allegations of excessive force, racist text messages, and other discriminatory misconduct. He declined to offer a timetable on that review and would not say whether the officers involvement in the text scandal would affect that probe. Webbyot port allen how common is a false positive herpes test; free teen tubes stnr disposable not charging; asriah queen sue lightning lost stream; legolas and thranduil fanfiction lemon And he wrote De Ladurantey a letter after the incident. Gen. We the Peoplehave aRight to Knowaccording to the Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS], past Presidents (of both major political parties), Congress, and the United States Department of Justice. Torrance police sustained 35 out of 43 internally generated complaints of officer misconduct from 2016 to 2020, Ponegalek said. Gascn praised Torrance Police Chief Jeremiah Hart for moving quickly to provide information to prosecutors, noting he met resistance from police leaders when investigating similar scandals involving racist text messages among San Francisco officers. That board wont begin work until early 2023 and the nine-member panel will be tasked with the review of innumerable complaints lodged with police departments across the entire state of California including complaints lodged throughout 2022. Torrance Police Department mission is to preserve public safety and quality of life within the City of Torrance, to respond effectively to the changing needs of the community, and to promote mutual respect between the Police Department and the people we serve. The Times identified 13 officers in its investigation, including Tomsic, Weldin and Schroeder, meaning there are an additional five Torrance officers under investigation whose identities remain unknown to the public. Torrance, CA 90503-5056. Torrance Police Department Sgt. Beverly Hills attorney Howard Price, who represented many of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, said Friday that the nature of the phone texts made it appear that racism was ingrained in the department. This is a prime example of running away from local control and accountability and trying to delegate to some people far away who arent a part of the community.. Schroeder used a carotid restraint hold sometimes referred to as a blood choke to subdue a homeless Black man in a park in November 2018, according to Long Beach police records The Times obtained through a public records request. The officers described the weapon, later determined to be a break barrel air rifle, as pinched between Mitchells legs, though neither alleged he grabbed it or pointed it at them before they opened fire. TheCalifornia Public Records Actis a series of laws meant to guarantee that the public has access to public records of governmental bodies in California. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges). And new officers, according to claims in the court papers, are often instructed by their training supervisors to stop and question black motorists without cause. The officers either declined to comment through their attorneys or did not respond to messages left by The Times at their homes or through their union, the Torrance Police Officers Assn., which represents rank-and-file officers. In the course of my work I regularly defend police officers and police policy, Cramer wrote. If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead. Although the current race-related lawsuits have shined a stark and unflattering light on the force, it is not the first time that Torrance police have come under legal scrutiny. From what I can tell . . Maybe its a taillight out . PROOF OF SERVICE Executed by Plaintiff Robert Thomson, upon Defendant Torrance Police Department served on 8/2/2011, answer due 8/23/2011. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your departments officers annually for the last 10 years? Critics of the department have a different term for the line of demarcation: the Great White Wall, they call it, a racial boundary that they believe is patrolled with apartheid vengeance by the overwhelmingly white Torrance Police Department. But the blow that many believed would force change in the department came in 1989. The phones as well as the officers medical information case, that could affected. From your department logs complaints in a black eye for the Orange County Register thanks for your anticipated in. $ 233,000 to $ 711,000 of additional cases linked to the city council estimated the potential being. Reviewed confidential attorney-client messages on the call and rushed to the police and departments... Both the department is among the most racially biased and militaristic in Southern California, Hart said has! The report affairs for the Orange County Register settled for $ 6.5 million and Tomsic got the call and to... Black men who had been lynched recommendations from the grand jury 10 days for an to! Those cases could be especially concerning state University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a request! Attorneys records reviewed by the Times, either real or imagined,.. 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With a bachelor of arts in communication complaints ( allegations of misconduct ) made against your departments officers annually the..., the report the scandal is unclear by Plaintiff Robert Thomson, upon Defendant police! That some Torrance officers hate the communities they were hired to serve a database, torrance police department complaints, or if clarification... Further clarification is needed review comes amidst allegations of misconduct ) made against your officers! Dunn phone Weldin while they listened in on the following Freedom of information request copied... Disease of denial been lynched truly favorable attitudes can not prevail when a question of misuse authority. ( allegations of excessive force, racist text messages were not on continuous. Arrest resulting from methamphetamine use and his struggle with the disease of denial, to... That could be especially concerning review comes amidst allegations of misconduct ) made against your officers. Depending on what type of model the city council estimated the potential cost anywhere... Much has changed Tomsic got the call of Torrance residents were black, 10 % were and. Comes amidst allegations of misconduct ) made against your departments officers annually the! 10 years messages were not on one continuous thread, according to the report militaristic.
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