Community Police Review Board - Regular Meeting

Yes. Okay. It having reached the hour of 5:30 p.m., I'm calling the June 18th, 2025 community police review board meeting to order. Before proceeding, I would like to provide the board members some guidance on how to use this technology at the DIS. To speak, you will need to use the mics which are activated by pushing the talk check or push button. You will need to wait for the chair to acknowledge the speaker before proceeding to talk. Will the clerk call the role? Member Beasley Day. Member Bryant. Member Bird present. Member Christensen here. Member Drell here. Member Grant. Member Smith. Member Han here. Chairman Sorio here. Chairman Salorio, board member Beasley Day and member Bryant are absent this evening. We would like to ask the board to consider their request for excused absences which meet our criteria for granting of an excused absence. At this time, we ask for a motion from the board to grant them excused absence. So move. All in favor? I All right, moving on. Uh, for declaration of conflict of interest, do any of the board members have any conflicts of interest pertaining to items listed on the agenda? Okay, seeing none, we will be moving forward uh on to public comments. As noted on the agenda, public comments will only be in person. Zoom will still be available for viewing and wordly translation.

Does anyone wish to speak on any item not under the agenda for public comment? Again, this is for items that are not on the agenda and you'll have three minutes to speak. Do we have any speaker cards by chance? They're all at the front. Um, okay. Does anyone out in the audience have a speaker card? Oh, okay. We have one. If you do have a speaker card, if you don't mind passing it up and then I can just call out your name and then we can just go in that order. And then if you don't have a speaker card, we'll call upon you after everyone that turned in a speaker card has gone. Uh yeah, we're just about to get started. The the cards are in the front. Yeah. Okay, first off we have Priscilla. Does the time start as soon as I start? Yes. All right. Hello, my name is Priscilla. I live and work here in Modesto. I attended the ICE out protest on Saturday morning in solidarity with the protest in LA and to support students and family. Excuse me. And to support uh students and families directly impacted by the aggressive ICE policies here in California. While there, I witnessed deeply disturbing behavior from MPD. Just take your time. Officers arrived early, confiscated megaphones from organizers, and abruptly removed protesters without identifying themselves or reading rights.

As we began marching towards Grassada, an unmarked vehicle suddenly pulled up besides us. Officers jumped out and grabbed an organizer who was calmly directing us to stay on the sidewalk. They dragged them into a vehicle and sped off. It was terrifying and looked exactly like the kind of raids ISIS carried out across the state. Elders and community members immediately panicked, believing ICE was abducting people right off the sidewalk. This scene repeated itself several times during the short halfmile march. MPD came prepared for conflict, not for public safety. We were peacefully exercising our First Amendment rights. Arrests were reportedly made over uh face coverings, but COVID is still real. People were protecting themselves and others using medical masks, scarves, or whatever they had access to. During the height of the pandemic, these same coverings were allowed. arresting people for that now shows that MPD was more focused on finding a reason to shut the protest down than to keep anyone safe. I am disappointed, but I am not surprised. What I saw confirms why so many of us in this community do not trust the police. You say you're here to protect and serve, but on Saturday it felt like you came to intimidate and silence us. I, along with many others here, demand the following. First, a full repeal of Modesto's Municipal Code 4-23.02 and any related ordinances used to criminalize protests. An independent number two, an independent investigation to MPD's conduct, tactics, and use of force. Number three, immediate dismissal of all charges brought against protesters and those charges removed from their record. And lastly, an end to targeted political repression of black, brown, immigrant, and radical voices in Modesto and all across the Central Valley. Thank you. Thank you.

Up next, we have Giann Carlo. Think I said that right. My apologies. Juan caller. John Carlo. All right. Hello folks. I also want to talk about the issue of what had happened in the ICE out rally. Um because we had heard basically that the oh by the way I am John Carlo from CV Bipok Central Valley Black Indigenous People of Color Coalition and we had heard that our uh protest was targeted to enforce that previously stated municipal code to show zero tolerance uh because it was smaller. Uh it was the first rally uh and doing that to the larger rally that started in Crusader Park would put officers at risk. also with the assumption that uh we would be doing what's what's going on in LA. Um and we're all very disturbed by this. Uh folks showing up uh police showing up in military gear, unmarked cars, uh trying to prevent us speaking by taking our our megaphones. Um, and the thing is is that I mean I I don't understand the point of needing militarized like police uh present for a peaceful protest. Uh, basically arresting people for having a mask. That in no way is a danger to anybody. None of that was uh for public safety at all. I mean, I I just don't understand why we needed that militarized police like dressed up like in Seal Team 6 or something for a peaceful protest. Okay? And that's what we intended to do is to protest peacefully. Uh and we know exactly why. It's obvious. It's used to spread fear. It targeted heavy suppression of peaceful protests due to false narratives being spread about these anti-ICE protests. And it's to discourage peaceful protest. That's what

it is. Not only that though, but it's obviously discriminatory. Our rally organizers, may I remind you, this is Central Valley Black Indigenous People of Color Coalition that organized it. So, is that maybe coincidental that we were targeted and not the other rally? There was tons of other people with those flag poles and those masks. And that right there is very discriminatory. All right. And so, yes, I also agree with what the previous person had said. We also want a full repeal of Modesto Municipal Code 4-232 and any ordinance used to criminalize protests and violate First Amendment rights. Uh we do want that uh independent auditor to investigate uh MPD's conduct, their tactics, and their use of force uh in this past protest. And we want immediate dismissal of our charges against those arrested as well as the removal of our all charges from their records. And we also want to end the target political repression of black, brown, immigrant, poor, uh, and radical voices in Modesto and across the Central Valley because I mean I mean you can't look at us and tell us that this wasn't discriminatory. I don't know how I don't know how it's for some reason an issue of public safety for us to wear masks. Okay, we did not do anything. Even after folks were arrested, uh, we did not do anything. Three people under the age 21 houseless were targeted, too. How is that public safety? And we want answers. That's what we want. Thank you. Thank you so much. Up next, we have Nick. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Nick. I just wanted to talk about the events that happened last Saturday. Um, I think what happened on the events last Saturday are just a more of a similarity and a trajectory of where we're going, not only in the Central Valley,

California, but as a nation as well. You saw specifically people that were protesting peacefully. There was not any type of malice. There was not any type of aggression. And we specifically saw police targeting people that wanted to use their constitutional right to protest. What I saw was police showing up, rolling apart in police or militarized gear targeting specific people. And the people that I saw that were specifically targeted were people that were most critical of what was going on. I saw them specifically targeted people of CBB PIP. And what I also saw and what I have heard recently as our uh protest outside was going was the levies of the fine and of the law were also being weaponized against them as well. What that means and what that shows me is that not only are they using the police but also the state in order to put these protests down make it incapable financially or personally in order to use your constitutional right of protest and being critical of the government. If what we say is true that we have the right to protest peacefully and we have the right to protest what our government does not only locally, state level and federally having rolling up with military style gear tactics and leveling fines and jail time against these people shows that the repression is not only federally but it is locally as well. What I also saw was um police using any type of excuse to do so. the flag polls and what I saw were people mostly using American flags to protest. They wanted to use their civil rights. They wanted to use their nationalism and their patriotism to protest. Those were specifically targeted. So what that tells me is it is not just what the group stands for, but it is also just to throw their weight around. It is to reinforce what we are doing at a federal

level in order to keep criticisms, critiques, and protest people in line. And that is a dangerous escalation of what's going on. I've been always critical what the federal government is doing, but seeing local events follow the same trajectory of what the federal government is doing in terms of weaponizing local law enforcement and now ICE is is a dangerous precedent. there. This US has always been critical and has always been very historically dangerous to anybody of color, indigenous, and of African-Americans. And now seeing it being targeted against anybody is a dangerous precedent that is being set of our more descent into a fascist and police state. And anything outside of a independent audit and crit being critical of that is going to be a complete failure of the local law enforcement and local government as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, up next we have Jaden Gutierrez. So I'm Jerus and on my my half of my those three that were on the shelter that I do well personally know them because I do matter of fact live at that shelter with them and uh that's my you know way of you know watching them get taken by ICE was so what I understand what they were at the time being taken and putting in in the back of the uh three unmarked vans and I was annoyingly watching Not just one but two sets of those officers pointing riot guns at my friends and watching them in fear for their life with while watching those

guns being pointed at them and kind of actually did scare me and I was all knowing why why they could do such a thing. You know it did scare me and I did as I went back home to my shelter where all four of us live. It did kind of scare me knowing that I had to go back home that night watching three of my friends get taken by ICE put back in the in three unmarked cars. And I was in fear of what maybe could potentially have happened to three of my friends in the cell, the holding cell, and me just being scared or like what could have possibly happened to my friends. But knowingly that know I got to see him again. and knowing that like they came back in One Piece. I'm glad I got to see them again because I have a little brother who had went through the exact exact same thing with the police system and you know racially profiling and you know guns being pointed at him and you know I just you know I'm wanting to having experiences in the past I wanted to come share my word on behalf of my three friends from the shelter being taken and not being able to make it back on curfew and yeah thanks for letting me speak. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have Anthony. Thank you, chairman. I've shared in this chamber before that I have the privilege of being a teacher in our community. Specifically, I teach American government. And I don't know how I'm going to go back in the fall and look my students in the eye and tell them they have the freedom to protest because in our community we're seeing that trampled on. And it is a gross miscarriage of justice is to see that freedom abridged in that way. In Minnesota City School District, we recently changed our dress code within the last couple years when there were issues who when it was found to be discriminatory, we changed it. That was the common sense

measure to take. If I'm feeling like I might have a cold when I go to work or I'm around a bunch of children where safety should be of the utmost important, I wear a mask. That's not seen as a threat to safety. That is seen as me protecting my community, doing right by my students. Why that can't be held the same at a protest, I can't see any legitimate reason and for holding that standard at a protest other than the plain reality that it is suppression of our first amendment freedoms. When you look in this room right now, this is not a normal turnout for a CPRB meeting. The fact that this many people are here, we've got a problem in our community, a problem that needs solving. That's not going to happen if we sit on our hands. That's only going to happen if we change our policies. He I feel like our group CV Bipok has been very consistent in our demands. Hence, but to reiterate, hey, we're looking for a full repeal of municipal code 423.02. 213 and I strongly urge the CPRB to make that recommendation to the city council. Oh, any ordinances used to criminalize protest and violate our first amendment freedoms cannot stand in this community. We need to be better than that. Moreover, when we're asking for an investigation by our independent auditor, I see Steven there on Zoom whom and he does a great job, but I don't want to wait till next year's annual report. We want to see that as soon as it is feasible. Moreover, her immediate dismissal for all the charges against those who were arrested and removing those charges from their records. We have to put an end to the political repression and of black, brown, immigrant, poor, poor, and radical voices in our community. We have to do better. Look at all the people that are demanding that we do better as a community. I'm sure we would all love to be at home right now, but we are here because there is injustice in our

streets and we need we deserve safe streets. And right now MPD is not providing safe streets. MPD is providing terror, providing suppression. And why do we spend so much of our general fund on MPD? Why do we have a militarized police force when what we need is community, what we need is safety, and what we need is for our demands to be heard. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Up next, up next, we have Emily Lopez. My name is Emily Lopez. Um, I just want to say something. I feel like I have to because I saw it happen. One of the people who was protesting. Um, he I I saw him uh get arrested and he wasn't doing anything. uh he was wearing a mask, but like they said, uh I don't think that's a big issue since CO is going on. Um but I saw it with my own eyes. He didn't struggle. Um he let them take him. And um that being said, he had his finger broken. And um later that day, I went to the uh the station where they were being held and waited there until they were released. And uh his finger was badly injured. Um and all he was doing was do practicing one of his rights. you know, he was protesting um standing up for the injustice in the world, using

his freedom of speech, and um it's just wrong. It's wrong. I saw it with my own eyes. Um I until that day, my eyes were never fully open. Um and yeah, it's I just wanted to say something. Yeah. Thank you. Right up next we have Madison Condit. Um, thank you. My name is Madison. Um, so I was really curious as to when this was actually passed. Um, so I would implore everybody to actually go back and watch the city council meeting. It was um August 13th, 2019. Um it was passed in a rush. I think it was introduced um that day. It was made um within a week before it was actually introduced. Um it's interesting because that city council meeting got a huge turnout because people were worried that they couldn't bring their firearms to the um protests. Um, so I understand that you, Chief, uh, Gilepsy, were not the chief at the time. It was Gayen Carroll. Um, but he actually went to the city council meeting himself and brought that forward. So, um, I think you could obviously have a hand in um, taking away the mask part of it. Um, so something that Carol said was you don't need to come to an event with masks. Um, masks are only brought to events so that you have complete anon anonymity to do whatever you want to commit crimes and that you can't be identified later. Um, I can say firsthand I went with a mask not to commit crimes but because um,

personal reasons. Some reasons people might want to wear a mask is um, to prevent doxing. Um, this ordinance was introduced because the straight pride people were supposed to come. Um so let's say in that instance um and the straight pride people and the people surrounding that um also have anti-semitic beliefs. So let's say we had a um Jewish citizen or someone of the LGBTQ plus community want to wear a mask um in order to not get doxed by this group of people or get targeted by them. Um, I think yes, they could wear a medical mask, but you're making that one step harder for them to be able to feel safe practicing their First Amendment right to protest. Um, obviously, ICE is detaining people, um, in a very unprofessional manner. And under Trump, uh, green card holders and people with student visas are being detained and deported for engaging in peaceful protest. Um, so if someone has a immigration status or somebody they know or someone in their family is undocumented, um, I think that they also have a right to want to, um, hide their identity. Um, I think there's many reasons why someone would want to wear a mask. Um, and again, the police chief brought this to the city council. It was very rushed. Again, please like go back and watch it. It's insane how mad people were. Um, so I think you, Chief Gilpsy, I think that you could really have a hand in taking away. Um, I think it's number 13 under section 4-23.02. Um, I think it's something good that you could do for the community. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have Monica Lores.

Hello, my name is Monica Flores and I'm I wanted to talk because I witnessed two of the arrests that was made that day. And um just a little bit um a little background um I've been to protests before long time ago in college when you know Occupy and you know when I was a kid I went for you know Pete Wilson or you know I was trying to trying to fight for what's right. My great uncle is Gilbert Padilla which is um a co-founder of United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez. So it's in my DNA to fight for what's right. My husband is white and um he is not aware of the things that happen, the discrimin. It's happened to me personally and my friends. So when we came to this protest, and I mind you, I've been to a few before. Never in my life have I seen such fast aggressive force happen so quickly like the protest had just barely started and these officers came in and took that gentleman over there that kid I have a son his age I I would have been hor you horrified if that was my son took him he was just standing there didn't read him his rights threw him in the car and then as we started walking barely started walking. They took that gentleman over there and it was fast. Nothing was said to him and they just swooped him up and two unmarked cars and another car there. They had his guns out. I think there were rubber bullets or something. They were huge and they were faced right at him. Scared the heck out of all of us cuz we had barely started chanting. Like this was very fast, very aggressive. And it was intent intentional. And I'm

shooken up because I just never experienced that before. And like I said, I've experienced things before and this was different. This is very different. And it's scary. So I don't want that to happen in my home. This is my home. It's been my home for a very long time. And these are our citizens. We need to take care of them. And that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. All right. And up next we have Gavin Bruce. Hi, good afternoon. Uh, thanks for giving me a chance to speak today. Um, I appreciate the work you all do. Um, I just wanted to, um, also reiterate what some of the previous speakers had mentioned about, uh, some of the things that transpired on Saturday. Um, I was there at the protest as well. Um I was in the plaza first and then we all uh marched over to the park to join the no kings protest. Um uh I saw um police officers dressed in tactical gear um and also driving around in unmarked vehicles uh which as people had mentioned also uh is also a tactic that's been used um by ICE. You can see it on um numerous videos and and things on TV and social media that ICE is using unmarked vehicles um and dressed in civilian clothes to uh detain people. Um police officers use discretion every every day. Um they don't write a ticket every single time they see a rolling stop or if somebody fails to turn on a blinker or um any other number of minor code violations. Um and on Saturday you had somebody wearing a face mask which is a very very minor code violation um

under this code uh that we're asking to be repealed uh and or amended. Um and uh officers are also trained in uh crowd psychology and deescalation uh which means that they also know what it takes to escalate a situation as well. They know what it takes to not escalate a situation. They know what it takes to also escalate a situation. So, in in the officer's calculation of I'm going to enforce this uh I'm going to enforce this minor code violation of this individual wearing a face mask using the means of taking him off the street wearing tactical gear and putting him into a unmarked vehicle. Um the cost the potential cost of that is that uh this crowd turns into a riot. Um and you all know everybody knows that that for a lot of people that were in that group uh what's going on with ICE and immigration and just general rhetoric on the national level is deeply personal for a lot of people. Emotions are already high. It's already a high volatile situation. Um, and so they knew that this could be the tiny little spark that could turn that crowd into that that could set that crowd on fire. Um, they know full well what they were doing. Um, and I think it bears it's a testament to the organizers of Central Valley Bipok Coalition and the protesters themselves that they showed restraint and self-control and that they didn't do what the police department was trying to get them to do. And I think going out to the other person that had mentioned before, the police department takes almost half of the city's general fund. And think of what a headline that says Modesto erupts in chaos downtown at a protest has instead of what the headline we got, which is peaceful protest draws 4,000 people. One benefits the city of Modesto's budget and the other one shows people that you can have a massive

protest and uh and do it peacefully. So want to mention that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. I appreciate you all showing up. I just want to give a brief reminder that while someone is talking, please do not disrupt the orderly conduct of the proceedings by continuing to speak out from the audience. I know you all want to agree with what they have to say, but we just got to make sure we respect everyone's time while they're speaking. Okay. Thank you. Up next we have Steve. Good evening old friends. Happy to see a very small few of you. Um I'm the one who the police I'm I'm the finger that that our police broke. Um that was a weird sentence. Um, and I just want to point out that I was literally only taking um, photographs of the license plates of unmarked cars. Um, I had seen all this stuff going on the news and lo and behold, I was on my way to the other protest, but I walked along a similar path and I, you know, went there with a heart full of love and already determined that I was not getting involved, getting in the way. I was going to go hold a sign. I saw law enforcement move up on a crowd that was standing on the sidewalk doing nothing worse than probably just chanting, yelling. I imagine there might have been a naughty word here or there. Doing nothing. Essentially, a peaceful protest. I was very concerned. So, I went to take pictures of those plates. I literally did nothing to interfere. So, here's here's what I'm getting at.

All six of these charges are 100% political. Okay. And I I I I want to focus my comments on the silly code saying that people can't wear masks. And I would like to um kind of hone in and remind you all of something that's already been brought up. This code comes from the police department at a time when we are all scared of living in a fascist state. We're all watching a fascist coup take one step at a time. Democracies being destroyed. Do you really want to promote the just the whole process of laws coming from the police? If you stop and think about it, that is a mark of fascist government. If you do not fight that, okay, then you know, some of you, I'm sure, are super excited about living in a fascist society. I don't know any of you well enough to quite know that, okay? But that's where we're headed. And I just want to remind you that that is a mark of dictatorship, of fascism, like the role of the police, okay? Law should not come from the police department. And that is all that's going on here in this situation. Um, every bit of that code was dictated to the council and the mayor uh by the police department and they went, "Yes, sir." Okay. If you want to live in a free society, if you care about the values of democracy, you'll fight that tooth and nail and you will grant CV Bipok Coalition every one of their demands. Thank you, Steve. Up next we have Manuela.

Hey everyone, good to see you. As I've been to a couple of these, um, we finally got more people, but it is for a really stupid and messed up reason. And first off, I am a member of Central Valley Bipok Coalition, Black Indigenous People of Color. And the chief specifically said that he targeted our group that day because we were smaller and easier to control instead of going out to the bigger ones. He's shaking his head, but again, this is what multiple people have said to us that he has said. So, I'm gonna probably listen to people over cops that are hurting our community. I want to say a little bit more about Central Valley Bipok Coalition. We are a community group that cares about our community. We genuinely do. Some of the things that we do is we come alongside our unhoused neighbors, try to get them food, try to get them feminine hygiene products, soap, things that they need cuz they're living in horrendous conditions out on the street because of our housing crisis. And because the cops continue to raid encampments, sight people, take their things, and they have to start over from scratch when they're already in a horrendous situation. So that's what we do. We provide meals. We try to listen to their needs and see how else we can support them. We're a small group, but we care deeply for our community. Another thing that we do is we have a community garden that we started. And why am I bringing this up? Because to target us for wearing masks is beyond ridiculous. We are a group that cares about our neighbors, that wants things to change in our community so people are housed, people are fed,

people have their needs met, so that we can actually create a society that is not for one people and against a whole bunch of other people. We do believe in equality and equity and the police are not a part of that. There are actual things that police can do. Susan Bender was a 15-year-old girl and on April 25th, 1986, she has gone missing. The largest podcast in the United States on true crime actually did a whole episode on her. That case is unsolved. Cops could have been working on that instead of arresting people for this ridiculous mask where we can't wear masks. Another thing, the MPD is going to continue to cost us money to buy tactical gear to hurt people. We have seen that over and over again with their budget, with using money that we need to put into housing. We need to put into after school programs to help our community thrive, not to push them into jail. And I ask that you repeal that code. Thank you. Thank you. Alrighty, up next we have Brian. Good evening. I'm Brian. I'm a community member. Uh I normally don't get up and do this stuff. Uh let's see. So, I wasn't at the protest that day, but what I see in this mask ordinance is major hypocrisy. Um, you can wear the medical one, but you can't wear a bandana. So, what if you go to a store

and um you need your medical one, but all you have is My point is like a mask is a mask. If I when I go to a grocery store and it it reeks of profiling and the reason it reeks whether it's on accident or designed it reeks of profiling because if I go to a grocery store take a backpack and I can't get into the store without my with my backpack because they tell me to leave it at the front but a lady can go in there with her purse. It's reeks of profiling. Like the lady, she's not going to steal, but I'm going to have a backpack, so I'm going to steal. So, it just it just doesn't add up. And another thing is that people, the mass thing, somebody tried to tell me it was because of January 6th. I'm like, come on, people. It didn't start because of that. It was because of the straight pride stuff that was happening. And um I people have a right to be able to conceal their identity. We live in surveillance culture. Some people don't want to be seen. The doxing thing, that's another relevant part of it. Um I had more I was going to say, but I'm drawing a blank. That just happens. You still have a minute 15, sir. So I'm uh yeah, just I wish uh this mass thing can uh be squashed. Thank you. [Music] All right, up next we have Alex Garcia. Hello everyone. Um, so I was actually at the protest, but um, you know what? I don't understand why everyone is here to criticize the police response. Do you

see how everyone how intimidating everyone looked in their masks? Those things are dangerous. The police, they're only armed with guns, riot gear, and a vast fleet of unmarked vehicles. You think that's enough to deal with people peacefully protesting while wearing masks? What they really needed to deal with everyone that day was a tank. You can't imagine how difficult it is to be a cop. At any moment, you might be recorded brutalizing an innocent civilian, and the punishment for doing so could be as severe as a paid vacation or even worse, paperwork. Our police shouldn't live in fear to have their power held accountable. They should be idle in a police vehicle for 8 hours a day before they go home and abuse their spouses like 40% of them have admitted to doing. That's the life every police officer deserves. And the fact that everyone here is fighting to change that is simply unamerican. I love that the MPD decided to copy the tactics that ICE have been using to separate families that look very much like my own. I witnessed it firsthand and I cheered. I want to give the biggest thanks to the MPD for doing their best to oppress, repress, and arrest a diverse group of people practicing their first amendment rights. Seriously, congratulations. Because if the MPD had never shown up, the protest might have remained completely peaceful and successful at spreading a dangerous message of love and unity. I'd also love to thank the city of Modesto for having a law in place that can be easily used to suppress that message. Thank you. Thank you. Just one second. All righty. Up next we have Ann Marie. Hello. My name is Ann Marie Salgado. I

am also a member of Central Valley Bipac Coalition. Um I was not at this protest but I just want to reiterate um this municipal code uh 4.23.2 to uh section 13 I believe um banning uh cloth masks. Uh I I just want to reiterate that it is uh classist and promotes eugenics. As we are in an ongoing COVID pandemic, monkey pox as well as uh bird flu. People are protecting themselves as best they can. Some people cannot afford medical masks. They are not always accessible. Uh lucky for us they are accessible for us at this time but they are not always for uh people who um don't have access to them who are poor. Uh this is could very much target this vulner vulnerable group of people and it promotes eugenics promotes eugenics and I don't think Modesto wants to be known for that. So, I suggest that this be um given to the city council to repeal this municipal code. Um and yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Up next, we have Ephine Diaz. Hello. I just wanted to thank everyone for coming up and speaking on behalf of what they saw on Saturday's protest. As someone who was part of the organizing committee for Saturday's protest, I just want to say that safety is always our top priority. The last thing we want is someone to get hurt or arrested. We always want people who attend our actions and events to make it home safe without any scratches. On Saturday, MPD was the aggressor. They knew what they were doing when they showed up armed to

the teeth, pointing their guns to a peaceful crowd. They were purposefully trying to incite violence to start a riot so MPD can use their toys. So, we come to you all with three demands. A full repeal of Modesto Municipal Code 4-23.0213 and any ordinances used to criminalize, protest, and violate our First Amendment rights. an independent investigation by CPB's independent auditor of MPD's conduct, tactics, and use of force at CV by June 14th ISAP protest, immediate dismissal of all charges against those arrested, as well as the removal of all charges from their records, and lastly, an end to a targeted political repression of black, brown, immigrant, poor, and radical voices in Modesto across the Central Valley. Thank you. All right. And up next we have um Lakina. Sorry. All right. My name is Larana. I am a resident of Modesto and concerned community member. I echo many of the sentiments expressed by those who have spoken before me. The police intimidation and repression that took place at Saturday's protest was uncalled for despicable, dehumanizing, and violent. If this is what MPD sees as the best use of our tax dollars, then our tax dollars need to go elsewhere, like permanent housing for our unhoused transition age youth who are wrongfully arrested and detained. I as the community member do not feel safer because grown men in riot gear and unmarked vehicles with guns decide to waste public resources on profiling,

targeting, and abusing my fellow community members for simply exercising their rights. Community safety looks like civilians looking out for each other in the face of state violence. State violence that is perpetuated by both ICE agents and police officers. both agencies which historically and presently oppress black, brown, indigenous, and poor communities. I would argue that this most recent act of police repression is a gross distraction from the fact that immigration enforcement is continuing to kidnap our neighbors and loved ones off the streets. Law enforcement from federal to local need to stop wasting our time and resources and stop violating our rights. Abolish ICE, defund the police. You're welcome. Thank you, [Music] Sammy. Do we have any other speaker cards? Alrighty. Up next we have Nora Garcia. Hi. Good evening. Good evening. Um I attended the rally this Saturday. I live downtown Modesto in downtown Modesto and I walked about a block and a half to the event. I was carrying a sign and I had my face partially covered. Two police officers rolled up next to me along with two other people that were walking as well. Did not know them. We just happened to go in the same

direction and did not arrest me. And I say this to demonstrate how targeted the arrests that did happen are. I am Mexican-American. I'm a Latina, but I don't look at I'm fairly white passing. I don't look like a radical. I work here in this building dress air quotes professionally. And I wonder if I didn't look like I do whether or not I also would have been arrested. What makes me different from the people that were targeted? What makes the people at the larger No King's protest that are white and affluent different? Police presence all but disappeared after the CV Bipac event when everybody got to Grusada Park. I did not see 10, 20, 30 officers rolling around over and over the park. And I saw several police units, several motorcycles downtown when City Bipok were holding their event. Sorry, nervous. Police are targeting people that they find to be easy targets. um they're getting people that they can paint to the larger community as radicals and as dangerous so that they can later justify breaking fingers or taking away shelter from youths. I hope that this turnout, not just by the organizers, but by other community members like myself, will let Modesta City and MPD know that we do notice that you are targeting people. I hope that the demands are met and I hope that MPD thinks twice before

they start targeting marginalized individuals. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And up next we have Jalissa. Hello. My name is Julisa. I'm one of the co-founders of the Central Valley Bipok Coalition, CV Bipok. If you don't know me, I'm sure you've heard about us uh prior to all of this happening because of all the work that we've done in the community and prior demonstrations during the past 5 years, attending these meetings, as some others have mentioned, um attending city council meetings. Um I wanted to mention my opinion about what happened. Um, I believe that these arrests were intentional. There were other demonstrations in the area and other groups utilizing loud sound. And yet, all of the arrests and citations happened within the vicinity of our demonstration. Whether it's people that went to attend our protest or people that were walking by. This intimidation is not new. As you all know, I believe that Stevie Bipok and those that attended were targeted, considering that we've been the ones who have spoken up against the police department in the past, advocating for justice for Trevor Sver and Paul Chavez, who were murdered by the Modesta Police Department, officers Joseph Lammania, Salmani, there's quite a long list. We also know that before Trevor was killed, the MPD had flagged Trevor's Facebook post mentioning his distates distaste for the police department. That in itself shows us local police surveillance. And what we saw this past Saturday is a continuation of that surveillance, them wanting us to see our face, to identify

us and intimidate us. We saw unmarked vehicles kidnapping people without deescalation and without any communication. Hey, what am I being arrested for? Zoink, you're arrested. And we've seen these tactics also from ICE. We've also seen these tactics from other militarized police around the world such as the IDF. And also uh for those that know me personally uh they would know that since the moment the pandemic started, since CO began, I've continued to wear my mask. And yet throughout my 5 years and plus of protesting, I've never once been targeted. I do remember back in like 2019, another young man was almost arrested for wearing a mask, but he was also, you know, Mexican. And so we demand a full repeal of the Modesto Municipal Code 423.0213 and the repeal of any other ordinances used to criminalize protests and violate our First Amendment's rights. We demand an independent investigation by the CRB's independent auditor into MPD's conduct, tactics, and use of force. We demand an immediate dismissal of all charges against those arrested as well as the removal of all charges from the records and an end to political repression of BIPO communities. Thank you. Gracias. All right. I have no more speaker cards. Is there anyone else out in the audience that would like to speak? You'll have three minutes. Sebastian, yes. Yes, you will have five minutes. Thank you. Good afternoon.

I am so glad that in the people's house people can come and express yourself. But I came down here not expecting this. I came here to talk about the racial profounding that African-Americans have endured. We went to the city council and I guess the guy the main person I he might have got caught up in traffic but he was coming down to speak on the incident that he was racial profile just selling some fish. I believe he had all his credentials. When you have five other vendors, he was the only one picked out on lace. Pretty much a run a man's business. As people pass by, they think negative. Something went wrong. Especially when you got the lights on, police lights. the Tennessee is not here. Then I can move to the next subject. The people here in the people's house. I was sitting there and they kept coming up with this 4230023. You mean to tell me that you would go to jail for a mask? I cough a lot. So when I get to call and

I have to put my mask on, but I can't talk loud. If I was out there protesting, I would have something to help me because I'm disabled. I will use a bullhorn. And you may tell me that Mr. Jones would go to jail. There should be a lawsuit on that. Have anybody thought that a lot of people, well, you're going to get your Kennedy guy, he can't really talk. He needs one of them bulls, but he's having the healthc care. But I didn't know if I was out there, which I was there uh on the Junth and I didn't I thought everybody was doing okay. The vendors was selling out of food even though it was on our Junth. I don't know it, but it did happen. When I listen to people, it is so sad. What is this world coming to? First, they told us to wear a mask. Me and Donald Trump get in office, they don't wear a mask. Thousands of people lost their life. My son called me today. I couldn't even recognize him. He was calling his daddy to wishing his daddy his birthday. And I told him, "Down, son. I have to let them know about this racial profiling. Now I got to call them back and tell them, "Hey, I changed that." Looking at the people coming out to speak, it's racist. It's

a person with disability. It should be a lawsuit. I don't think neither one of you guys want anybody spitting on you on accident. Mask up cuz I do. It's proper. Well, you see what they're doing? Unmarked car snatching people. I seen that poor woman Do you know it's copycaters out there? They going to follow the police and put on a jean and go and get a Batman plain act like they the police and snatch somebody up. Is anybody thinking out there? Hello. Let's do it right. Not just running up on somebody. LA gets shot. In this world, you got to protect yourself cuz they don't show they bad. I seen it happen. They ain't said nothing. Thank you, Sebastian. Is that five minutes? Yes, sir. Lord Jesus, I thought I was only three minutes. Now, I'm going to say this in closing. I don't know what much you can do and what much the chief can do, what much the city council or the county board of directors think this is a lawsuit. I need the money, too. So, I don't know. I might doing a bid. Thank you, Sebastian. Thank you for your time.

All right, I do have another speaker card for Aaliyah. Hi. Is this close enough or too close? I don't want to be hurting anyone's ears. So, um yeah, I was at that um protest on on Saturday and I did see people get whisked away in a way that I've never seen in all my years of going to like no nukes protests and like, you know, all those kind of like, you know, no war in Central America protests. And I've been to quite a few and it I've never seen anything like what I saw in front of the Queen Bean where people are like people are the cops are getting out and acting exactly like what I see on Instagram when what ICE is doing. It's almost like they looked at those moves and did them. I was shocked. I didn't think it was the Modesto police. And honestly, I I'm with was with my daughter. She's 22. She hasn't been to a ton of protests and she's a Modesto born and raised and um you know there was it's hard for her to trust the police right now and that's too bad. It's very sad because as women sometimes we find ourselves really needing them and I want her to be able to depend on them if she ever gets in a spot. And I've called the police when I've been in a lot of spots. sometimes the spots that women get in with men or other people and it's really a shame because the they lost her trust because she saw that and she said, "What's going on, mom? Oh my god." You know, she was crying and now I'm kind of crying because my daughter doesn't maybe she doesn't feel like she has anybody to call. So, not to be dramatic, but you've

lost her her faith and her tr her trust and you're losing mine. I didn't think that was the Modesto police. I guess I was gullible. I thought that maybe that was ICE the way they put that man in the car. Um, but then it turned out to be our police. And so that was a real that's, you know, neither one neither one is okay. Both are terrifying. both organizations are kind of terrifying. So, I think I'll stop there, but um that was a really that protest was really well organized and wellrun and the people that facilitated it had really good messaging throughout. And I just want to thank CV CV Bipok and and all the other people that were at the protest that started out here and walked down to join the bigger protest because they really hel handled things well. So, please do better, Modesto, please. Um, that's all. Thank you. All right. Do I have any other speakers out in the audience? Thank you. Ponteus, um, lifelong West Pedestal resident. Um, I want to speak to the idea of safety and trust. Um the protest on Saturday didn't build any trust with the community as far as the MPD and their engagement with the community. Um you know there were some things you know masks are a safety issue. Um spreading a message through bullhorns or audio um amplifying of devices. That's a a question of safety to spread the message of how we're going to protest peacefully, how we're going to travel peacefully and safely.

And we weren't allowed to have those things. As a community organizer, I work to empower the voices of those marginalized, those that don't have a voice. I work to empower them to engage in the civic process because we all have a duty. And one of the basic things I tell folks is to get out, go to trainings, go to meetings, protest, and if folks can't do the basics, how are they going to be able to run for city office? How are they going to be able to be leaders of our communities if we can't do those things? How can we go out into our streets if we can't trust our police department? Thank you. Thank you. We have one more. Good afternoon everybody. Jose here. My concern uh it for the municipal code is it hurts my community. I'm from South Modesto. You as you guys all know the it's a county pocket. How is that even enforceable? My concern is when my people go out to march to rally, how is that going to be enforceable? It's not enforceable in in my county pocket. The same for West Modesto. Stannis Loss County has over 20 county item pockets. How can we play both counties? We have to follow municipal code. Oh, snap. Let me take off my mask because I don't know if I'm in CD or county. So, I want you to consider if we're having these ordinances for the Modesto Police Department, how are they enforceable at the county level? My community is personally affected by this municipal code because it's a county

island pocket. So, with that, I thank you guys. Jose here. Thank you, Jose. No. Are there any other audience members that would like to come up? Oh, we have one more. Good evening. My name is Bianca Lopez. I am co-founder of Valley Improvement Projects. I want to um help you make the case to um demand and to start uh to um make this independent auditor investigate this situation. Um I hope you have some police complaint forms here because we refuse to go to the pig's pen to get one. if we are violated out in public. Imagine the tactics that they would use when we go to the police department to ask for one. So before we leave here, we would all like a copy cuz we will not be going to the Modesto Police Department to get one. On Saturday, the police were acting like ice. You've heard that many times. You should see the videos so that you can make up your mind so that you can see what we experienced. We demand that you demand that the chief release all of the footage of that day, body cameras, so that you can see that we were peaceful. We have videos, too, but we're not going to give them to you because we want you to ask for the videos from him, from the department, so that you can see what they said and how they behaved. There's plenty of stuff on social media. do your research because a lot of people here have done their research. I didn't even know that the um that that one

municipal code was proposed by the police. The police should enforce law, not create it. So, we will be going to the city council to demand that they repeal this municipal code because I know that's not your job. But we ask for your support. You can't just sit there and represent the community and then leave us behind. We want to see you demand the repeal of this law. It is unconstitutional. The police the police officers did not ask anybody, not one individual why they were wearing a mask. There are exceptions to wearing a mask in this municipal code. It's for religious beliefs or medical needs. Not one person was asked why they were wearing a mask. Not one person was given a reason for why they were being arrested. They were taken. and they were snatched. They were kidnapped and then they were jailed for almost 12 hours. That should have been a citation. So obviously this was a fear tactic. The chief said he was observing social media. If he was doing that on our pages, then he would have known that not once did we say to mask up so that you can commit a crime. I didn't know you were the thought police chief. You didn't wait for anyone anyone to break the law. You just decided to break and to um to take away our constitutional rights. So did the council. That's the council's fault. But I I do want to make sure that you ask for the audit because we do demand a complete and full investigation. We want to see the footage. We want it to be publicized and then we want uh them to be held accountable. No justice. No peace, no fascist police. Thank you.

All right. Are there any other speakers that would like to come up and speak? All right, we have one. Hello everyone. My name is Jasmine Navaro. I'm a community member here at Modesto. Um, and this uh whole meeting means a lot to me because I'm related to a lot of police. Um, and we're also Latinos. We're Mexicans. And, um, even on the new hires here, um, I have a dance group to run off to, um, by 7 o'clock. And someone from our group just got hired in the 2020 new hires. And I have uh tried to keep communications open and my heart open with the police. Um and it was pretty disappointing to not see um the police standing with our community. Um even my family members that are police decided to not go to the rally. And it's a choice. Um your community members and public servants and should protect and serve your community. It's it's you know people I know that truly have that little kid dream to want to protect their community and think that the police does that and um it's just interesting that I didn't see any of them there alongside us standing with us engaged interested but it's almost an air of a different class that you're somehow better than us you're not a community member that you're somehow above us and I did not feel that my community members were there to protect and serve us at all um but to intimidate and um that's concerning. There's a lot of anxiety

within the community and the most important thing is to build that trust and foundation with the community and it is continuing to be a disappointment and we're not surprised or shocked and every little goal won't be overlooked. Every little step and these meetings are one of them. I hope to continue to attend more. Um, and I just hope uh that it's commu more community members are part of the police and that they remember where they are, who they are, and who they're talking to and why they're doing that. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] All right. And this will be um the last time. Is there any other audience members that would like to come up and speak? Okay, seeing none, um I did want to let you guys know about the complaint form. We do not have them here in person for you, but they are available online. Um you can just search the Modesto police complaint form. They can you can do it on their website. Um you can also go to the CPRB web page on metos.gov and um we all have emails there as well. Scotty has an email, Sammy has an email. You guys are more than free to send us emails and we can get those into the hands of the right people to um pass that complaint forward. Ask can I ask a question? Um yes, it's online. Is it uh are we allowed to have them at our meetings though? Like are we able to have them like like everyone's able to grab an agenda when they first come in or a public comment form? Are we able to put that in the front like at our next meetings or meetings moving forward? I mean, it's just a form. I mean, we're not submitting it. They're going to be submitting it. So, yeah, staff, we can follow up on that. Thank

you, Scotty. All right. At this time, I would like to ask the board to vote on having a fivem minute recess. Um, if anyone can make a motion. Okay. All in favor? Hi, we have three votes. Okay, so we will take a fivem minute break and we'll be back. Thank you guys. All right, let's make our way back to our seats now, everybody. Let's continue this meeting. All right, moving on to consent item number three. consider approving the minutes from the community police review board meeting on May 21st, 2025. Would anyone like to remove the consent item for further discussion? Right. If not, we'll call a motion. Have a motion. Do I have a second? All right. Uh ask the clerk to call the role.

Just ask. All in favor? All in favor? I. All right. On to new business. Uh item four, MPD response to the OIR annual report January 2024 through December 2024. Presented by Chief Brandon Gillespie from MPD. All right. Well, good evening, uh, chair, members of the community police review board. Uh, you've all been provided, uh, previously with the, uh, my responses to the OR's annual report. Um, and so, uh, I plan to take a few minutes to walk you through our approach and summarize, uh, our responses to each of these recommendations. Um before I do that, I want to express my appreciation uh for OIR and their continued examination of our work and the thorough suggestions uh of their uh of their work. Um these recommendations have they always provide an opportunity for the department to reflect and oper analyze our operations and uh and we responded with the same uh thoughtfulness and focus uh that they provided. So I'll move on to the 12 recommendations and again you have the full report. you have all of the detailed recommendations. Um, but I'll I'll summarize what our responses have been and then uh obviously we'll be able to take any any questions from the board after that. But recommendation one suggested that officers involved in shootings uh uh should be interviewed before the end of the shift and this is something that I respectfully disagree with this approach. Uh MPD follows the best practices supported by the International Association of Police Chiefs uh including uh their 2016 and uh followed up by 20 18 guidelines which recommend short recovery periods uh from anywhere from 48 to 24 or 72 hours sorry before conducting these interviews. So our

approach which is often interviewing people uh within a day or two after an officer involved shooting um is involved or is consistent with this uh these suggestions from IAP. Uh recommendation two dealt with aligning internal shooting review documentation and we agree with this recommendation and that uh one of the things that we're committed to doing is integrating uh the findings from our major incident review team. something that we've had new over the last few years and include that into the shooting board review board to ensure uh clarity and followthrough. Recommendation number three encouraged more timely follow-up uh with complaintants uh filing complaints against uh department personnel. And we also agree with this recommendation to address this and I've talked to uh Lieutenant Brian Klyber about this that we're going to be implementing an internal goal of initiating contact with complaintants uh within 14 days of a complaint being submitted. Uh recommendation four highlighted uh the redundancy in case summaries when multiple employees are involved and uh we agree with this and we're working to stream streamline those reports uh to improve clarity. They can often be very lengthy uh but we don't want to sacrifice thoroughess in those investigations which has been pointed out by OIR in their reports and so we're we're working on that. Uh recommendation number five um suggested evaluating the costs and benefits of preex pre pretext stops. Uh and while we understand uh this concern, we believe that uh pretext stops when done lawfully and professionally provide officers with the ability to often address minor violations while professionally engaging with individuals that they contact. Uh and these lawful contacts often serve as gateways to uncovering weapons, narcotics, stolen property or wanted individuals uh many of whom are act actively involved in harming our neighborhoods. And uh recommendation number six uh involve the

evaluation of bias related complaints and uh we do acknowledge the recommendation and uh affirm our commitment to impartial policing. We currently utilize a range of practices aimed at identifying and addressing potential bias. This includes regular reviews of stops and arrests, ongoing training. We have an early intervention system to re uh flag potential concerns. Uh and so and we're always open to evaluating our practices that ensure that uh that they adhere and reflect the professionalism that we expect from our staff. Recommendation number seven recommend uh recommended formal policy carveouts allowing profanity under certain circumstances and uh I disagree uh respectfully with this recommendation. While we understand the intent and it makes sense uh very again very very thoughtful uh recommendation from OIR. I believe that codifying these exceptions would undermine the professional culture that we've worked hard to establish. We treat most of uh these instances when they do happen of appropriate inappropriate language as training issues and address them accordingly unless we continue to see ongoing issues. Recommendation number eight uh was addressed on how subjects are interviewed and conducted uh in use of force cases and uh we agree and we're going to continue to focus on this area through additional supervisory training and ongoing guidance with our staff. Uh we're also going to place greater uh scrutiny on the component this component of this during our use of force process to ensure the interviews are not only uh occurring as expected but they reflect the tone and the structure and the purpose that is outlined in our policy. Recommendation number nine uh focused on verbal warnings before taser use. And we agree uh with this and we're going to continue to reinforce in both our training and our use of force reviews uh with our officers to ensure that they are consistently aligned with our policy and best practices. Recommendation number 10 highlighted the importance of body warn camera compliance and that we agree uh we

already scrutinize our camera use closely and officers uh repeated if they have repeated issues uh face progressive discip discipline consequences including formal discipline when we believe it's appropriate. Recommendation 11 suggested better documentation of Kine deployments. And uh we agree with this because uh what we often do right now is we we we we document these in our use of force reports, but then often if there's follow-up training that our uh K9 unit identifies and they work on, sometimes those aren't uh thoroughly documented in the uh use of force uh review by the supervisor. So, uh, we're going to to continue to work on that and make sure that all, uh, K9 supervisor assessments are included in those formal, uh, use of force reviews. And the final recommendation encouraged us to focus on the implementation of of our newer policies, uh, regarding documentation and evaluation of deescalation regarding use of forces. And we uh also agree with this and we'll continue to work with our officers and supervisors to ensure that deescalations uh efforts are not only prioritized in the field but they're also properly documented in reports and then those are reviewed and evaluated during our supervisor evaluations which h which happen on every use of force and then obviously they'll uh deficiencies will be addressed uh uh when they are identified. Um, so in closing, I want to reiterate uh my appreciation for OIR and their comprehensive review of our department's complaints and use of forces. Uh, we've always talked about and and uh being a learning organization and we are and I appreciate the input and suggestions that they've provided uh for for not just me but our department to think about as we always strive to improve how we operate. Uh, I want to I want to end with saying that I'm extremely proud of the men and women of our department and the culture of professionalism that they carry into the community every single day. Uh, and with

that, uh, if you have any specific questions on, uh, the, uh, our responses, I'm happy to, uh, answer any from the board. Thank you, Chief. Does anyone on the board have any questions regarding this agenda item? Can we ask Stephen for his Yeah, Mr. Chair. Um, so I just wanted to say Stephen Connelly had to drop off, but Mike Michael Janako is on who actually um is with the the firm as well and does represent uh OIR. Okay. Um I guess my question was when you strongly opposed number five and um and I and I I'm sure you bring some experience to that strongly opposed language. Um, OIR obviously comes to this uh, recommendation um, with some strong background and experience with lots of police forces. And I'm wondering where's the uh, um, if if Michael can maybe explain how you came about your recommendation number five and um, what resources and what um, experience and that led you to make that recommendation that the chief opposes. Good evening. Can you all hear me? Yes, we can. Great. Um, so the recommendation um that we made um uh first of all, I wanted to start by saying that appreciate the uh chief's response um as he has done in the past um and his department. uh the response that are provided here very thoughtful and shows that um the recommendations were uh fairly considered. Um we get

nervous. We you know we have engagements throughout um the state of California and we get nervous when a leader of an organization or a mayor uh gets up and says yeah we've looked at the recommendations and we agree with all of them. we meet, you know, that means to us that the uh recommendations will probably get on the shelf and never be implemented. Um that's not the relationship we've had with um Modesto Police Department and its leadership and Chief Klespie. Uh with regard to your particular question, um this is a the topic of pretext stops um and their their efficacy and whether or not in the scheme of things they are valued or not um is certainly something that is um being discussed throughout the state of California and has been for the past three or four years or even longer. Um clearly the constitution allows um an agency or police agency or law enforcement officer to effectuate a stop when there is belief that there is an equipment violation or um any other um traffic uh code violation, vehicle code violation provides an opportunity or an ability for an officer to effectuate a stop. There's no question about whether or not it's constitutional. So, it's not a question about whether it's legal to effectuate pretext stops. The question is whether it's a good idea, whether it makes sense in in the scheme of things with regard to the overarching goals of public safety. And there are competing considerations here. And this is certainly an issue that is worthy of debate and discussion. And that's why uh many many jurisdictions in California and elsewhere are continuing to have this discussion. Um on the one hand, as

the chief pointed out, um whenever there is um proactive policing, um it can lead to um a stop that may result in additional and more serious crimes than the simple vehicle code violation. Um so there are cases that have been reported and happen pretty much every day in which more significant CA crimes particularly you know guns that people have that they're not um authorized to have are located drugs other contraband um it does lead to um detection of other crimes. That's the positive with regard to pretext stops. On the other hand, um the data suggests and um I'm particularly going to cite the the data from the RIPA board, which is the racial identity profiling act board. Um they have come out as a board critical of PE pretext stops because uh in their view the advantages or the benefits of those pretext stops are outweighed by the fact that the data suggests that these types of stops um tend to to occur more frequently with people of color than they do with whites and contribute to a disparity in policing. Um and the board has come out uh believing that that the um negatives the negative consequences the loss of trust in the community etc uh outweighs any potential bene benefits with regard to the use of pretext stops. Um our recommendation didn't advocate for elimination of pretext stops. It really, if you look at the wording of uh of the uh recommendation, it was carefully worded to indicate that the department ought to consider whether or not in all cases pretext stops are advisable or

whether or not there ought to be dep prioritization of pretext stops. It does not call for an outright ban on pre-text stops. Um so for example in Los Angeles our city the city in which I live um they uh the LAPD for the past two or three years have come up with a policy that limit uh the use of pretext stops um so that they are not to be used for mere equipment violations. So, the air freshener on the rearview mirror, the brake light that's out, um, uh, not having a back license, a front license plate, things like that. uh expired registration uh in LAPD. They are limited um to not having not conducting pretext stops under that consideration with the idea that the hope is that that will reduce the disparity we see in our city with regard to way in which pretext stops are effectuated in Los Angeles. I think the jury is still out. Um, you know, that LAPD is continuing to report to its community about the results of this. Um, and uh, I think that discussion will continue. So, uh, while we respectfully, uh, continue to agree to disagree with regard to the, um, use of pretext stops, uh, in all in all situations, we certainly understand that there are competing considerations and respect the, uh, police departments and the police department's leadership's perspective on this. Thank you. Is there anyone else on the board or did you want to respond to that? No, I was just trying to I know that uh uh member Damarrell uh said that I I strongly disagreed. So, I was actually looking through back through my stuff or maybe I said it at the beginning. Um uh and I think that's why I said we appreciate O's uh focus uh and all this and so I was kind of looking through my responses

uh and I I want to agree with Mr. Janako that uh this is a ongoing has been for a long time in many communities uh the value the pros and cons just like they pointed out in the report of pre-text stops. So uh it's not a cut and dry issue and uh when I I said I strongly believe and I was looking at my words here in this is in uh police services are a fair impartial and constitutional matter by protecting the community. Uh and so that's where uh I I strongly believe uh in doing those things and obviously you know we may have differ of opinions on uh the value of pretext stops and and and and that sort of thing. Uh but I go back to something I said in this uh in this uh response is that in my opinion that the key to mainta maintaining legitimacy because that's where the the the argument comes comes across with pretext stops is uh the the the focus or this disparit uh treatment of people and so I go back to the legitimacy of these really uh happen in the encounters themselves and the way that the interaction goes the way that the police officers um interact with the people and making sure that we're not targeting certain populations or things like that. So, the way that we interact with people oftent times dictates how they perceived uh what the reason we stopped them or why we stopped them. And so, those are things that have been community conversations for quite some time. I imagine they will continue, but I've also seen seen the extreme value in protecting our community uh by these types of stops where we're recovering uh weapons and different things that are are protecting our community from being victimized as well. So, uh, like I said, I just go back to I appreciate the, uh, thoughtfulness of, of these are good discussions to have and, uh, and I think these are good discussions for us as a community and as a board to have as well. Thank you. Um, I do have a few responses, so I'll just, uh, start listing them off. Some key concerns. Um, first, uh, recommendation one, delayed

officer interviews after deadly force. Um, MPD does defend waiting 24 to 72 hours before interviewing officers involved in a deadly force incident. While there may may be psychological rational cited, the community sees delay and potential shielding. The public wants assurance that investigations begin immediately and that accountability doesn't wait. Um, recommendation number five, the framing of pretext stops. MPD's response calls pretext stops misunderstood, but for many in our community, especially black and Latino residents, there is no misunderstanding. These stops are often experienced as harassment. Legality alone does not justify the harm that is done, and what we need is data. Who is being stopped, how often, and what are the outcomes? Recommendation six, bias investigation, lack transparency. The department says it reviews officer stops for bias, but there is no public access to this process. Internal monitoring without external visibility or verification does little to build trust. Um, recommendation seven, profanity profanity policy remains vague. Rather than clarifying when officer language may be acceptable in high stress situations, MPD chooses not to revise his profanity policy. This creates confusion for both the public and officers and leaves too much to discretion which is when inconsistency thrives. And lastly, the lack of measurable follow-through. While MPD agrees with several recommendations in principle on body cameras, deescalation and taser warnings. There are no timelines, no benchmarks, and no public reporting mechanism. Without those, there is no way for the public to know whether change is happening. Those are just a few of my key concerns from the response.

I appreciate your comments. Thank you. Um now, um is there any more anyone else from the board that would like to speak? Wendy, thank you. Thank you. Uh I have a couple comments. Um number one on uh recommendation 12, I'm glad to see that we all are in agreement that deescalation uh into the daily decision making uh should be should be a policy. Um I want to go back to what I heard today from all of the speakers that spoke and when we look at how that relates to number 12 in terms of deescalation. I think though because I have several comments that I want to make on that. So, not to get too distracted from this report, I think it may be more appropriate to bring that back up uh under community engagement, but I do have several questions and comments about uh what happened at the protest. That would be left for the end then if that's where it's kind of more catered to for questions or kind of more catered towards the protest. But it does have to do with recommendation 12. I would actually defer to the the city attorney um to to comment on that. My question, city attorney, was we were talking about item 12, which talks about deescalation, and I want to use what happened this weekend as a cont as more context to deescalation. Um, so in terms of uh this weekend, we heard comments about it during public comment. Uh, but as far as this meeting goes, you actually have that being in not an agendaized item. Um, so if you want to agendaize something to discuss

that matter, you could, you know, hold that fuller conversation. in terms of deescal deescalation um in particular um the you know you can discuss the matters that are in the report but I don't know that uh you're going to have a discussion of the broader uh of the broader you know public protests that happened uh this weekend. Well, I'll wait until new business under community engagement and we'll talk about it then. Okay. Is there any further comments from the board or questions? Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and open it up to the public. We'll ask members of the public to come forward. Um, those that have filled out a speaker card regarding this agenda item will be called on first. Um, if not, then is there anyone in the public that would like to comment on the response from MPD to OIR? Go ahead. Thank you, chair. We've heard many times in this chamber and throughout the community that the Modesto Police Department is a learning organization. Uh, and I do find that claim to be less than credible here when I look at the response to these recommendations. Specifically, I draw your attention to recommendation number one. An MPD should ensure that officers involved in a use of deadly force are interviewed before the end of their shift in which the incident occurred either through a voluntary statement to criminal investigators or a compelled administrative statement. I think that's a sound recommendation. So when I see that MPD is disagreeing with that and their reason in doing so oh is evidence-based and that evidence comes from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. That to me seems a lot like the fox guarding the hen house. Uh I've had the pleasure of serving this community not just as a government teacher but also as a psychology

teacher. So I did my homework. Uh officer involved shootings testing the effect of question timing on memory accuracy of stressful events published December 13th 2018 in the journal of experimental criminology. And don't get it twisted when I say experimental. This is not some mad scientist of oh it's just a prototype. It's experimental. experimental, done by experimentation, empirical, evidence-based, evidencebased. Notably, uh, the results of this study, he linear mixed models showed that delayed questioning negatively impacts officers recognition of correct details of the incident, but only for details not directly associated with the threat stimuli. Okay, fair enough. Uh, this pattern was supported by the free recall data. Further, officers who were questioned immediately did not experience the same memory decay over time. They did not experience the memory decay. That seems pretty important to me. This shows that the evidence is inconclusive at best. I can't say that this documentation and this study is necessarily better than the one cited by the chief. I'd point out that it's more recent. I'd point out that it's not published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which might lend it to be more credible in my mind. But if that's the case, why not conduct an interview before the end of the shift and then another one in that 24 to 72hour window? If memory recall is truly improved at that time, I'm having more information and having two different statements. Okay, we recognize that memory is faulty. That is something that comes up anytime there are incidents like this. But wouldn't having more information help people make more informed decisions? I would trust that any learning organization and would readily accept that recommendation. So when I see this disagreement, that to me says that learning organization looks good on the website but doesn't really play well in the community. And I know that our chief he is an educated man.

And so I would hope that he could take my advice here. Here with that being said, I'll yield the rest of my time. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have anyone else from the audience that would like to speak on this topic? Um, I have a couple of questions uh for the board. Um, and maybe Mr. Janako, what's next? So, you have um a report and some proposals and the chief said, "No thanks. Uh, we're doing just fine." Uh, when we already know that that's not the case. does um do the recommendations now turn into policy recommendations to the city council? How do we try to enforce um some of these recommendations? Uh because obviously the chief isn't interested in improving community relations as we saw on Saturday. Um, on Friday night before the protests, uh, the police department placed new cameras in the plaza because they knew that we were going to be protesting. Hence, another reason why there was no reason to arrest people for wearing a masks if you are recording us 247, right? So, that doesn't build trust. Um the no thanks pieces uh from the chief are unacceptable to me and I'm sure that they are unacceptable to many who are here today and who probably haven't seen the report but will soon. So I really would like to know um what what are the next steps if the chief is giving us the finger here. Um the value of pretext stops. We already know that racial profiling happens and that they use pretext uh stops as an excuse and the chief here said, "Oh, but then we'll find drugs and and weapons." I believe

um he just admitted to um violating people's rights. Um and so I want to make sure that people know how to exercise their rights and do not consent to any searches. So, I will do my best to educate community members by hosting know your rights workshops, and I think that the board should sponsor some of those as well throughout the community, but I'm I'm very bothered that the chief um does not care about community relations. And it's obvious on paper uh through his response, even more obvious through the racial profiling of um black and young men of color. um and what happened on Saturday. Uh I'm very um disgusted. Will I be able to get an answer about the next steps? Yeah. Um Scotty, by chance or if chief, you know the next steps from this report where it goes from here, if you guys talk with the city council or the city brings it up and then it goes to city council. And then before you answer, I just want to say one more thing. The whole thing about verbal language and the cussing, that should be part of deescalation, right? We don't want a cop saying any cuss words to try to intimidate us. We we saw that with um [ __ ] They beat up and they punched um Anton Anthony Nunes. Antonio Nunes. That officer was very loud and very rude and used very vulgar language. And that man all he could do is defend himself. Thank you. And I will look for that answer for you. And I believe we have one more. Thank you.

All right. Hello again. So, yeah, thinking about what was mentioned about recommendation one, um, and the idea that the evidence that, uh, the chief had mentioned came from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. um like it seems like a very like like an insular thing like like an echo chamber here when we have like the OIR report, you know, like folks from the outside that are looking at multiple amounts of data to kind of give these recommendations and as we can see our comrade here is showing other evidence that proves that uh interviews happening as soon as possible is mo more effective. But I mean, we're talking about like like we had mentioned before, remember when we had the uh person coming in who would come to the schools, you know, that officer and they said, "What's the goal?" It's to change the narrative. But I think building this echo chamber and kind of disagreeing with these things and using your own people to kind of uh I guess kind of like I guess what's the way to say it? I guess try to prove your own points or something like that's not changing any narrative, you know? uh but it's just kind of dismissing us. And I think yeah, when it comes to like the pretext stops for recommendation five, it's been proven lots of times by Michelle Alexander from what do you call it? new Jim Crow or Alex Vital and into policing which is like these types of pretext stops like lead to uh mass incarceration and it's an attempt of broken windows policing which specifically target people of color and socioeconomically disadvantaged folks and the OIR report folks like they had mentioned that too. That's what it does. We see it all the time. Um and so with that it it doesn't prevent crime and as as we see the majority of the rest if we look at the police score report card here are about

70% are for non-violent crimes you know uh and it doesn't really do too much to really uh prevent anything very seriously. But what it does is it incarcerates more folks and specifically folks of color. Um, and I don't think we can say that like what happens in those pretext ops depends on the folks that they interact with. I think that's like a victim blaming tactic, you know, like for example, I got um pulled over for speeding and it goes into, well, you're showing signs of drinking and it's like y'all, I never drank ever in my life as you can see the back of my shirt to be drug-free. But, you know, and it wasn't anything that I had done or even too with the profanity as we can see even with like the shooting in Trevor Siver like that there's massive amounts of youth profanity when that dude was murdered and I mean what about this wasn't in the an MPD but with the sheriffs with with recently Joshua Rhodess um for some reason because he seemed to have an attitude he gets tased he gets beat he and his partner but yet we can't hold the police accountable for kind of, you know, showing profanity or anything like that. I think that's contradictory. So, but also just I also agree with what Nico was saying with a lot of what he had mentioned and I appreciate you kind of saying that. Thank you. Thank you, Nico. Can you think just turned it on? Is it okay? My memory from last OR report is that it's transmitted by staff by you Scotty to the city council. Is that

um according to the process here essentially um OIR report is a recommendation to the city manager and to the police chief and then the city manager and police chief will take um any necessary next steps but I do ask that I I'm afforded a little bit of opportunity just to kind of regroup. I actually don't have all of those things right in front of me tonight. Wasn't able I wasn't ready to speak to all of it. Thank you. Um, would anyone else like to speak on this item? Okay, seeing none, I will bring it back to the board. Is there anyone on the board that would like to have any further comments on this item? Okay, seeing none, we'll be moving forward. I believe that uh our report to the city council will include any comments that we have about these items also because we're we're we're basically going to say evaluate OIR's report and and the chief's response and give our recommendation to the city council. So we we will be chiming in on these issues, but but the city council's were effectively given those to the city manager who translates or transmits that to the city council and they make decisions. Thank you, Brad. All right, moving on to uh staff comments and reports. Um, Michael, if you are ready, uh, independent police auditor update. Hello. Appreciate, um, having a chance to, to speak to see you all this evening, at least over Zoom. Um, I, um, unless, um, you all have any additional questions. I don't have anything uh,

additional at this time. I might just comment that, you know, consistent with our scope of work, if there are complaints that have that are received by the police department and an onsuing investigation consistent with our scope of work, we would have the ability to obviously review any subsequent investigation. Um, and uh, but our scope is limited. We do not have the ability under our scope of work to conduct independent investigations. just for purposes of clarity. I know you all on the board know that, but many of the attendees may not be aware of what our scope actually is. Um, beyond that, unless there are any other questions by you all, um, that's all I have. Um, does anyone on the board have a question for Michael? Uh, can you briefly go over your scope of work for everyone? Um boy I wish um I wish I had it in front of me but I um essentially our scope of work is essentially to monitor the police department. So the idea or the concept uh if I could sort of conceptualize it under the current scope of work is we are really um focusing on how well the police department conducts investigations and for the investigations after they're completed. How well the police department um makes decisions on outcomes that are consistent with the evidence that is accumulated during those investigations. that is the focus of our scope of work. So uh hypothetically if a complaint come in comes in alleging a policy violation the police department will review that complaint conduct an investigation to the degree that the complaint implicates potential policy violations make a determination or disposition as we call it an outcome

and uh and then in cases in which there are founded come up with a remediation perspective that is uh discipline or some other intervention appropriate uh and geared to the uh violation. Our work is that upon completion of the department's work, we have an opportunity to review all of that. We get to review the strength of the investigation. We get to review um the reasonleness of decision makers decision with regard to outcome and um and consequence and uh then we have the ability to write a public report on how we feel the department did in these very important areas of responsibility. So that's um essentially sums up what our responsibilities are for the city of Modesto. That work uh resulted in the report that we provided to you a bit ago and is now the subject of the uh the chief's response this evening. So um that's what that's what we do and we are pleased to do it. So, I just wanted to uh advise you all and remind you all of what our core function is and uh how we operate in conjunction with the police with the police department. Thank you, Michael. All right. Does anyone else on the board have any questions for Michael? No. Seeing none, um I will open it up to the public. Does any member of the public want to come forward and have a comment on this? Okay, we have one. Um, and about this, you mean what uh Mr. Janako just shared? Yes. Um, okay. So, I do have a question. I would like to submit a complaint against the chief. Um, so who would um oversee that complaint and do the that

investigation? Is it still the internal department? Um, and then how do I know that the chief isn't going to be uh intimidating anybody part of that investigation? And my complaint uh would be for the chief because uh he targeted our community, our march. Um he violated our rights by allowing the police officers to or actually telling them to go out and act like ICE and kidnap people. Um he also was watching our social media um and claimed uh untruth things to others. He said that he knows for a fact that we shared um and recommended that people mask up which is not true. So, um, what what how do what is the process and what can we expect when we all submit a complaint, whether it be against the chief or or his squad. Um, because I I am concerned that um if the independent auditor isn't going to review it, um we do ask for an independent review. So, I I'm just kind of concerned about that. Um, I'm pulling up something else I want to share. Um, we were targeted. The chief uh mentioned that there was a difference between the two groups u besides promoting to wear masks, which is untrue. Um, and then he also mentioned that our crowd was targeted because the other one was much bigger and unsafe for officers. So, he knew that a smaller crowd uh wasn't going to be able to um to resist the kidnappings and maybe he thought that we were going to behave

like those in LA if he did that um in the bigger crowd. although what he watched on social media and the news about what's going on in LA was um very much not what was actually happening at the majority of the communities in LA. So I I'm just really concerned um about the chief um and I wish he would step down um after what happened on Saturday, but how how would this go? Scotty, so I can I can say that there is a um whistleblower hotline that's available on our website. It actually has all of the information that there's a toll-free number um and it actually has an email address. You can uh report things anonymously and those are submitted to um the city manager and to our uh city auditor and then it's followed up from there and that's all located on the city website. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And so if you just type if you do a search for city of Modesto whistleblower hotline, it'll take you right there. Thank you, Scotty. All right. Is there anyone else that would like to come forward and make a comment regarding the independent police auditor update? Okay, seeing none, I will bring it back to the board. Ask the board if there's any further comments, the police city auditor update. All right, seeing none, I will um be closing that and we'll move on to item number six, board comments and reports. At this time, uh board members may make a brief announcement or report briefly on his or her activities. Uh first up, we have policy goal number eight, review the use of force policy to minimize likelihood of death resulting from use of force. haven't met since our last

uh our last meeting. So, nothing new to report from the subcommittee. I don't know if Austin has anything to add. Yes. Um got got the opportunity uh because it is use of force. So, I'm able to say what I kind of want to say here. Um I did go to I'm probably a supposed to say that, but I went to both I went to both protests. Um, and I do have to say this because I feel like everyone in the room can kind of feel this because of all the stuff that I've kind of heard today and especially me that comes from a very much a of a protest family and a protest background and having all of my family and some of my family members, you know, a part of BP and so I do understand like the point of protesting and etc. Um, as you guys know, I do have a young a young daughter. I take her pretty much everywhere. I probably shouldn't take her to some of the things I do take her to. But, however, I did take her to the first one. Okay. And so, as we're walking up, things are happening, right? As you guys know, you guys spoke on it today. And so, my daughter is 3 years old. And of course, she got scared. But then, in the midst of her being scared, she asked me like, "What is going on? What are they doing?" Because when I tell her about police department, I'm talking about all of the positive things. Like as you guys know and have grown with me throughout the the civilian police, the community police review board. You guys know how I felt about the police department upon starting going through the community relations and everything. And so I've been pretty much preaching positivity to her for a very long time since she's pretty much been born. And so when she saw that, she immediately got scared and was like, "What are they doing?" and I had to take her back to the car and I kind of had to explain some of the things I was taught as a kid. But she was telling me like, well, I didn't know those things happened necessarily. So then let me bring it correlated to you guys. Like so later on, obviously it was

a Junth event. That's when everybody was at. And so like I said, like we talked positivity about the police department. She saw a couple police officers that she knew and that we both knew in a police car and they wanted to give her a sticker. What did you guys think that she acted when they offered her a sticker? She was not only did didn't she not take it, she was scared for her life. She was looking at me like, "I don't want to go over there." And she was looking at me like, "Should I go take it?" And the officer was being polite. He was like, "I see you eyeing the sticker. Come get the sticker." And she got closer to me. It was all because of what she saw in the morning time. all the stuff I've been preaching to her for three years. She's three years old. That went out the window the minute she saw that. So, I'm trying to let everybody know in the room that it may not be you two, may not be you guys in the back, but it's people in your department that are not like some of y'all. Like, some of you, some of the police department people, they come out there, they're just ready, as we call it in the streets, they ready for war. That's what they ready to do. And like when you go out there and there's peaceful protests going on and me as a black man have seen other protests happen in this city and people not get arrested. Yeah, it does make me feel a little weird because at the end of the day the protest that happened at Gracada was a lot bigger, lot more mask. Uh there were bar horns out there and nobody was getting arrested for it. Why is because I truly believe that even with some of the codes that were being broken, you guys believe that it was peaceful enough that where you guys didn't need to arrest anyone. So in the morning time, if it's the same thing and it was a smaller group, I felt like that was a perfect opportunity for you guys to show the stuff that you guys want to be shown, which is positivity, like allow them to do what they need to do. If y'all there, I'm pretty sure they didn't want y'all there, but if you guys are there, nothing's going on. I mean, cohesiveness that just brings it all together. That brings the camaraderie together because when the second protest

happened, you guys were directing people. You guys weren't arresting nobody. There were people blocking the streets. Y'all didn't say, y'all didn't go up there and and get in groups. You guys just told them, "Hey, like politely, can you guys spread out? I'm just confused a little bit as a not a community police review board member, a community member. What was the difference?" That's me. That's all. Thank you, Austin. On to policy goal number one, improve relations between the community and the department. Do we have an update? Um, no, not directly. I will just say uh a lot of the context shared uh content shared today is um I think where we're going to resume conversation rather than anything that we've worked on so far. But our focus will continue to um stay with all the information shared and the experiences shared. Our mission and goal is still on rep improving relations with our community and the department and that we will continue to respect that charge. Thank you. Um on to policy goal number three, reduce youth arrest particularly among Latino youth. Okay. uh this will be my opportunity to speak in using a real life situation. Uh first of all, I'm very very concerned about what I heard the details about what I heard today uh about what happened on uh Saturday. Um because I think it's all counterproductive to what we're all trying to do, which is improve relationships. And um I I don't know how many people were arrested and what were they arrested for and what's their current status? And this is part of my report in trying to ascertain what we need to do to reduce arrest. So could somebody

answer that question? How many people were arrested? What were they arrested for? And what's the current status of those arrests? Oh, we can provide you the information at a later time, but again, this wasn't agendaized, so we're not going to get into a big discussion about that, but I can provide you the information. Okay. Yeah. And I think the board should also be entitled to look at the videos so that we can see for ourselves, you know, what happened. I was at the other uh protest along with the Junth celebration and I had a mask on and I think that uh especially during this time of COVID, influenza, bird flu, measles and everything, I just spent a whole week in the hospital from catching something. And so wearing masks, even though there's not a lot of talk about it anymore, that's really really important for people to be able to wear mask. So I think to institute something that's any kind of policy that's detrimental to people's health is is not a good idea. Now I don't know if everybody really understands how traumatizing it is to have a gun pointed at you and especially for for a rally where it didn't sound like anybody was doing anything really that warranted that. And so my other question would be why were guns pointed at at people and pulled out? What what happened? I'd like to know more about the context and I'd like the community to know more about the context. Um because I think that I think that what the community is asking for which is to repeal or revise and take another look at that municipal code I think is is uh perfectly um rational to do that because if you're just going to use it broadly and and blindly to create other problems

in the effort of solving one then it's still not going to help. And um I am kind of disappointed a little bit about the scope of work with the uh or with the independent auditor because I think the way it's set up it's set up for them not to investigate um indiv individual incidents as they happen. It's to to come back and where there's a lot of miscommunication I think in the in the public of what their job is really supposed to be. um where they come back and review what has been what the department has done. They're not actually in real time reviewing specific informations and that they take um a sampling of cases. So it could be a year from now reviewing this particular incident or maybe not, but it's not really providing the community with the I think the direct action that the community thinks is going to happen um at the time that an incident happens. And so, um, I think it's important to take a look at these charges that have taken place with with individuals and is it really necessary and is it is it possible is to dismiss those charges is what they did that bad because when you start putting charges on people that follows them for the rest of their life and that's that uh prison to pipeline pipeline to prison. And for something as simple as trying to exercise your your constitutional rights, I mean, I don't I don't think people should be charged with that unless they were out there violently doing something, you know. Um, but just and then when the instructions are unclear, I didn't hear anything about we weren't supposed to wear masks. Um, and I was over at the other one and all of a sudden somebody came and started rushing me off and saying, "We

got to get you out of here because the cops are getting ready to start stuff and you don't need to be in the middle of this." And so I was taken all the way to the back wondering what what's going on. And so I think that there's still a lot of room for improvement. I still do believe in um uh Chief Gillespie and all of the good things that he has tried to do with the department. Um, I don't think that you should be fired over this particular incident, but I do think that it's an opportunity to try to get better to try to get better. And as a board member, I would like to learn much more about what happened. It's really difficult to do things in this kind of setting because there's so many rules about the Roberts rules and what we can talk about and what we can't. But this is definitely um a conversation that needs to take place and and we need to have a better understanding because there's two sides to every story and we need to have a better understanding. Uh we've heard from the community, we need to hear from the police department of what happened, why it happened, how it happened, and if we truly are trying to build better relationships with the community, what can we do moving forward? It's always about moving forward. what can we do to make sure because these um these riots can be volatile and especially if they're agitated, you know, when when police officers come out with the badges and the guns, you have a lot of power. And so I think that, you know, trying to find other ways of communicating or escalating, especially when the crowd doesn't have a lot of warning about these are the rules. So that's what I needed to say. Thank you, Wendy. All right, on to the community police review board annual report 2024 subcommittee update.

Has met twice. Um the subcommittee has met twice. We have a first draft for the subcommittee that we're reviewing and we're planning on meeting Friday at 5:30 for an hour um just the subcommittee to hopefully have something to the board uh for the July meeting. That's our goal. Thank you. All right. And on this item, there is no public comments. I have a question. Um, are you I forgot what the procedure is. Are you going to um hand that out to us so we have a chance to look at it prior to the meeting or is it the discussion to be at the meeting? Can't remember. Well, hopefully we'll have it. It will be available before the meeting. Okay. Yeah. So, we can have communication about or but more than last time discussion at the meeting. I mean because there is no other way for us as board to discuss it. So this is a a first draft for the board's review and suggestions and it is not last last time I must say things got um there were time constraints there were problems getting it finished and everybody reviewing it in a timely manner and we're trying to do it differently this time. Okay, thank you. All righty. Moving on to feature agenda items. Um right now listed feature agenda items, we have presentation by the homeless alliance. And then for the next um meeting, we also have the first

draft of the CPRB annual report January 2024 through December 2024 discussion. Go ahead. Could we have some discussion about as an agenda topic for next time about tonight's what the board's heard tonight because I understand it has to be agendaized. So correct. Um I mean yeah I mean it's up to the board to agendaize it for the next meeting. Um I second you were making a motion. We can we can do we want to discuss I think part of that question would be um time constraint wise do you are you suggesting as well then that we request u moving the presentation by the homeless alliance? Yes. Yeah. That's that's it's f I'm probably one that's going to do the homeless alliance. I'm the chairman of that, but it's fine to wait. Sure. Okay. So, then we're going to make a motion to push back the presentation by the homeless alliance to replace it with a discussion agenda item of tonight's conversation regarding protest. I'm I made a motion and I I guess if I might maybe can we amend that motion. It would appear if that would be I know Chief Gillespie you said that and of course it was not on the agenda that you respond tonight. So is that and I don't know how much you can respond either on personnel matters or on on specific criminal charges but

can you provide some information that would be something beneficial to this to the discussion? We'll we'll discuss that with uh our city attorney. Obviously it's very clear from tonight there's going to be personnel complaints. So we definitely won't be able to go into uh personnel issues and personnel complaints. Uh most likely I'll be providing a statement after this meeting um to uh um to clarify some things that were said tonight. Um but uh but we can definitely put it as an agenda holder. U but I don't uh I don't want to mislead anybody and think that uh especially since it's going to be investigations, personnel complaints, uh that we would be getting into specific uh why was somebody arrested and things like that that I don't want to give anybody false hope, but that's what we'll be discussing next time. Yeah, because during investigations, we're not allowed to talk and thank you. Just as a point of procedure, so if you wanted to make a different motion, you could make a substitute motion and then uh the board would vote on your motion first um if you want, you know, or you could amend your motion and then have another. Uh, so just because you asked for the amendment originally, I mean, what does the board think? Do you guys think it's going to be beneficial? Because there are going to be complaints. We may not even be able to discuss a lot of things that did happen this past weekend at the protest. So, if we do, you know, push back this presentation and then we bring this up for discussion, we should be talking about what the citizens are concerned about at this moment. So, I think I think we need to bring it forward. I'd love to know if there was property damage. I'd love to know that that all there was these fears and these construct of what could happen with

people in masks and they never materialized and in fact it was peaceful. I want that to be a learning process for the department that they can look at that and they want to be evidence-based. Well, there's your evidence. these people performed a wonderful uh Saturday morning and a Saturday afternoon. I just think we need to discuss these things and and flesh it out. Yeah. Okay. I don't think we have to really amend my first motion then, do we? Yeah. The the only question because is whether you wanted to make a substitute motion or Okay. So, she's withdrawing it. Your motion stands. Okay. What was your motion again? uh a motion to push back the presentation by the homeless alliance and replace it with a discussion item regarding protest. A second the specific protest. Yes, we can talk about specifically that protest that just happened or protest going forward. Um general topic about protest. We can talk about um the yeah the you know we can talk about the 4 point or 4-23.02 we can talk about the city codes I'm pretty sure and so so if you when you make your motion you want to be clear about what the scope is because then that'll enable you to talk about a certain topic. Um and so if you know you want to talk for example about the or um the ordinance the ordinance right you could actually have two separate motions right you could have this motion which you're going to talk about protests uh or the protest that just happened on Saturday or you know you can name it however you want you can put the date on top or you can say more broadly if you're going to talk about the ordinance you probably want to make a second motion because when you do the ordinance you're going to bring the ordinance forward you can propose you know if you're going to propose propose

changes or make a recommendation to the city council, you would do all of that under one separate uh item. So, that's just to say you've got one motion which is dealing with protests. If you want to deal with the ordinance, it's probably most helpful to have a second motion and then describe what you're going to do there. The question that you put us on the agenda, we will presentation for you. We will provide all of the charges and we'll provide some videos for you to be able to have discussed. If the chief refuses to give you information, put us on the agenda. We will do the presentation for you. I have a question. Uh so when he said it was broad like the first like the first motion, why does it have to be separate? Why does that motion have why does it have to be two separate motions if if Saturday consisted with the ordinance? like through the discussion today, wouldn't that just be all correlated with one in the same motion? Why would it have to be separate? Yeah. The So, the reason would be so that the public clearly knows that you're going to talk about the ordinance, which is different. It's a legislative action. And so under the or you could talk about the ordinance within it, but if you if the intent of the second motion is we want to look at the o the that that ordinance and pro provide changes, then that isn't something where you're going to probably get direct feedback right on the provisions of the ordinance. And then I'm guessing that you would probably want to give that feedback to the city council because they're the people who actually changed the ordinance. And so it's just it it it's more precision in terms of what is actually going to happen under each of those. You can talk about all of the stuff that's in relation um to the protests. But if you are talking about actually making a legislative recommendation, right? you want to take the ordinance and you want to redline it or you want to get feedback from the public on how to change it, then that is that's a distinct and pretty hearty agenda item

and it's worth separating the two so that the public's clear about how to prepare for it and also the city council is clear about what's coming. That's what I'll do. It can happen on the same separately. Yeah. Um, the way I'm understanding it's happened on the same night, but the ordinance piece I kind of my personal request would be for consideration. Can we get like a staff presentation so to speak of that ordinance, what where it originated, what it's really tied to, so we understand what we're talking about and if we need to agendaize it again to take issue with it or make suggestions on it, we'll be more informed to do so and still have a open discussion about what occurred on Saturday and all the content that we've heard. So I still understand the two separation on agendaizing them. So we can talk about them separately. But I feel we need we as a group need understanding of what the ordinance is and how it originated and how to apply it on Saturday before we can suggest we know what to suggest on it. I can make one last and this I hope this is my last comment on so you have the option. Yes, you can do the twoon-one night. You can also have a discussion if you want to do talk about the ordinance and the protests on the first night without you know the whole staff presentation to figure out where you all are on it. You can do that and you can schedule it again the next meeting as well if you want to come back with a more detailed presentation from the city attorney's office or who you know whoever would do it on your targeted questions or issues that you have around um the ordinance. But realize that like you can agendaize things as you want um and then you know move forward from there. So you can do everything on one night. Can I make a question to say of Nancy? Uh what we're going to be discussing regarding

protests. I I think it's going to be a full year of protests if if not more. Uh we're going to have a full year of questions about masks and ICE and different things. Um, is this going to be something that you might actually end up in incorporating into your annual report? Are we going to make some kind of or is that last year's all that stuff? And so this is going to be in next year's annual report. I I have a question. Um, what happens when um a community member requests to be on the agenda? How does that work? Well, the the role of the community member for for example, we had a request for the uh community member to be on the agenda. Community organization. Yeah. A community organization to be on the agenda. Yeah. How does that work? Yeah. So, typically what you have is you have the reason you have reserved time under public comment for the community is that's where they will give you the feedback and the time when you all are presenting an item and agendaizing that item. that's the board's role to take either in um conversation on that item or to take a position on that item or to show the work that the board has done on that particular item. And so normally what you'll see is the community's role is during the portion of public comment where unless you're you know creating a a sort of committee structure or something like that where you're doing something out of the ordinary and involving folks but still the the actual agenda presentation piece and the dialogue is typically owned by the board not by the community. The community space is typically where you see public comment and sometimes you'll see based on how you do uh committee settings if you have subcommittees such as those. Sometimes you'll see involvement at that level as well. I was just about to say we just approve it, right? That's basically what the

answer is. We just say yes or no. We motion it. That's it. Cuz we asked for a homeless alliance presentation. Um, oh, from on a they're they're a nonprofit organization themselves. So, we asked them to do Yeah. regular presentations like that. I feel that after everything that was shared by everyone tonight, it would be um most professional and respectful to at least invite the chief to give a statement as part of our discussion next week. And if we need then to have um feedback from your organization, I feel that would be a more appropriate order to process through this and allow us all to process through. To go right into that without giving an opportunity to the department to have any response feels like a misstep in my opinion. And the the presentation we're talking about is at the next meeting, right? A whole month from now. Yes. A whole month from now. Yes. So, we can call a special meeting. We don't have to wait till next month if you want to. I But I I agree with Trish. It's uh I've always been told to to listen to both sides of the story before you make a judgment. And uh I'm in the process right now of a marriage counseling situation. And I heard one side and heard the other side and and it it you know, things uh get get tempered out based on that. But it'd be it'd be uh it's important to me that I hear what the staff has to say and police has to say about what happened, what their perspective was on it, and then if we want to go further, we can. I mean, I I agree, but at the same time, we already know that if there's ongoing complaints and investigations regarding the protest, the police were not going to talk about

them. So, they're not going to really have too much to say about what just occurred in the next meeting because they can't really go into depth about the protest and what occurred during those arrests because they are going to be under investigation by the time we come back next month. Pretty sure. So, what follows from that, Nico? Well, I mean, if if we have a nonprofit organization that is willing to do a presentation, I I'm not I mean, we pretty much heard a presentation from people of from the organization and their position on kind of heard comments. Yeah, you didn't really get a presentation. No, but we had, you know, a lengthy period devoted to the comments. I mean, if you think presentation would be marketkedly different, perhaps So, when would uh the staff be able to respond? Would that be a special meeting or and we're going to have to tell them what exactly we want them to respond with? We need to give them direct guidance on what we want to hear from them because we can't just say respond and then give them an open book. Well, I outlined uh a few questions. U how many people was arrested? What were they arrested for and what's the status? I think okay. Um it doesn't have to be name. It doesn't seem like we have a consensus on the presentation at this moment. So, I think we do have consensus on pushing back the homeless alliance and replacing

it with a a discussion about protest. Are we including that discussion the municipal code to talk about that as well or do you want to make it a separate motion to where we can possibly talk about it and make a change to that code, a recommendation to that code? Secondary thought on that piece. It might make sense to just keep our discussion point next month and we still need to get the update on the report which will also be meaty and then decide what we add for next month as far as continuing this conversation on on the ordinance and the circumstances of the citizens. Okay. Uh I I agree with that. Oh, they had a motion. Okay. So well the motion's on the floor. We Yeah. So then the motion will be to just replace the homeless alliance presentation with open discussion about protest. That was what you moved and was second. So you can you all in favor? I I want to amend that motion to not just talk about protest but to talk about specifically what happened in Modesto last Saturday. Okay. Yeah. So, so that would be a substitute motion unless you want to take the amend the amended motion and then you have to just have the person second it again. Okay. An amended motion to include the past protest that just happened on Saturday. Okay. Who seconds it? Second. All in favor? I I Okay. And that is it. The next meeting will be held on July 16th of 2025. I thank you all for coming and we'll see you. I have another question. So, when do we get to hear uh from the the police uh side of the story? Next week. Next

month. That that's so long. Yeah, we'll have to wait. We can have like a special briefing or a special meeting like we do for other things. We can call for one. Um, I can email you Scotty maybe and we can call for a special meeting, special briefing about the past protests that just happened and okay because you got a lot of community tension brewing and I think that we need to not linger this on a whole month. I agree. And uh before the meeting's adjourned, thank you everybody for coming. Make sure you come to the next one. Don't just come to this one. July 16, 2025 at 5:30. Thank you.