Thoughts on the Vallejo Police Department’s Virtual Town Hall

Vallejo Police Department” by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Wednesday night was the VPD’s virtual town hall, and at its peak it had 97 participants, including members of the Chief’s Advisory Board, officers, and staff. The turnout was fairly robust, I suppose, though considering how many people in this town have opinions about the police department, I’d say it was ultimately under-attended. I’m going to examine this event from both a cynical angle and a benefit of the doubt angle.

The town hall was originally supposed to be in-person but was switched to virtual several days ago. Perhaps that’s because only about 15 percent of VPD cops are vaccinated, according to figures from Scott Morris. A starker way to look at that number is that 85 percent of these people are not vaccinated. These are officers who regularly interact with vulnerable populations, not to mention the potentially infectious. I’m not sure each officer’s reason for not getting vaxxed, but you can bet a ton of them do not understand or trust basic science, which is fucking scary. The other option is the Don’t Tread on Me, I’m an American narrative, which adds an ironic spin to Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.

According to the Washington Post, more officers have died from Covid-19 nationally than died on 9/11— 500 people. And speaking of exposing vulnerable people to Covid, I serve on the Board of the Arc of California. To date, 722 adults with developmental disabilities have died from the virus. Do I partly blame unvaccinated people for this? Hell yes I do.

I’m going off on this Covid tangent because it occurred to me that, even if the Chief wanted to mandate vaccinations, he could never do that with a department so woefully understaffed already— something that came up often at the town hall. The Don’t Tread on Me officers would bail in protest of their personal liberty being violated. They would fall on their batons.

This is the ongoing paradox that is the Vallejo PD. They are tight knit and button-lipped, never speaking to the press, yet feel put upon— and rightly so— by the community. But there is no understanding without communication. Chief Shawny Williams knows this and is trying his best to skate the line between supporting his officers and supporting their detractors’ criticisms. Unfortunately what comes across is what naysayers have labeled “copaganda,” which is a spin on things that the department wants people to absorb. But people who are already mad at the police see right through such measures, making them less trustful, and getting us nowhere.

Wednesday’s meeting was a good example of the VPD whitewashing hard truths. It was also a success for the VPD in many respects and should be applauded.

The event began with some ceremonial words from the chief and then everyone split into “breakout groups,” which were virtual “rooms.” I ended up in one lead by Sargent Jeff Tai, Chief’s Advisory Board (CAB) member Courtney Willis, and Pastor Mike Brown of the First Baptist Church. Looking at the participants list, City Attorney Veronica Nebb was also in my group, as well as a Zoom user who went by “VPOA.” President Mike Nichelini, perhaps?

We were given four suggested questions: Have you been impacted or do you know anyone who has been impacted by gun violence; have you been affected by a smash n’ grab, residential burglary, or catalytic converter theft; how can the police better partner with mental health professionals, and how can the community engage with the police to decrease gun violence?

No one in my group cared about those questions. Vallejo resident Gretchen Zimmerman cut to the chase and asked that we be able to ask questions beyond what the VPD provided. Then she asked why Detective Jarrett Tonn hasn’t been fired after he shot three unarmed people and then killed a fourth. Zimmerman said she was not “anti-cop” but questioned why “dangerous” officers remain employed.

At this, CAB member Willis asked to reframe the question to, what are officers doing to better de-escalate situations these days? Zimmerman said OK, but that’s not the same question.

This exchange highlights what people perceive as copaganda. No, Ms. Willis. We need to hear the department say that Tonn remains on staff because A: We are worried about another lawsuit if we fire him; B: The union has too much power and we can’t fire people at will in this department if they are a member, or C: Tonn is a good officer and has just made some mistakes. Straight answers like that will never come from the police. In fact, any tricky question was jotted down by Sgt Tai, and would be delivered to someone in the department, he said. I believe all group leaders were prepared for tough questions and how to handle them— don’t say anything, but write them down and pass them along. I also know that you can’t just allow officers to speak on personnel issues. But there are other ways to spin a tough question about Tonn. The VPD can point out that no officer has shot and killed a civilian in over a year, for example.

I don’t want to paint Ms. Willis as some toady. She made some great points as well. She said that the chief needs to do a better job informing the public of what changes have been made in his department. She said that former officer Mike Nichelini “is bringin’ you all down.”

Zimmerman and another woman who spoke in the group also both slammed VPOA, with one woman demanding Nichelini make a public apology to Vallejo. Meanwhile that VPOA icon sat in the participants queue, a silent witness.

One woman said something I found very insightful and a bit sad. She said that she had been a victim of a crime and took part in the department’s new victims’ outreach efforts. The VPD, as you probably know, has moved its CARE (Community Assistance Resource and Engagement) center to the “new” police building on Mare Island Way. The idea is to create a safe place for victims to interact with social workers etc, which then form a liaison with detectives. The participant said that she didn’t feel supported, she felt like she was being used by the District Attorney to gather information for a case. This is definitely part of the motivation for these victim outreach sessions, but certainly they can be handled with more, dare I say it, CARE. She was led to believe that the DA’s support was for her mental and emotional health, which is not their job. People need to be clearly briefed on how some of their counseling could and will be used by law enforcement.

For me, I enjoyed interacting with the Sgt and hearing the women speak. I felt closer to the police department and I found Sgt Tai to be very receptive and forthright. Breaking into groups certainly better facilitated interaction between the community and the police because everyone had a chance to speak and be heard. The downside of breaking into groups was that the rest of us could not hear what came up in the other groups. The things I have written about there that were covered in my group were glossed over when Sgt Tai presented to the entire Zoom meeting about what went on in our breakout group. I’m sure the same can be said for all the other groups; in fact, people on Twitter pointed this out.

Then came the most disappointing part of the event, when the chief answered four soft-ball questions supposedly culled from the breakout groups. The questions chosen were picked to highlight things the chief wants the public to know about, such as, can you tell us all about Operation PEACE? How can the community become more involved? And What’s the desired outcome of these meetings? Bah. Humbug.

OK so the cynical side of me won out.

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