MEDIA ADVISORY CONTACT: Tom Cummins, President November 16, 2021 Coll: 210-391-3718 Email: [email protected] San Antonio AFL-CIO to Release Police Reform and Accountability Report SAN ANTONIO, TX~ On Wednesday, November 17", the San Antonio AFL-CIO will release its Report on Police Reform and Accountability at a news conference to be held at 10:00 AM at the San Antonio AFL-CIO office at 9502 Computer Drive, Suite 201, On February 24, 2021, the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council (CLC) passed a resolution, “Criminal Justice Reform and Collective Bargaining Rights,” The resolution called for policing and criminal justice reforms while also affirming support for the right of all employees to collective bargaining, including police officers. The CLC pledged in that resolution to do “what is hard and meaningful and uncomfortable in order to build a better labor Tmovernent from within.” Labor worked diligently in support of collective bargaining during the City referendum on that matter. After the defeat of the proposition that would have eliminated collective bargaining for San Antonio police, the San Antonio AFL-CIO CLC formed a committee to focus on next steps ~ advocacy for police reforms and accountability In a series of meetings over four months, the committee developed the fifty recommendations contained in the report, which was approved by the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council (GLC) on September 22, 2021. The San Antonio AFL-CIO CLC will advocate diligently for implementation of these recommendations and join with other community organizations to ensure implementation of these recommendations for the safety and betterment of our community. The Sen Antonio AFL-CIO represents 90,000 urlan members in the San Antonio area, opeluay stetieeStatement by Shelley Potter, Tri-Chair of the San Antonio AFL-CIO CLC Committee on Police Reform and Accountability Good morning. My name is Shelley Potter. I am one of the tri-chairs of the San Antonio AFL-CIO CLC Committee on Police Reform and Accountability. Linda Chavez-Thompson and Mary Finger, who are here with us today are the other two tri-chairs. We also have Tom Cummins, president of the San Antonio AFL-CIO, present as well as other members of our committee and representatives of local unions. Today we are releasing our report, which contains some 50. recommendations in eleven major areas. The report is the result of the work of our committee over a four-month period during which we researched positions of various organizations and gathered feedback from affiliated local unions and from our Central Labor Council delegates. You may know that back on February 24, 2021, the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council passed a resolution that called for policing and criminal justice reforms while also affirming support for the right of all employees to collectively bargain, including police officers. Labor worked diligently in support of collective bargaining during the city referendum on that matter. After the defeat of the proposition that would have eliminated collective bargaining for San Antonio police, we formed our committee to focus on next steps ~ advocacy for police reform and accountability. The report you have before you was approved by the Central Labor Council on September 22, 2021. And we will advocate vigorously for the implementation of these recommendations.I will not endeavor to walk you through all 50 recommendations but will highlight some major themes of the report. First is the theme of shared responsibility. In collective bargaining negotiations, there are two sides at the table —- labor and management. Both sides have responsibility for provisions in the collectively bargained agreement. It is also the responsibility of both labor and management to work to address the issues and concerns that have surfaced in the San Antonio community. Another theme is community, which runs throughout the report. There are three major areas in our report that focus specifically on community — 1) transparency, 2) community involvement, and 3) community connection. Transparency by both the city and the police union is vital in order to build community trust. Community involvement, specifically higher levels of authentic, meaningful community involvement, will also help build trust. “Community outreach cannot just happen when an election about collective bargaining is happening. It must be ingrained in the way the department and the union do their regular work.” Also, department management and officers must connect with the communities they serve in such a way that the community views them as being invested in the success of the community and its residents. One of our recommendations calls for the creation of a community-driven, collaborative process to formulate a new vision for public safety in San Antonio. Ongoing training, which is important for any profession, is a distinct section but also filters throughout the report. Professional learning for adults must be hands-on and participatory and cannot be one-shot events. There must be follow up and ongoing support as adult learners endeavor to change behavior and practices. We call for high-quality professionallearning that meets adult learning standards. We call for the inclusion of community members and subject matter experts in the development of and interaction during training. We call for some specific training, including a sequenced, continuing training program on interacting with people with disabilities and/or who are experiencing mental health crises. We also call for a training program on interacting with youths, including the psychological, psychosocial, and emotional developments and changes that occur in adolescents and young adults and developmentally appropriate strategies for intervention. Finally, we believe our report has the right balance between officer accountability and support for officers. We call for practi to address patterns of inappropriate behavior, including escalating behavior over time, to address officers who repeatedly do not turn on their body- worn cameras, and to address disparaging, demeaning, or dehumanizing language directed towards civilians. We also call for ongoing, meaningful opportunities for officers, those out in the field day-to-day, to interact with and processes and provide input to command staff and senior leadership. Our report recommends that funding be allocated to support and sustain officers” mental health. There must be an acknowledgement that in their work, officers may frequently see and experience terrible things that most of us will never experience. Ongoing trauma can have serious effects on emotional, mental, and physical health, which cannot be ignored, And while we believe strongly that officers must understand the challenges faced by community members, if we are to attract and retain the highest quality officers, we must promote programs that can also help community members better understand the day-to-day challenges face by officers.SAN ANTONIO AFL-CIO Central Labor Council 9502 COMPUTER DR., SUITE 201 + SAN ANTONIO, TX 78229-2382 210.226.8447 + FAX: 210.226.6285 + [email protected] Criminal Justice Reform and Collective Bargaining Rights Resolution Whereas, the murder of George Floyd and others has put a renewed focus on police unions nationally and the San Antonio Police Officers Association (SAPOA) locally; And whereas, the San Antonio Central Labor Council (CLC) supports banning chokeholds, expanding use of body cameras, ending racial profiling, demilitarizing our police forces, and eliminating no-knock warrants; And whereas, a union must never be used as a shield for criminal conduct; And whereas, the CLG is proud to join the calls for policing and criminal justice reform by Black Lives Matter and the broader civil rights movement; And whereas, there is an organized drive to remove collective bargaining rights from the SAPOA, which would isolate the officers from discussions and solutions; And whereas, the San Antonio Central Labor Council (CLC) supports the right of all employees to collective bargaining, including police officers, as the best means of seeking resolutions; And whereas, we believe our concerns are best addressed through the collective bargaining process; Therefore, let it be resolved, the CLC will support the right of San Antonio police officers to collectively bargain; And let it be further resolved, that the CI.G will use our influence on the issues of police brutality, accountability, and transparency and that we will engage with SAPOA on these issues and others; And let it finally be resolved, we will do what is hard and meaningful and uncomfortable in order to build a better labor movement from within, Adlagged by dhe delegetes of the Son Antonio APL CIO on February 24, 2021 @ Cavayex fachel A. Cavazos ‘Recording and Corresponding Secretary opeluz77 fe aticioele in |Report of the Police Reform and Accountability Committee of the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council September 22, 2021Introduction On Pebruary 24, 2021, the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council (CLC) passed a resolution, Criminal Justice Reform and Collective Bargaining Rights, The resolution called for policing and criminal justice reforms while also affirming support for the right of all employees to collective bargaining, including police officers. The CLC pledged in that resolution to do “what is hard and meaningful and uncomfortable in order to build a better labor movement from within.” Labor worked diligently in support of collective bargaining during the City referendum on that matter, After the defeat of the proposition that would have eliminated collective bargaining for San Antonio police, the San Antonio AFL-CIO CLC formed a committee to focus on next steps -- advocacy for police reforms and accountability The committee rescarched the positions of various organizations, including but not limited to, our affiliated unions, the national AFL-CIO, the San Antonio NAACP Executive Board, COPS/Metro Alliance, Fix SAPD, LCLAA, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Texas Organizing Project, and Black Future Collectives, We also reviewed a variety of reports and studies, Ina series of meetings over four months, our committee developed the recommendations contained in this report, which was approved by the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council (CLC) on September 22, 2021. The San Antonio AFL-CIO CLC will advocate diligently for implementation of these recommendations and join with other community organizations to ensure implementation of these recommendations for the safety and betterment of our community. Committee Members: Linda Chavez-Thompson, Tri-Chair, Probation Officers Mary Finger, Tri-Chair, UFCW Shelley Potter, Tri-Chair, Bexar County AFT Shane Denn, Building ‘Trades Michael Edwards, Laborers Geronimo Guerra, CWA Homer Hernandez, NALC Wanda Longoria, Northside AFT Justice Lovin, San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel Marinella Murillo, AFGE Sherri Simonelli, USW, Local 9528 Tom Cummins, Ex-Officio Member, CLC President, Bexar County AFTShared Responsibility In collective bargaining negotiations, there are two sides at the table -- labor and management. Management includes the San Antonio Police Chief, the City Manager, the Mayor, and the City Couneil, Both sides have responsibility for provisions in the collectively bargained agreement. It is the responsibility of both labor and management to bargain in good faith and work to address the issues and concerns that have surfaced in the San Antonio community, Transparency Transparency by both the City and the Police Union is of vital importance in order to build community trust. Trust is essential if we hope to make sustainable change. To that end, we recommend the following: ¢ Make available the compilation of officer evaluations (not individual evaluations) on the San Antonio Police Department website. Create a live, fluid dashboard that includes © statistios/data on traffic stops (ethnicity and race, gender, age, zip codes, etc.). © complainant forms and outcome. © cite and release data (zip codes, officer names, was cite and release utilized, offense, etc.). Conduct policy and pattern analysis research and publish the results, Community Involvement ‘The San Antonio Police Department’s website states: “We are a part of the community and they are a part of us.” The Police Union frequently references “serving the community” in their social media posts, If the police department, the union, and city elected officials believe that there is and should be a connection between the police and the community, it is incumbent on both the management of the department and on the union leadership to have higher levels of authentic, meaningful community involvement. Community outreach cannot just happen when an election about collective bargaining is happening. It must be ingrained in the way the department and the union do their regular work, Our community involvement recommendations are: Collaborate with the community to create a formal process for authentic community input on policing in San Antonio. Authentic input means working with communityorganizations, including established and newer organizations, as well as working with formal and informal community leaders. Outreach must be broad and deep. Authentic input is mote than perfunctory. Announcing a community meeting on a department website or social media is not sufficient, Both management and the union must listen deeply and with the intention not to respond, but to understand. © Include more community members on committees, both department and union committees. © Institute independent, third-party oversight (community representative) of the Citizens Review mmittee, * Create a community-driven, collaborative process to formulate a new vision for public safety. This process must include authentic community engagement. ¢ Community members involved with civilian oversight must have access to command staff and senior leadership. Management and the union must work to increase proactive and positive visibility of officers in the community. ¢ Address the disparity and diversity of substations in different areas of the city. * Inctease the visibility of the police department's leadership and the union’s leadership out in the community with authentic opportunities for community interaction and engagement. (See definition of authentic in first bullet of this section.) Community Connection Its vital that officers and department management understand and value our various communities’ perspectives, values, and culture. They must connect with the communities they serve in such a way that the community views them as being invested in the success of the community and its residents. The community must feel that officers and department ‘management have some understanding of what life is like in the given community they serve and what the assets are as well as the needs and challenges, © Create a residency incentive program that results in more officers living in the city of San Antonio. © The City should utilize and publicize federally funded programs that incentivize police officers to live in the San Antonio community.# Include a bonus point in promotion considerations for those with a demonstrated history of community involvement. Criteria for this will need to be clearly defined. © Officers should be assigned to neighborhoods on a long-term basis. This will allow for officers to develop important relationships and connections within the community, which will provide the opportunity to build trust as well as a deeper understanding of the neighborhood. ¢ When there is a change to a long-term assignment, there should be a transition plan as any new officer is coming into the neighborhood. Officer Accountability and Support Officers must be held accountable for inappropriate behavior. They must also be provided the support they need to be able to do their jobs effectively and safely. When there are job performance issues, officers must be provided the support for improvement utilizing a progressive discipline model. There must be meaningful opportunities for officers, those on the ground, out in the field day-to-day, to provide input to command staff. And that input must be valued. Itis also important that management and the community understand that, under law, a union that is an exclusive bargaining agent has a “duty of fair representation.” “Duty of fait representation” includes the responsibility to bargain for and then enforce the collective bargaining agreement, It also includes processing grievances filed by the employees within the bargaining unit, A breach of the duty of fair representation is a violation of law and if the union does not fulfill that duty, it may be sued for “failure to represent.” Recommendations for support and accountability are as follows: © Provide ongoing, meaningful opportunities for officers to interact with command staff and senior leadership, © Institute annual evaluation of officers and command staff, Institute progressive discipline practices and policies. These policies must address patterns of inappropriate behavior, including escalating behavior over time. These policies must address officers who repeatedly do not turn on their body-worn cameras. These policies must address disparaging, demeaning, or dehumanizing, language directed towards civilians.© Ensure there is a system to track progressive discipline as well as the data that will help identify officers and command staff in need of intervention, training, support, and mentoring. # Implement a process, agreed upon by management and the union, for identifying officers and command staff in need of assistance due to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and CTSD (continuous traumatic stress disorder) | ® Analyze and publish data to determine if there is differentiation between suspensions i for minor infiactions and major infractions. © Consider higher hiring standards. Change the “180-day rule” from the date alleged police misconduct occurred to the date the misconduct was discovered by the department, Under Chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code, law enforcement agencies have 180 days from the date that alleged misconduct occurred to impose discipline on an officer, However, acts of misconduct are not always reported to the department on the day of occurrence, meaning that departments can lose valuable time needed to fairly investigate incidents. Changing the rule to the date of discovery will allow for more fair and thorough investigations, © Increase the time available for imposition of discipline upon officers found to have engaged in improper conduct from 180 days to 210 days. © Maintain a public database of substantiated complaints against officers. © Ensure that there is an effective protocol for officers returning to work after an incident -- a “fit to serve” evaluation program. Ongoing Training (While training is a part of officer support, we include it as a separate section because of its significance.) Ongoing training is important in any profession, Professional leaming for adults must be hands-on and participatory. “Sit and get” approaches to training adults are not effective Training cannot be one-shot events. There must be follow up and ongoing support as adult earners endeavor to change behavior and practices.Adults bring theit own accumulated experiences to the learning process. Adults generally gravitate to content that is relevant to their roles and responsibilities and that they can apply immediately. What is known as “transformative learning” can help change the way individuals think about themselves and the world. Reflective discourse and fastering an environment in which participants feel safe to challenge each other’s assumptions and consider other perspectives is important. https://lines.ed.gov/sites/defaul/files/11_%20TEAL Adult Learning Theory.pdf ‘Our recommendations for the area of ongoing training are * Ensure high-quality professional leaming that meets adult learning theory standards, © Include community members and subject matter experts in the development of and interaction during training, © Train supervisors on the collective bargaining agreement. Increase the number of annual training hours required for officers from 80 to 120. © Training must include: © A sequenced, continuing training program in the areas of implicit bias, systemic racism, and competency in cultural differences. Greater emphasis on de-escalation and tactical retreat skills. A sequenced, continuing training program on interacting with people with disabilities and/or who are experiencing mental health crises. © A.sequenced, continuing training program on interacting with youths, including the psychological, psychosocial, and emotional developments and changes that occur in adolescents and young adults and developmentally appropriate strategies for intervention. ¢ Evaluate the effectiveness of training annually and revise as needed. Include feedback from officers, community members, and subject matter experts. Evaluate trainers annually. Funding Investments, institutions, decriminalization, and certain other non-patrol activities can help reduce the mandate of police. Shifting funding from adding more militarized equipment to investing in mental health professionals and institutions that assist with these matters is astart to building bridges of trust between the community and police departments and can also be important to helping police officers maintain their own mental health, Weaponry is not the only way to deal with societal problems involving police, but, when necessary, the use of intermediate weapons is highly recommended to de-escalate incidents and allow for personnel and other resource entities to work with the police to help community members resolve their problems. Additionally, there must be acknowledgement that officers may see and experience terrible things that most of us will never experience (babies and children who have been abused or murdered, suicide victims, murder victims, vehicle accident victims, ete.) Ongoing trauma can have serious effects on emotional, mental, and physical health — anxiety, depression, and avoidance of emotions are just a few of the possible impacts. Funding must be allocated to support and sustain officers’ mental health. Our recommendations for the area of funding are: © The City should transition over a period of two years to having community members on the Citizens’ Review Committee who have training and experience in policing and law. We recommend the oversight committee have a budget for several full-time staff members to support the Citizen’ Review Committee mission. We suggest selecting and training staff and committee members on state laws and the history of the local police department, Currently, San Antonio does not have full-time staff members dedicated to this type of work. Community members on the Citizens’ Review Committee should be paid. Training is important because many civilians have strong opinions about police yet possess little knowledge about the ins and outs of patrol police work. This can affect how they process decision making. * Every officer should be required to check-in at least bi-annually with a mental health counselor. This should include a special emphasis on PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and CTSD (continuous traumatic stress disorder). © Police applicants must be screened by a mental health professional. © The Police Department must have mental health professionals available to officers and police administration, © Ensure there is sufficient funding for intermediate weapons and that they are kept in maximum working order. Intermediate weapons are less-lethal options available to officers, which are designed to produce pain and incapacitating effects and are intended to overcome resistance or stop the threat actions of an individual and/or tocontrol a situation without causing death or serious injury. Some specific intermediate ‘weapons include batons, tasers, oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray, and less-lethal disbursement devices for (small rubber or plastic pellets, smoke, OS or CS), pepper balls, distraction devices that temporarily disorient a subject’s senses with loud bangs and flashes of light, extended range impact weapons/kinetic energy impact projectile utilizing rubber bullets, sponge rounds, or bean bag rounds and extended range launcher (gas and disbursement devices). Comprehensive, differential response model (While comprehensive, differential response may also fall under funding, we include it separately because of its significance.) Develop and use a comprehensive, differential response model that brings together law | enforcement and non-police resources. This approach of using traditional and non-traditional problem solving results in alternative responses that match more appropriately the request and need for services, Additionally, by categorizing calls for service based on the response required, police can allocate resources so as not to be overwhelmed. | Investing in community programs that assist the community in dealing with domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse and neglect, can create trust in how police departments are viewed, Investing in counselors and mental health experts who are equipped to deal with domestic abuse and addiction issues can assist police departments in dealing with calls related to these types of concerns. Our recommendations in this area are: © Create crisis response teams similar to the CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) model, which has been in place in Eugene, Oregon since 1989, “The program mobilizes two-person teams consisting of a medic (a nurse, paramedic, or EMT) and a crisis worker who has substantial training and experience in the mental health field, The CAHOOTS teams deal with a wide range of mental health-related ctises, including conflict resolution, welfare checks, substance abuse, suicide threats, i and more, relying on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques. CAHOOTS staff are not law enforcement officers and do not carry weapons; their training and experience are the tools they use to ensure a non-violent resolution of crisis situations.” (https://whitebirdelinic.org/what-is-cahoots/)© The City and Police Department must communicate their crisis intervention training and program transparently with the community and provide resources for how best to access those programs. © Eliminate officer discretion in citable offenses. © Increase the portion of the public safety budget item dedicated to violence prevention services. Labor Relations Committee Article 9 of the current COSA/SAPOA CBA establishes a Labor Relations Committee that is composed of two members designated by the union and two members designated by the Police Chief. The committee is charged with discussing working conditions of officers, This section of the CBA acknowledges that “cooperation between Management and employees is indispensable to the accomplishment of sound and harmonious labor relations.” However, there is not a lot of substance to this section of the CBA. This is a missed opportunity to focus on why the two sides are coming together, to what forces they are responding, what problems, issues, concerns, and opportunities they hope to address, and what they hope will be different as a result of their work together. © Clarify who participates. Participants on the Labor Relations Committee should include leaders of both sides, as well as those chosen to participate in the formative sessions, © Clarify what is the joint Labor-Management effort in the Labor Relations Committee. © Clarify what the union and management agree to do together and the manner in which they agree to do it. The desired result is that the expectations that each party has for its joint efforts are shared and made clear. This article of the CBA shou © Define the purpose of the Labor Relations Committee. Establish ground rules for working together. Clarify the scope of the work. Identify the boundaries and constraints. Specify the mechanics of working together. ooo ° Reduce militarization Reduce the use of weapons designed for the battlefield except when such special weapons and tactical gear are necessary to handle dangerous, high-risk situations. The primary 10function of the military, and the primary function of the police are, and should be, different, ‘When police look like members of the military via their armament and behavior, the message that may unintentionally be communicated is that they are at war with the community. Recommendations for reducing militarization are: © Given that approximately 20% of police officers nationwide are former military and so come from a military background and mindset (compared with around 6% in the general population), we recommend training, beginning in the academy, that emphasizes the difference between going to war and serving a community. Training should address equipment differences as well as the reprogramming of muscle memory. © Increase the focus on intermediate weapons over lethal weapons. ‘* Disclose and justify the need and cost of any military equipment the department owns, (on the department website) Retention of Officers Officers face a myriad of day-to-day challenges, Just as officers must understand the challenges faced by community members, if'we are to attract and retain the highest quality officers, the City and the Department must implement and promote programs that can help community members better understand the day-to-day challenges faced by officers. The City and Department must use data, exit surveys/interviews, and input from officers and their union to determine why good officers leave. That information should be shared with the community and then utilized to shape programs and policies that will help retain high-quality officers, "