Correspondence - #14 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orozco, Norma From: Housing is a Human Right OC < Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2023 3:13 PM To: eComment Cc: Vazquez, Benjamin; Amezcua, Valerie; Penaloza, David; Bacerra, Phil; Phan, Thai; Lopez, Jessie; Hernandez, Johnathan Subject: Agenda Item 14: Opposition to Lexipol Contract August 29, 2023 Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 ecomment@santa-ana.org Via Email Re: Item 14: Approve Master Service Agreement with Lexipol, LLC to Provide Policy Manual Maintenance and Support to the Police Department Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers, Housing is a Human Right OC urges you to vote NO on Item 14, the proposal to Approve the Master Service Agreement with Lexipol, LLC to Provide Policy Manual Maintenance and Support to the Police Department (Department). Instead, we urge you to explore alternatives that involve community driven policies with public feedback. The City should explore options such as allocating additional resources to the City Attorney's office for in-house police policy maintenance, and collaborate with the newly established City's Police Oversight Commission (Commission) to oversee and monitor the Department Policies. Last year, the Council unanimously delayed the approval of the proposed contract with Lexipol due to community concerns. City staff committed to come back with alternatives to the company's services, ones involving public feedback. However, as of now, no further updates or public feedback have been provided to determine alternatives. The City must remain committed to addressing community concerns and ensuring transparency by having the public provide their input in the process. Lexipol is a police lobbying group that subverts state law and best policing practices by selling boilerplate policies to police departments. In 2020, after the California Legislature passed AB 392: the necessary standard for police use of deadly force, Lexipol released an unlawful use of force policy that several local law enforcement agencies, including the City's Department, purchased and adopted. Organizations such as Chispa and ACLU SoCal successfully contested this policy, and worked alongside the City to bring it in compliance with the law. The City Attorney's office sent a letter to Lexipol that their policy was "legally deficient" and "does not precisely comport with the legislative changes set forth in AB 392." This incident is just one of several instances illustrating Lexipol's consistent pattern of undermining current legal legislation aimed at fostering accountability and transparency in policing. In addition, Lexipol is not the only option for police departments. Local governments have created systems for police rulemaking, independent of Lexipol. Some local governments have implemented a hybrid-model wherein the jurisdiction subscribed to the Lexipol service but continues to publish its own policy manual. Local governments that publish police department policy manuals independent of Lexipol include: Los Angeles Police Department (PD), San Diego PD, San Francisco PD, San Jose PD, Stockton PD and more. 1