Report said county leaders should have listed more to first responders than activists
OAKLAND — Alameda County supervisors made residents “less safe” when they agreed to modify a law enforcement training exercise to suit the desires of activists instead of first responders, a move that resulted in the loss of federal funds, according to a civil grand jury.
An “ill-conceived” ad-hoc committee made up of people with entrenched opinions about the controversial training exercise known as Urban Shield swayed supervisors in March that the program should focus on preparing for natural disasters instead of fighting crime or terrorism, the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury concluded.
Two days after the supervisors refocused the program’s mission, the federal government withdrew Alameda County’s eligibility for funding. The overall loss amounted to about $5.6 million, the grand jury said in its 2018-19 final report, released Monday.
“I was very surprised when I read the report,” Supervisor Wilma Chan said in an interview Tuesday, adding that she believed the grand jury wrongly focused on the loss of funding rather than the board’s decision to change policy.
Urban Shield came under repeated fire since launching in 2007 because it featured first responders training in military-style gear and vehicles, which critics say reflects a wrong approach to law enforcement.
Supporters of the program say it provides an opportunity for police and firefighters from dozens of agencies to jointly practice responding to scenarios based on real-life events such as school shootings, the Las Vegas concert shooting in 2017 and the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Urban Shield was held annually each September at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.
“Although the members of the (board of supervisors) repeatedly stated their strong desire to continue receiving these funds, their mismanagement of both the review and approval processes led to the termination of the nationally recognized Urban Shield program and additional vital training, impairing the region’s preparedness for disaster,” the grand jury said.
The actions left Alameda County residents “less safe,” it added.
Despite the board’s action, Alameda County still received about $2.1 million in local and regional funds for emergency preparedness and training.
Other Bay Area counties received a combined $2.8 million of flexible funding for training.
The grand jury criticized supervisors for not relying more on advice from Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern and a representative from the Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative, which administers the federal money, when they said changing the program’s direction could undermine funding.
It also noted County Administrator Susan Muranishi made no recommendation on Urban Shield’s future, and that supervisors “appeared to be confused” as to how the committee reached its recommendations for changing the program’s focus.
Each supervisor appointed someone to the five-member committee, which included a Fremont police officer and a representative from the Stop Urban Shield Coalition, an activist group that campaigned against the exercise.
Supervisors approved 29 of the committee’s 63 recommendations.
“That such an important issue could be voted on amidst such a cloud of uncertainty is deeply troubling,” the grand jury said.
The grand jury also said the ad-hoc committee’s efforts to refocus Urban Shield were ultimately counter-productive.
“Not only did opponents fail to achieve their goals of redirecting the funds, but they sabotaged much that they had accomplished over the past few years,” the report said.
On Tuesday, Mohammed Shehk of the Stop Urban Shield Coalition said Sheriff Ahern “irresponsibly played politics and lost funding for the county.”
“It is deeply troubling that the grand jury report continues to peddle the false claim that making emergency preparedness exercises more holistic and community-inclusive is what lost the county funding,” Shehk said via email. “To this day, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has provided zero evidence that the supervisors’ recommendations contradicted grant requirements, despite being asked to provide it for months.”
Urban Shield was set up through the Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to train police and firefighters in urban areas considered at risk of a terrorist attack. The Bay Area was ranked fifth as a possible target, behind New York, Washington DC, Chicago and Los Anegles.
Participants in the local exercise came from throughout the Bay Area, as well as Israel, Bahrain and other countries.
The sight of police officers traveling in armored vehicles and wearing military-like gear drew fire from critics, who said it highlighted an aggressive approach to law enforcement that undermined trust with Muslims, immigrants, African-Americans and other people of color.
As a result, supervisors voted 3-2 to shift emphasis to emergency preparedness over preparing for a terrorist attack.
June 25, 2019
East Bay Times
By Peter Hegarty
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