Report on Lawson homicide: Decentralization hampered response
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved responses to two civil grand jury reports released earlier this year.
One
report dealt with the killing of David Josiah Lawson in April 2017 and the
other dealt with inspections of correctional facilities in the county.
Lawson report
The
board was required to respond to a finding in the Lawson report that “a
decentralized dispatch system hampered communication and added delays to the
emergency and law enforcement response.”
The
board partially agreed with the finding, Deputy County Administrative Officer
Sean Quincey said.
“The
simple truth is that the process takes time,” Quincey told the board. “And even
if the responding agencies share a facility or system. However, the board
realizes that there are benefits to having a centralized dispatch system with
other agencies.”
The
report recommended the county establish a centralized dispatch center.
The
board responded that “the recommendation requires further analysis.”
Humboldt
County Sheriff William Honsal said work is currently underway on looking at
ways to consolidate dispatch.
“This
has been studied and this continues to be studied as far as a joint
communication center, and we are moving forward with that,” Honsal said. “We were planning on bringing this before the
board before COVID happened, we actually had it scheduled but then we had to
draw back from that.”
He
added he believes it would be a good move for the county.
“We
think it will be beneficial for our entire community but it’s got to be
something that this board will sign off on,” he said.
Staff
anticipates bringing the idea of centralized dispatch back to the board by the
end of the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Additionally,
the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office was required to respond to a
finding that “any determination that the David Josiah Lawson homicide was not a
hate crime is premature.”
DA
Maggie Fleming said she agreed with the finding. The DA’s office was also
required to respond to a recommendation that the “final determination of hate
crime designation should be withheld until a perpetrator is charged,” which
Fleming said “has been implemented and will continue to be implemented.”
“Premature
charging decisions driven not by evidence but by narratives popular with some
segments of society do not serve justice,” Fleming wrote in her response.
“Ethical prosecutors do not make such decisions.”
Correctional sites report
The
county’s human resources department and the county’s probation department were
required to respond to a report on correction facilities.
The
report found the time it takes to vet, recruit and hire staff “impede the
effective delivery of mental health care.”
County
HR disagreed with the finding and shared the timeline for hiring three
substance abuse counselors from the time the advertisement was place to the
time a referred list was shared with the hiring department: One took 17 days,
one took 48 days and one opening in which recruitment closed May 18 is still
ongoing, according to the staff report.
The
county will not implement the recommendation to “examine and improve their
effectiveness in hiring, onboarding, and recruitment processes to better fill
vacancies.”
The
probation department disagreed with a finding that “increasing the training and
certification of substance use disorder counselors in Juvenile Hall should
increase the effectiveness of treatment of juvenile detainees.”
“As
of the writing of this response, 11 of the 12 substance use counselors employed
by the Department of Health and Human Services have their state license,” the
probation department stated in response.
The
probation department was also called on to seek more volunteer-led learning
opportunities for youth in juvenile hall, a recommendation the department
states it has implemented.
Programs
available to youth in the juvenile hall include everything from drumming and
origami to religious services and access to recovery programs.
Eureka
Times-Standard
By RUTH SCHNEIDER | rschneider@times-standard.com
October 6, 2020
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