A Sonoma County civil
grand jury found the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety has made
improvements to address gaps in operations that created an environment “ripe
for misconduct” in the years since two officers were indicted for conspiracy
and extortion, but said the department can take additional steps to prevent
future incidents. The 18-member panel acknowledged department procedures have
been updated and a new command structure provides nearly round-the-clock
supervision of officers. Morale among officers has improved and support among
residents remains high, the jury said.
Still, jurors recommended
additional checks and balances be implemented.
The report specifically
looked at how lax enforcement of department policies and gaps in supervision
allowed a former sergeant and officer teamed up on the city’s controversial
drug interdiction program to illegally confiscate drugs and cash during traffic
stops between 2015 and 2017.
The allegations were first
reported in 2018 by Kym Kemp, author of Humboldt County’s Redheaded Blackbelt
news blog, and by KQED, and were broadened in an investigation by The Press
Democrat.
The extortion scandal
prompted civil rights lawsuits, various internal and outside investigations and
the federal prosecution of Brendon “Jacy” Tatum, a former sergeant once honored
by the city for his drug interdiction work, and Joseph Huffaker, an officer who
resigned in 2019 after being paid $75,000 in a severance deal approved by the
City Council.
The revelations led to the
abrupt retirement of the department’s chief, the restructuring of its command
structure and a broader examination of policing in Sonoma County’s third
largest city.
Tatum resigned in June
2018 while under investigation and last year pleaded guilty to extortion,
falsifying police reports and tax evasion. He is expected to be sentenced in
December while Huffaker’s case is going to trial.
The grand jury returned
seven recommendations that included requiring annual performance reviews of the
department director, getting officer feedback as part of that process and
creating more opportunities for the City Council and public to weigh in on
department matters geared to further improve department oversight.
“While significant steps
have been taken to improve supervision and enforcement of departmental
regulations and policies, further improvements are needed to enhance the
oversight of the department by the city manager and the City Council and to
further enhance adherence to departmental regulations,” the jury wrote in its
report finalized in June.
The City Council is
expected to discuss the report and consider the city’s response on Tuesday. A
copy of the city’s proposed response shows officials contested many of the
jury’s findings and said the department has made improvements that have reduced
the risk of officer misconduct.
Public Safety Director Tim
Mattos, who was hired to lead the embattled department in December 2018, said
he was surprised the grand jury took on the topic years after allegations first
emerged. He defended the department’s work to strengthen policies and implement
measures to ensure greater accountability.
“Nothing like this has
happened again,” he said in an interview. “We can’t seem to get out from under
that umbrella, but hopefully now that the grand jury has come out with their
report … perhaps this will be what propels us forward and we can get out of the
shadow of what happened six years ago.”
Three areas of investigation
The grand jury sought to
understand how Tatum and Huffaker were able to operate under the radar of
department management and gauge whether steps the city has taken will prevent
similar incidents.
Most grand jury
investigations are the result of citizen complaints but this case was
self-initiated, according to the report.
Jurors interviewed people
within and outside the department, reviewed department policies, internal
documents, City Council meetings, media reports and council-commissioned audits
as part of its investigation.
The city declined to
provide jurors a copy of an audit conducted by a consulting firm operated by
retired Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan, citing attorney privilege.
Here’s what jurors found.
Inadequate supervision:
The grand jury concluded
that a lack of supervision by top-level command staff allowed the two officers’
actions to continue unnoticed.
At the time, just three
commanders oversaw 80 employees and they only worked day shifts, leaving a
14-hour gap in supervision. The department approved a new command structure in
December 2018 that led to the creation of two deputy chief positions and four
lieutenants and made several internal promotions to fill the new positions.
Jurors found the changes
increased managerial supervision of staff to 20 hours daily and that sergeants
are available early mornings when command staff isn’t.
Procedures not followed:
The department showed lax
enforcement of department policies that could’ve prevented misbehavior, the
jury found.
Tatum and Huffaker used
unmarked vehicles without the department tracking their use as required, and
there was limited tracking of when officers were operating outside the
department’s jurisdiction, the report states.
There was poor tracking of
evidence, too. Evidence and items seized during traffic stops weren’t placed in
the evidence room or were removed without authorization, the report states.
That finding and others by the jury were previously reported in The Press
Democrat’s investigation and detailed in court documents.
One example jurors cited:
Tatum and Huffaker reported seizing more than 750 pounds of marijuana but only
booked into the evidence room a 10-pound sample. The remaining marijuana was
never found and there is no evidence the department verified it was destroyed.
The jurors also found
while the officers were working on the drug interdiction team they didn’t
consistently wear body cameras.
Few opportunities for
outside oversight: The grand jury found oversight of the department by city
administrators and the City Council needed to be bolstered.
Jurors found there was no
requirement for the director to meet on a regular basis with the city manager
or provide regular department updates to the City Council in public.
While other department
heads received annual written evaluations, the public safety chief didn’t.
Former Director Brian Masterson, who stepped down in 2018 amid the turmoil, had
one evaluation during his five years leading the department, the jurors found.
In 2017, Masterson’s
contract was renewed and he received a large pay raise despite officers’
discontent and concerns raised about command staff being disengaged and
mandatory overtime, according to the report. Rank-and-file members of the
department overwhelmingly supported a no-confidence vote a week later. The
jurors found his replacement, Mattos, has only received one written evaluation
in three years on the job.
The panel said a formal
annual evaluation “could provide early detection of problems and an opportunity
to remedy them before they escalate.”
The city said management
provides ongoing feedback to staff through counseling memos, emails, phone
calls and in-person meetings. While there is no requirement that the director
and manager meet, meetings have occurred weekly at City Manager Darrin Jenkins’
request, the city said.
The next steps
Mattos and other city
officials, in interviews and in the city’s written response, pushed back on
some of the jury’s findings and said the department has taken steps to address
department processes and community relations and additional work is underway.
The city plans to adopt
some of the jury’s recommendations, including annual job evaluations for the
public safety chief and obtaining input from department personnel as part of
that process. City management will also begin meeting with the officers’
association.
The city will study the
costs of installing GPS devices on all police vehicles, another recommendation,
as part of the budget process next year. The department has implemented new
procedures since 2017 that require vehicles to be signed out and the new
command structure provides better oversight of vehicle use, Mattos said.
Mattos said he was aware
revamping the department would be a heavy lift when he was hired nearly four
years ago and he and staff have worked hard to be more open and give the public
better insight into department practices.
Moving forward and keeping
staff morale high has been “tough” as additional allegations, lawsuits and
media reports came out in the years after the extortion scandal first broke, he
said.
But the chief said he’s
glad to have guided the department and he hopes they continue to make changes
to move on from the troubled period. The city renewed Mattos’ contract in
December for three more years.
“We’re trying to get
better,” he said. “The people responsible are long gone and are being dealt
with and the people in this department want to move on and they want to be
known for what they’re doing, not what happened.”
Mayor Jackie Elward, who
ran in 2020 on a platform that included calls for more police accountability,
said she was proud of the work the department has done to repair relationships
with the community, change department culture and be more transparent.
“As the grand jury
acknowledged, the city has made numerous improvements in addressing the
concerns that were raised,” Elward said. “The city is heading in the right
direction and I’m happy to see the changes happening.”
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Paulina Pineda
August 23, 2022
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