Santa Clara County Supervisors Criticized for Tasers

By Brandon Pho, San Jose Spotlight

While the Santa Clara County sheriff is pushing to equip his deputies with tasers, a local civil rights group argues that the sheriff’s oversight authority is more of a rubber-stamping function.

In May, the county’s Office of Corrections and Law Enforcement Oversight voted in favor of a policy outlining how officers would use Tasers when they were deployed in jails and certain parts of the county. That drew resistance from community activists protesting Sheriff Bob Jonsen’s efforts to obtain the weapon. The Board of Supervisors agreed to review the idea, and the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP says the county should cut its ties with the OIR Group, the Southern California-based consulting team hired to run the oversight office and review use-of-force practices and policies.

“At a time of tight budgets and an urgent need for effective oversight of law enforcement practices, it is unacceptable to waste resources on a surveillance system that does not serve its intended purpose,” the Rev. Jethroe Moore, president of the local NAACP chapter, wrote in a June 16 letter to his superiors.

His letter expresses conflicting ideas about what true oversight means in California’s sixth-most populous county.

The OIR Group’s staff makes up the county’s oversight office. Founder Michael Gennaco is a former federal prosecutor who oversaw more than 20 federal court investigations into police misconduct and was chief counsel for the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review. Members of his staff have reviewed high-profile police brutality cases and run oversight offices for cities and counties across the state. Gennaco said the OIR Group’s role in Santa Clara County is not to advocate for or against Tasers — but to ensure that policies for their use, if approved, are common sense.

“We are standing by our position,” Gennaco told San José Spotlight. “We have not taken a position on whether or not the board should approve Tasers. We have worked with the sheriff’s office to develop a policy that, we hope, will ensure that when Tasers are approved, officers understand the rules of use so they do not violate them. The Taser is a dangerous weapon and can cause harm and violate people’s rights if used improperly.”

Moore said this is not real oversight.

“We want someone who can tell the board what the right choice is overall,” he told San José Spotlight.

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Sheriff Jonsen argues that the OIR “in no way condones” decisions in favor of the sheriff.

“OIR remains an independent, objective organization that makes recommendations that it believes are best practices,” he told San José Spotlight.

Susan Ellenberg, president of the Board of Supervisors – the only supervisor to oppose Taser research – said she takes Moore’s concerns seriously. But she reiterated that the terms of OIR Group’s contract with the county, which runs through 2025, call for it to “review the legality and transparency of the Sheriff’s Office’s policies and practices without engaging in political politics unless it conflicts with permissible practice.”

“(Moore) and I, along with several other stakeholders, are planning a conversation later this month to discuss the issues raised in his letter,” Ellenberg told San José Spotlight, adding that she has discussed Moore’s concerns directly with Gennaco. “I expect my conversation with Rev. Moore and others will provide further information on any additional direction that may be needed to ensure that the OIR group is operating within the scope of its contract.”

A majority of supervisors on May 21 supported testing Tasers for sheriff’s deputies on a smaller scale than Sheriff Jonsen originally requested. Supervisors said they were open to the weapon but not ready to approve its use. Jonsen will return in September with more details, and county health officials could conduct a peer-reviewed study on the weapon’s adverse health effects.

The sheriff’s office initially wanted to deploy between 300 and 1,100 Tasers. Jonsen argued that the safety of deputies in county jails was a growing concern and that Tasers could prevent deadly fights between inmates – and more deadly uses of force by deputies.

“We’ve shared drafts back and forth several times and it’s been an excellent collaborative work process to arrive at what we believe is a good policy that reflects best practices,” Julie Ruhlin, a director at OIR Group, told county supervisors at the May meeting.

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