Police

Each individual in an organization brings with them a diverse set of perspectives, work and life experiences, as well as religious and cultural differences. The power of diversity can only be unleashed and its benefits reaped when we recognize these differences and learn to respect and value each individual irrelevant of their background. Sebastopol Police Department personnel were asked to participate in an anonymous survey that highlights some of their characteristics and experiences and allows for our community to see the diversity our SPD personnel bring to our department and our city.

A relationship of trust and confidence between members of the Sebastopol Police Department and the community we serve is essential to effective law enforcement. Police officers and department members must be free to exercise their best judgment and to initiate law enforcement action in a reasonable, lawful and impartial manner, without fear of reprisal. Likewise, police officers and department members have a special obligation to respect the rights of all persons.

The Sebastopol Police Department acknowledges its responsibility to establish a system that allows our community to provide commendations, complaints, and comments, along with procedures that recognize the good work they do and recommendations for improvement. The Sebastopol Police Department also acknowledges its responsibility to establish a system of accountability and corrective action when a department member conducts himself/herself improperly, but also will protect him/her from unwarranted criticism when he/she discharges his/her duties properly. It is the purpose of these procedures to provide a prompt, equitable, open and expeditious disposition of commendations, complaints, and comments regarding the conduct of any members of the Department and the Department as a whole.

The below complaint data reflects information regarding complaints that resulted in internal affairs investigations. The complaint types resulting in internal affairs investigations are determined based on the Sebastopol Police Department’s Standards of Conduct as defined in the Sebastopol Police Department Policy Manual. The following definitions are provided to help clarify the information listed in the below complaint data table.

Definitions

Affiliation: Business, Resident, Non-Resident

Unfounded: When the investigation discloses that the alleged act(s) did not occur or did not involve Department personnel. Complaints which are determined to be frivolous will fall within the classification of unfounded.

Exonerated: When the investigation discloses that the alleged act occurred, but that the act was justified, lawful and/or proper.

Not Sustained: When the investigation discloses that there is insufficient evidence to sustain the complaint or fully exonerate the employee.

Sustained: When the investigation discloses sufficient evidence to establish that the act occurred and that it constituted misconduct.

Complaints:

2024 – (3) Verbal citizen complaints for discourteous behavior by officers. The citizens decided not to follow through with the complaint. Those were still investigated internally, counseling occurred, and the complaints were closed.    

In late 2015, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 71 (AB 71), adding Government Code Section 12525.2. This statute mandates law enforcement agencies (LEA) in California report use of force incidents that result in serious bodily injury or death or involve the discharge of a firearm. Effective January 1, 2016, all LEAs were required to begin collecting data on use of force incidents for submittal to the Department of Justice (DOJ) beginning January 1, 2017.

The Sebastopol Police Department complies with this reporting requirement and reports all qualifying use of force incidents to the DOJ. The Sebastopol Police Department reports all use of force incidents on a rolling five year basis. SPD has not had any AB 71 reportable use of force incidents during this reportable period. You can also obtain data on statewide use of force incidents at the State of California’s Open Justice website at https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/.

A use of force is defined as any level of physical force employed by an officer beyond that which is necessary to handcuff a compliant subject. Examples include, but are not limited to, a takedown, the use of personal body weapons, physical restraint of a non-compliant subject, any force that results in visible injury to a person, deadly force, control holds or pain-compliance techniques on a non-compliant subject, use of a restraint device, deployment/activation of any less-lethal device (e.g., Taser, baton, chemical weapon, etc.), K-9 bite, or the direct and intentional pointing of a firearm at a person(s). It is not a use of force when a subject submits to a search, submits to commands by an Officer and allows himself/herself/themself to be handcuffed or otherwise detained, or surrenders to a show of force, such as the display of an Officer’s weapon(s) or a K-9 prior to actual deployment.

The Sebastopol Police Department’s Use of Force Policy can be viewed at Policy 300. Additional data regarding Sebastopol Police Department’s use of force incidents can be viewed by clicking the button below.

Assembly Bill (AB) 953 enacted The Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 (RIPA) into law which, among other things, requires each California law enforcement agency (LEA) employing peace officers to annually report their stop data to the Attorney General. As defined in the regulations guiding RIPA Stop Data collection, a “stop” is any detention by a peace officer of a person or any peace officer interaction with a person in which the officer conducts a search. This data include both pedestrian and vehicle stops.

The data elements are statutorily mandated by the regulations underlying RIPA and include person-level and stop-level information (e.g., actions taken, reason for stop). Officers are required to record their perception of the identity characteristics pertaining to each stopped person, including their; race or ethnicity, gender, approximate age, lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender (LGBT) status, English fluency, and disability. Officers are prohibited from asking the person stopped to self-identify these characteristics. Consequently, officer perceptions of identity characteristics may differ from how an individual self-identifies.

AB 953 requires an agency that employs one or more but less than 334 peace officers to issue its first annual report by April 1, 2023. The Sebastopol Police Department falls under this requirement. RIPA Stop Data can be found at https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/data. Scroll to the middle of the page to the RIPA Stop Data section. There, you will find links to downloadable Zip files with data for the state divided by year. The Zip files are large and will take several minutes to download. Once downloaded, search for Sebastopol data. 

In 2020, the Sebastopol City Council contracted Jerry Threet, former Director of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach and Chair of the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights, to complete and independent audit of the Sebastopol Police Department’s overall policies, practices, training, and organizational culture. On June 17, 2021, the Sebastopol City Council and community received an independent review report from Mr. Threet, who presented recommendations based on his independent review.

The below documents show the status of each recommendation made in the report. An additional review and report was presented to City Council and the community on 12/3/24.