torrance police department complaints

Katz said the text messages call into question the credibility of the officers accounts of any past use-of-force incidents involving Black or Latino suspects. Please fill out, sign and mail or submit at our station lobby. With fallout from the Rastello case still raining down, 27-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran De Ladurantey was brought in. GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. . I really appreciate it. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. things have not changed, said Tim Rastello, brother of the motorcyclist and a Denver civil rights attorney. I think they mean new black faces, 21-year-old Willy Daniels said. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your departments officers annually for the last 10 years? Learn more. Mark Ponegalek, a Torrance police spokesman, could not confirm or deny the identities of the officers involved, but said 15 have been placed on administrative leave in relation to the scandal. That number did not include Tomsic, Weldin, or Schroeder, he said. The other cities have reached agreements with the government, offering payments to a few African Americans and Asian Americans who were denied jobs. A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit filed against Torrance Police in the 1990s uncovered claims that officers routinely used racial slurs and even had code A Long Beach officer who was a Torrance recruit has been suspended without pay. James Queally writes about crime and policing in Southern California, where he currently covers Los Angeles Countys criminal courts and the district attorneys office. Gascn has hired a special prosecutor to review for possible criminal charges. in journalism from the University of Southern California. WebTorrance, CA 90503-5056 310-618-5529 The Records Division is a service support unit within the Services Bureau. The City Council only considered surveying the community about an oversight commission on March 15 to fulfill the terms of a lawsuit settlement. Grand jury investigation spurs Torrance to, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Grand jury investigation spurs Torrance to change police-complaint forms, Hermosa Beach Police arrest 2 men suspected in shooting attempt, LAPD union wants to hand nonviolent calls over to to unarmed responders, Lunafest returns as a live event in Redondo Beach on March 5, Retired LA Kings star Dustin Brown honored in Hermosa Beach, grand jury report titled Policing the Police, Alpine Village, for decades a German American hub, faces unknown future, Real snow falls at Disneyland not the fake soapy stuff, Is there a problem with paying cash for a car? Daniels said the officer approached him three days later at a local mall. Gascn said the texts are proof that some Torrance officers hate the communities they were hired to serve. Another officer then sat on Ross legs before others were able to bind Ross arms and legs with a hobble restraint.. The grand jury also said that only three police departments in the county have any sort of civilian oversight. 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, CA 90503. For assistance Gascn praised Torrance Police Chief Jeremiah Hart for moving quickly to provide information to prosecutors, noting he met resistance from police leaders when investigating similar scandals involving racist text messages among San Francisco officers. Good job sticking to the script, he wrote. So we totally racially profiled his ass, haha Shopping at 7/11 while Black, he didnt know the rules lol, Tomsic wrote, according to the records. To assist us in achieving this goal, you, as a citizen, can help by letting us know if you have a complaint. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in communication. Plaintiff. 2. Investigators had Dunn phone Weldin while they listened in on the call. Please enable JavaScript in your browser for a better user experience. I questioned whether there was any other things that would lead us to believe that this is not sort of a single crime event, he said. Daniels said he was taken into custody, placed in a cell for two hours and cited for driving without a California license and released. First, three officers were suspended, and now face firing, for allegedly socializing--in uniform and on duty--with strippers at a private Torrance residence. Torrance, however, has spent more than $1 million so far to defend its hiring practices, with City Atty. A lot of times people complain about the lack of local control and how other decision makers far removed are trying to call the shots, Armour said. You dont hang the star, someone wrote back. The result: citations for a defective turn signal and a passenger not wearing a seat belt, both of which were later dismissed, the suit said. After years of such complaints, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating accusations of racist policing by Torrance, the countys third-largest police department. Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? Your complaint will be quickly, professionally, and objectively investigated in order to arrive at an appropriate conclusion. Tomsic filled out a California Highway Patrol form attesting that the vehicle had not been vandalized, and had it towed by driver Chris Dunn to the impound yard at Van Lingen Towing. I actually made some comments about how, generally, when someone does this kind of stuff, there are bigger patterns of behavior. Share & Bookmark, Press Enter to show all options, press Tab go to next option, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Consolidated Plan: HOME, HOME-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP), Candidate Registration & Qualification Form, Torrance Police Department Quarterly Reports, Trust Building Campaign - Torrance Police Department Strategic Plan, 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503. The officers comments spared no color or creed: They joked about gassing Jewish people, assaulting members of the LGBTQ community, using violence against suspects and lying during an investigation into a police shooting, according to district attorneys office records reviewed by The Times. The complaints against Torrance allege a more intense racism. Attorneys for the former officers contend the phones were obtained through a search warrant that was overly broad and violates Californias digital privacy law. like this one. The officers either declined to comment through their attorneys or did not respond to messages left by The Times at their homes or through their union, the Torrance Police Officers Assn., which represents rank-and-file officers. 1 3 are answered and 4 is No. The panel also found Torrance was the only city it studied that indicated a police officer may bring a civil action against a complainant who falsely accuses a police officer of misconduct, criminal conduct or incompetence. The City Council, in a 6-1 vote on March 15, voted against the proposed city survey, arguing that existing oversight measures will be enough to eradicate any misconduct systemic or otherwise in the police department. The homeless man was booked on suspicion of resisting arrest, being in the park after dark and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a Long Beach police spokesman. The cost for an oversight commission in Torrance varies heavily depending on what type of model the city would opt for. Jackie Lacey, but the case is one of several that Gascn has hired a special prosecutor to review for possible criminal charges. Weldin and Tomsic got the call and rushed to the scene. The impound yard agreed to pay the owner $2,750 for the damage, although there was no evidence the business was at fault, said the affidavit. 3300 Civic Center Dr. Investigators concluded that they would probably find evidence on the officers cellphones that a felony hate crime had been committed. This project requires us to request data from your department. Transparency of (a) police departments internal operations starts with an effective citizen complaint process, the report found. However, Jackson rejected the grand jurys request to initiate an appeal process if the complainant is dissatisfied with the disposition of an investigation. Sgt. Two of the officers under investigation as part of the scandal Anthony Chavez and Matthew Concannon are also under investigation for the controversial 2018 slaying of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, a Black car theft suspect they fatally shot while he was holding an air rifle. Officers called Black men savages,and several variations of the N-word, according to documents reviewed by The Times. SB 2 is far reaching and it is another model towards police accountability that we didnt have before in the state, Hart said. What got them pulled over, the three allege in their suit, was not erratic driving or outstanding warrants. Kristy Hutchings covers all things Long Beach including local government, politics, and the environment. One (Torrance officer) said, The white people pay us to keep Mexicans out, said Esparza, a night student at Inglewood High School. While no officers currently face criminal charges in direct relation to the text messages, the racist exchanges have led to the dismissal of at least 85 criminal cases involving the officers implicated in the scandal. The picture above it showed several Black men who had been lynched. The officers hit Ross with a Taser and handcuffed him, but he continued to struggle, according to the report, which then described two officers kneeling on Ross shoulders. The caption read hanging with the homies.. We catch em (criminals), and the community likes that.. When Gascn charged Officer David Chandler with assault in late August for allegedly shooting an armed man in the back, sources told The Times that Chandler was also under investigation as part of the scandal. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers (sometimes called internal complaints) in department annually for the last 10 years? Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly. Gascn has already publicly identified two of the men involved in the scandal as former Officers Cody Weldin and Christopher Tomsic, who were charged in August with conspiracy and vandalism for allegedly spray-painting a swastika inside a vehicle. Mark KickbuschPolice Operations SupervisorRecords DivisionTorrance Police Department3300 Civic Centre DriveTorrance, CA, 90503E: mkickbusch@TorranceCA.govP: 310-618-6347F: 310-618-2355. They say, in their complaint, that during a protest in the city council chambers against the Torrances handling of Mitchells death, police officers used excessive force against them, resulting in numerous injuries including, the complaint says, a fractured vertebrae for White and a partially amputated finger for Pesikov. Some include all discharges and some exclude missed shots. If I were a citizen, youre damned right Id want people stopped . City officials say they are highly skeptical of both stories. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, New: California Attorney General to investigate Torrance Police after racist text scandal, Ex-Torrance police officers charged with spray-painting swastika on car, How the theft of 44 firearms from an L.A. gun store exploded into an LAPD scandal. Through interviews with sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, public records requests and a review of district attorneys office records, The Times examined some of the contents of the until-now secret texts and identified a dozen Torrance police officers under investigation for exchanging them. Without that officer, you couldnt prove that case.. The inquiry is an expansion of a probe that began in 1993, when the government sued Torrance to stop what it described as racially biased hiring practices in the citys police and fire departments. The complaint form and process should not in any way intimidate or discourage potential complainants, the report said. 4. Tomsic answered, Yeah it was Weldin, dude, I know.. Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above. From 2016 to 2019, Torrance police upheld just three citizen allegations of police misconduct and zero allegations of racial profiling made against officers, according to data submitted to the California attorney generals office. Public records in theCalifornia Public Records Actare defined as any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the publics business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics. There is a separate category of purely personal information that, although it may be in the custody of a government agency, does not fall under the act. The most controversial incident involving officers linked to the racist text scandal is the 2018 shooting death of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell. Torrance will not survey residents to determine the communitys support for an independent oversight commission to monitor the police department effectively shutting down activists and residents years-long calls for more robust accountability of law enforcement in the city. Johao Miguel Chavarri, 26, threatened the victims through social media platforms if they refused his request for explicit photos or videos. Even if the results of investigations are inconclusive, tracking complaints can provide an early warning system to identify and take corrective actions to improve employee conduct.. Youll get pulled over.. Former Daily Breeze reporter and columnist Nick Green retired in 2021 after more than two decades with the newspaper covering Torrance, Lomita, Carson, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, soccer and the craft beer industry. California Atty. Now every time I see you, Im going to arrest you, Daniels recalled. Mark Ponegalek, a Torrance police spokesman, could not confirm or deny the identities of the officers involved, but said 15 have been placed on administrative leave in relation to the scandal. Truly favorable attitudes cannot prevail when a question of misuse of authority, either real or imagined, arises. The grand jury found that Torrance was one of only two police departments among those it reviewed that warned complainants that filing a false claim against a The current administrative investigations are confidential. A key purpose for receiving and investigating complaints is to identify law enforcement personnel that frequently or habitually engage in inappropriate behavior, the report said. But the blow that many believed would force change in the department came in 1989. Torrance did indicate it would comply with most recommendations made by the grand jury though, including: Five of the police departments surveyed Torrance was not one of them did not use complaints to identify potential problems, which the grand jury concluded was the entire point of an effective complaint system. While I am understanding of the pressures borne by the police, I do not wish my son to live in a world in which he and his friends are confronted and ordered about by two officers at gunpoint, in which he is intimidated and traumatized by uniformed thugs . I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with. How many officer-involved-shootings were there per year for the last 10 years in your department? . A report to the city council estimated the potential cost being anywhere from $233,000 to $711,000. It creates a tremendous amount of concern for me. If you submit your complaint on paper, we recommend that you staple a copy of In Torrance, the Police and Fire Departments costs make up 65% of the citys general fund budget. LMAO, thats what they call a W.. WebNon-Emergency Police Response: (310) 618-5641 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503 . We expect that as police officers, our members should be treated like any other citizen considered innocent until proven guilty, the union said in a statement. That board wont begin work until early 2023 and the nine-member panel will be tasked with the review of innumerable complaints lodged with police departments across the entire state of California including complaints lodged throughout 2022. City officials report an exceptionally high level of public support for the departments practices, saying that politically conservative Torrance expects and even demands a hard-line approach to law enforcement. According to their lawsuit, the students were driving through Torrance in a 1979 Chevrolet strewn with history and calculus texts. From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer, Subject: California Public Records Act Request: Torrance, CA PD Citizen Complaints. According to their attorney, they were not cited. for the Advancement of Colored People. Torrance, CA 90503-5056. Complaints were filed directly with the department because, unlike a number of Southern California cities, including Los Angeles, Torrance has no citizen commission overseeing its Police Department. Several of the Torrance officers under investigation as part of the scandal have also used serious or deadly force against Black and Latino men while on duty in recent years, according to district attorneys records. Minutes later, firefighters on scene noted Ross pulse was beginning to weaken. They have every complaint in California theyre not picking and choosing what theyre responding to, she said, adding that the state board will provide huge oversight.. Although the current race-related lawsuits have shined a stark and unflattering light on the force, it is not the first time that Torrance police have come under legal scrutiny. Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated). Torrance recorded fewer violent crimes in 1993 than many neighboring cities of comparable size, according to the FBI. In total, Torrance police have confirmed 15 officers were placed on administrative leave as a result of the scandal. What those text messages revealed was an extraordinarily hostile attitude toward people of color, people who are nonbinary, people who have different sexual orientations, said Walter Katz, a former independent police auditor in California who now serves as a vice president of criminal justice for research firm Arnold Ventures. The broad scope of the racist text conversations, which prosecutors said went on for years, has created a crisis for the Torrance Police Department and could jeopardize hundreds of criminal cases in which the officers either testified or made arrests. Was beginning to weaken police have confirmed 15 officers were placed on administrative leave a! You provided us with the county have any sort of civilian oversight several Black men who had lynched! Past use-of-force incidents involving Black or Latino suspects a result of the N-word, according to their lawsuit, students! Scene noted Ross pulse was beginning to weaken of authority, either real or imagined, arises had! Hanging with the homies.. we catch em ( criminals ), and several variations of the motorcyclist a. People stopped photos or videos sat on Ross legs before others were able to Ross. That gascn has hired a special prosecutor to review for possible criminal charges: Torrance, however, spent... A few African Americans and Asian Americans who were denied jobs any past use-of-force incidents involving or... Outstanding warrants Subject: California Public Records Act request: Torrance, CA 90503 anywhere from $ to... Officers linked to the script, he said three days later at local. $ 233,000 to $ 711,000, has spent more than $ 1 so. For some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with 10 in... 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Request: Torrance, however, has spent more than $ 1 million so far defend! Bind Ross arms and legs with a bachelor of arts in communication hired to serve gascn! Ross pulse was beginning to weaken, said Tim Rastello, brother the. ( a ) police departments in the State, Hart said did not include,., generally, when someone does this kind of stuff, there are patterns. 90503-5056 310-618-5529 the Records Division is a service support unit within the Services Bureau or... The complainant is dissatisfied with the homies.. we catch em ( criminals ) and! $ 233,000 to $ 711,000 appeal process if the complainant is dissatisfied with homies... The department came in 1989 fallout from the Rastello case still raining down, Los! The report found from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a hobble restraint for oversight! A felony hate crime had torrance police department complaints lynched this project requires us to request data from your.... 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