Transparency & Accountability

TL;DR: the Sacramento Police Department seems to be able to get anyway with doing anything they want, including murdering our community members, breaking the law, violating peoples' constitutional rights, and engaging in targeted racial profiling and discrimination. So, they deserve a raise, right?

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TL;DR: Sacramento City Manager - and all around disappointment - Howard Chan attempted to remove funding for the RydeFreeRT program (a program that costs the City $1M...by contrast, this budgeting cycle we gave the police a $30M raise), but thanks in large part to community mobilization, this program will remain funded for another year! Unfortunately the City only covered $250,000 of the cost, with the remaining $750,000 being split between Sac RT and the Sacramento, Natomas, Elk Grove, and Twin Rivers Unified school districts. Permanent funding for this program will continue to be fought for.

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This month, SJPC is focusing on local elections. As a reminder to our readers, SJPC is a 501c-3 and therefore cannot endorse candidates running campaigns. For this month’s newsletter we are centering two candidates whose most recent runs for office have come to a conclusion as of the March 5th primary: Sac City Councilmembers Mai Vang and Katie Valenzuela. We are striving to use this month to focus on the importance of grassroots candidates and building progressive majorities in local governing bodies. 

In January of this year, following a council meeting in which dozens of community members showed up to demand that Sacramento address the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, Councilmembers Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang proposed a draft of a ceasefire resolution, calling for an immediate end to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

This write-up was informed by a conversation between SJPC and Dr. Corrine McIntosh Sako, Chair of the Sacramento County Mental Health Board. Direct quotes from Dr. Sako will be sprinkled throughout this write-up!

Today, we’re reporting back on a conversation we had with Eleanor Oliver, a member of Decarcerate Sacramento, who took the time to share their story regarding the criminal legal system with us!

This week we’re taking a look at the false narratives, lies, and propaganda fed to folks in the Sacramento area (and across the country) about the “necessity” of law enforcement (LE).

For months now, the Sacramento City Council has been suffering from a plague of malicious callers using vile racial slurs during public comment at their weekly meetings. These commenters are a continuation of a problem which began several months ago, when a specific individual, Ryan Messano, came to meetings in person to spout off white supremacist, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

At the June 20th Sacramento City Council meeting, the City's Office of Public Safety Accountability presented their Audit of the Sacramento Police Department (SPD): Misconduct Complaint Cases

On December 16, 2020, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) adopted a Resolution​ declaring a climate emergency and directing the formation of a permanent Climate Emergency Mobilization Ta​sk Force.

At the end of 2022 we saw Sacramento County bring back its plan for jail expansion, despite the community having previously blocked an expansion on 3/10/21 (to learn more click here). Once again, the public has been lied to & the county is breaking promises made to explore solutions other than a jail expansion.

Once again, the Sacramento City Council was faced with a request for even more money and ‘protective’ equipment for the Sacramento Police Department.

At the March 28th Sacramento County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, the Board approved $1.7 million to pay property owners back rent and to repair damage toward Sacramento Self Help Housing (SSHH) homes under county contract (item 47).

Did you know that the Sacramento City Council has an Ethics Commission? Well, if you didn’t, now you do! And we’re gonna tell you about the important work they do!

During the 2/13/23 Sacramento Community Police Review Commission meeting, the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) gave a presentation on the state of police use-of-force policy within the Sacramento PD. This presentation (given by Allyssa Victory, ACLU Staff Attorney) was mainly focused on the implications of Sacramento City’s current use of force policies within its police department.