Minutes 10-06-2016 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

10 Commissioner Dorosin said if people know they can say no, they will say no, and while the right exists, law enforcement does not want them to say no. He feels law enforcement should inform the person in question that they can give written consent or refuse the search. Jennifer Galassi said there is a notion that the idea of consent is being substituted for the idea of reasonableness, which is the touchstone of the fourth amendment. Commissioner Jacobs asked if one does not give consent, can an officer say there is probable cause to search, or does the refusal to consent halt the interaction. Jennifer Galassi said if there is truly no probable cause, then yes the interaction should end upon refusal to consent. Commissioner Jacobs said watching TV and movies have polluted his view of all of this. He said the question for him is how well do people know their rights, and how obligated is law enforcement to inform them. Commissioner Jacobs said this is a more difficult issue than the body cameras for him. He told Commissioner Dorosin that he appreciated the topic being brought up and suggested re-visiting this. He said he thought body cameras would help, and would like to check back with the Sheriff to see how his proposed practice is working. He would also like to hear updates from those working in the civil rights movement. Commissioner Jacobs said he wanted to respect the Sheriff's prerogatives and his staff. Sheriff Blackwood said he will provide the BOCC with a breakdown of the searches that have consent and those that do not. Chair McKee agreed with Commissioner Jacobs. Commissioner Dorosin said the Board should review the data from Bumgarner and have this discussion. Commissioner Jacobs said to ask Sheriff to analyze the stops. Sheriff Blackwood said they met with Mr. Bumgarner to ask him to analyze their searches since Sheriff Blackwood has been in office, as well as searches broken down by officer. He said the collection of data is confusing and complicated. Jennifer Galassi presented the data from the period of two years prior to December 2014, and the 20 months since then. Commissioner Rich asked if this data should be weighted due to the larger white population, as compared to the black population. Jennifer Galassi said that is difficult because the people being ticketed are not even residents. Sheriff Blackwood said they are trying to correlate better data sets to be collected, including where people live, the race of the officer, etc. He said they have been challenged to come up with four categories to check, which are currently not being checked. He said these are interesting numbers, but this is not indicative of what is really going on, as all stops do not require documentation. He would support changing this practice, and collecting data on every interaction: who was stopped, why they were stopped, what was the outcome, was there a bias involved in the stop, etc. Commissioner Jacobs asked if data for Hispanics could be collected as well. Chair McKee said this all boils down to having trust in the Orange County Sheriff's office, and he does trust them. Commissioner Jacobs suggested bringing this information back at the February 16th work session. Sheriff Blackwood said he does care about civil liberties, and his department has to use the law that is given to it, and keep working together towards a better place. The meeting was adjourned at 10:47 p.m.