Rohnert Park to discuss civilian review of police, racial data in uses of force Tuesday

Rohnert Park Director of Public Safety Tim Mattos will introduce plans to the City Council on Tuesday for a civilian panel to pursue better relationships between city police and the community.

The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting also includes a report from Mattos on data collected by the agency regarding the racial makeup of use of force incidents and traffic citations over 2021.

The two initiatives are part of an effort to "to address police accountability and increase police/community relations,“ according to reports submitted by Mattos ahead of the City Council meeting.

Members of the public can observe the 5 p.m. meeting at City Hall, Cable Channel 26 or on the city’s online meeting portal. They also can provide live public comment or email comments in advance to publiccomment@rpcity.org.

Mattos’ community round table will “assist in building a bridge between the community and the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety,” according to his proposal.

His proposal outlines a 10 to 16-member group consisting of individuals from local minority communities, including high school and college students, Black people, indigenous people, Latinx people, Asian and Pacific Islander people and representatives from business and faith communities.

Their abilities may include giving Mattos recommendations and feedback on police policies and practices, discussing potential resolutions to conflicts and helping with community outreach.

The panel is a response to ongoing calls for greater law enforcement transparency and accountability, which reached a crescendo the summer of 2020 and spurred action by Rohnert Park City Council at the beginning of 2021. Alongside plans for community input, the Department of Public Safety also began collecting data on racial disparities in use of force.

The force statistics from 2021 Mattos will present show a decrease in incidents from the year prior.

The most recent data from all of 2021 included 73 shows of force or actual uses of force, and 21 uses of force specifically, out of the 32,346 contacts the department of public safety logged.

Uses of force include empty hand control, like grabbing or holding, restraints, less lethal methods like a baton or pepper spray, and deadly force. Shows of force include pointing a firearm or stun gun.

According to the report on the same topic brought to city council in May 2021, which included data collected from January 2020 through February 2021, officers used or showed force 131 times, including 37 uses of force, out of those 14 months and 38,804 contacts.

“The Department has increased training in the area of de-escalation in an effort to lessen the need to use force,” Mattos’ report says. “Although Rohnert Park Public Safety Officers use every means available to avoid the use of force, some situations, based on the suspect’s actions, unfortunately lead to a use of force.”

In 2021, officers used or threatened force against more out-of-towners than Rohnert Park residents. In 41 cases, the subject was a nonresident, while 32 cases involved people who live in the city.

Though the numbers are too small for robust statistical analysis, Hispanic or Latino subjects were overrepresented in the force data compared to their share of the total population. Among the local residents, 13 or 40.6% were Hispanic or Latino. In the total 73 show or use of force incidents, 34 or 46.6% were against a Hispanic or Latino.

Five of those cases were “the result of one incident resulting from the service of a search warrant and felony arrest warrant at residence with five individuals in the home at the time of the warrant service,” the report states.

Black people also were overrepresented, making up nine of the 73 cases, or over 12%.

These numbers are compared to a city that is 27.1% Hispanic or Latino, as well as 71.0%, 6.8% Asian, 2.1% Black, 0.7% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander and 8.7% two or more races.

As with the uses of force, more nonresidents were subject to traffic citations than Rohnert Park residents. Of the 974 citations issued, 589 were against people from out of town, while 385 were against locals.

You can reach Staff Writer Emily Wilder at 707-521-5337 or emily.wilder@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @vv1lder.