San Rafael, CA – Cultivating trust, enhancing transparency, and improving accountability. Those are the primary goals as the County of Marin and its Board of Supervisors create an independent community oversight committee to work in partnership with the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
In November, the County will host three community conversations and conduct a survey to collect input on lived experiences with law enforcement, priorities for oversight, and strategies to enhance law enforcement accountability. The feedback will help inform the development of the new independent civilian body, to be known as the Assembly Bill (AB) 1185 Sheriff’s Oversight Committee. The Board of Supervisors allocated funds in the budget to conduct community outreach and develop recommendations in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission and the County Administrator’s Office.
AB 1185, effective as of January 2021, authorizes counties to create a sheriff’s oversight board and an office of inspector general, and grants the bodies subpoena power enforceable by court action.
The County has contracted with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) – an experienced law enforcement oversight consultant and facilitator – to guide the engagement process and gather input from Marin communities on the structure, scope, and function of a civilian oversight body. This fall, County organizers have conducted interviews with local stakeholders and researched AB 1185 implementation progress in other counties.
At this stage, the outreach goals are to identify community priorities on the preferred structure of oversight (such as auditor, inspector general, independent civilian review, or a combination of these options) and strategies to enhance law enforcement accountability.
The public online meetings are set for: Tuesday, November 1, from 6-8 p.m., Thursday, November 3, from 6-8 p.m. and; Saturday, November 5, from 10 a.m. to noon. Each of these meetings will have the same agenda and will be conducted via videoconference. More information on how to access the meetings and the survey is available on the County website.
A Board subcommittee comprised of Board President Katie Rice and Supervisor Damon Connolly is leading the implementation of AB 1185. Connolly recently shared that a civilian oversight committee is an opportunity to “discuss issues, take proactive steps to align community values and law enforcement practices, address inequities, and develop a better understanding,” he said. “I believe that civic dialogue leads to better policy and that AB 1185 offers a means for that dialogue.”
Equity is one of the Supervisors’ top priorities and the Board has taken many stands against all forms of discrimination and intolerance. Some of the County’s equity efforts are supported by funding that was allocated from the Sheriff-Coroner Office budget.