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 Records operates on a round-the-clock basis, performing On July 2, the Torrance City Attorneys Office filed a criminal complaint charging Lena Hernandez, with battery, a violation of California Penal Code Section 242. James Queally writes about crime and policing in Southern California, where he currently covers Los Angeles Countys criminal courts and the district attorneys office. At certain levels noises are In a four-page letter written earlier this month to Superior Court Presiding Judge Daniel J. Buckley, City Manager LeRoy Jackson said the city had complied with the grand jurys recommendation and removed such warnings from its complaint forms and related materials.. For assistance please contact our Records Division at (310) 618-5529, or you may place a request, pursuant to CPRA, directly to the Torrance City Clerk located in City Hall, 3031 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, CA 90503. You can also visit their webpage to make a Public Records Act Request online. The city prevailed. 1 3 are answered and 4 is No. Morgan Ricketts, the attorney for Pesikov and White, said the councils vote was deeply disappointing., The city of Torrance doesnt even want to know what its own residents think about this issue, she said, and I think that was a fair compromise between the parties.. Want the latest investigative and FOIA news? . Rob Bonta announces an investigation into the Torrance Police Department after a Times report on racist texts between officers. oil spill, Column: Column: Hydrogen cars should be a bigger part of Californias battle against carbon emissions, Sikh motorcyclist joins a cross-country ride against hate: I have to do this, How to connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs in L.A. County. Plaintiff. Our members have a right to due process and should be protected from illegal and unnecessary intrusion into their private lives.. The department has also hired an The council also referenced Senate Bill 2 which will allow the state to decertify police officers who commit serious misconduct, and will establish a statewide oversight board as a reason not to pursue a locally-controlled oversight body. Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. The picture above it showed several Black men who had been lynched. A survey of records at Police Watch, a nonprofit Los Angeles group that monitors Southern California police agencies, revealed numerous complaints by minorities alleging that they were pulled over by Torrance police for no reason. So, I started asking if we had checked for text messages.. According to district attorneys records reviewed by The Times, Concannon once sent a troubling text message referring to a deposition he gave in an officer-involved shooting., They believed our lies. The incident sparked significant protests including one inside Torrances City Council chambers that led demonstrators to file excessive-force lawsuits against several of the officers The Times identified in this article and remains under review by Gascn. The database is always in development and more organizations, POST Departments, and officers are being added daily. 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We are aggressive, and sometimes we get some lawsuits, he said. Ponegalek argued that The Times analysis was incomplete, as it did not include statistics involving complaints filed by other officers. Daniels claims that one officer made racial threats during such a stop, and Daniels made a formal complaint against him. 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. 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. Before they start complaining too loudly about how much it Another photo asked what someone should do if their girlfriend was having an affair with a Black man. I am writing to follow up on my original request made on 8/25/17. 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. The Torrance Police Department has made vigorous efforts to achieve this status, and it is our desire to provide the means whereby it might be sustained. His stories have led to the closure of a chain of badly-run group homes, the end of a state program that placed criminals in inappropriate public jobs and the creation of a civilian oversight office for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, among other things. A Justice Department official said the agency broadened its inquiry because of complaints such as those in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in September by three teen-agers with no criminal records who are now students at prestigious East Coast universities. Every time I turn around, somebody has a complaint against them, said Royce Esters, president of the Compton National Assn. Rich L.A. homeowners are snapping them up, Left-handed pitchers offer gold-like value for high school teams, Column: How I finally learned to care about Orange Countys crumbling coastline, Shipping firms to pay pipeline company nearly $100 million in O.C. I am in receipt of your request and I am attempting to locate the information requested and will attempt to have it to you as soon as possible. The grand jury also said that the Torrance warning regarding the civil suit that could be filed if a false report is submitted was found to be unconstitutional in 1999 because of its chilling effect and the court ruling has been upheld on several occasions since then. Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient. Some include all discharges and some exclude missed shots. The ACLU observed the law was the only one of its kind in the nation to give police officers a special right to sue complainants, the jury said. 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.. The governments current inquiry into allegations of racial harassment of the public is simply an effort to bolster its discriminatory hiring case against Torrance, one Justice Department official said. Chief De Ladurantey said he receives as many citizen complaints from whites as minorities. Thanks so much for your help with this request! WebThe Torrance Police Department has made vigorous efforts to achieve this status, and it is our desire to provide the means whereby it might be sustained. Some City Council members said they went outside the department for a chief because of unhappiness at the number of suits against the city. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with. Judge Amy Carter will decide whether to suppress evidence from the personal cellphones of ex-officers Corey Weldin and Christopher Tomsic. In Torrance, the Police and Fire Departments costs make up 65% of the citys general fund budget. City officials say they are highly skeptical of both stories. Torrance police sustained 35 out of 43 internally generated complaints of officer misconduct from 2016 to 2020, Ponegalek said. GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. . Lacey cleared the officers of wrongdoing in all three deaths, but Gascn has reopened the investigation into Mitchells killing . In total, Torrance police have confirmed 15 officers were placed on administrative leave as a result of the scandal. 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. If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead. Gen. 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. Hutchings holds a B.A. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges). According to a Times review of public records, Concannon has shot only one person during his career: Christopher DeAndre Mitchell. Towing Services (Van Lingen): 310-370-4533 / 310-326-9220, Torrance Mental Evaluation Team: 310-618-5683, 3031 Torrance Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503 | P: (310) 328-5310 | Contact | Login. Tomsic answered, Yeah it was Weldin, dude, I know.. 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 requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. WebThe Torrance Police Department is happy to assist you in obtaining or reviewing any records, documents, or reports to which you are legally entitled. But theyve hit a snag, Review: A reimagined Secret Garden fails to flower anew at the Ahmanson Theatre, A $150,000 executive protection dog? We the Peoplehave aRight to Knowaccording to the Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS], past Presidents (of both major political parties), Congress, and the United States Department of Justice. Before they start complaining too loudly about how much it would cost to run this commission, Armour said, they need to consider what it costs to not have a commission making their policies better and making them less subject to litigation.. Which of the above data are published publicly? This project requires us to request data from your department. In addition to Weldin, Tomsic and Chandler, The Times has reviewed district attorneys records detailing racist texts or images shared by six other police officers: Blake Williams, Brian Kawamoto, Joshua Satterfield, Omar Alonso, Christopher Allen-Young and Long Beach Police Officer Maxwell Schroeder, who is a former Torrance police recruit. Tice and five other party-goers settled a lawsuit against the city for $105,000. It creates a tremendous amount of concern for me. charged Officer David Chandler with assault in late August for allegedly shooting an armed man in the back, Torrance police officer linked to racist text message scandal is charged in 2018 shooting, similar scandals involving racist text messages among San Francisco officers, More racist text messages uncovered among San Francisco police officers. In another message reviewed by The Times, Alonso complained about the idea of having to work with a gay officer, and said hed straight punch a member of the LGBTQ community, using a common slur for gay men. One (Torrance officer) said, The white people pay us to keep Mexicans out, said Esparza, a night student at Inglewood High School. The comments represent a sliver of a trove of racist text messages exchanged by more than a dozen current and former Torrance police officers and recruits. Country: United States Address 1: 340 Blount Ave City: Guntersville State: Alabama Zip Code: 35976-1106 County: Marshall County Phone #: 256-571-7571 Fax #: 256-571-7570 Police1 is revolutionizing the way The council, however, is opting instead to rely on other models of police oversight including Police Chief Jeremiah Harts recently established Advisory Board, an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into allegations of TPD officer misconduct, and a soon-to-be established statewide oversight board which they said will provide ample opportunity for departmental reform moving forward. This is a prime example of running away from local control and accountability and trying to delegate to some people far away who arent a part of the community.. The fate of two former Torrance police officers may rest Monday with a Superior Court judge who has been asked to throw out evidence that the officers shared racist and homophobic text messages. Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code 6250), I hereby request the following records: We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. A Long Beach officer who was a Torrance recruit has been suspended without pay. Animal Control: 310-618-3850. . Additional officers received the texts but did not interact with them in any way, so they are not considered under investigation, those sources said. You would want to consult them, figure out what their values and viewpoints are, then legislate and implement their values not yours.. If you would like to file a formal complaint for an officer that is not yet listed, please contact us and we will add that individual immediately. The invisible line arcs southeast across the top of Torrance, a theoretical border separating the crime-addled heart of Los Angeles County from the relative peace of its coastal suburbs. . Anyone can request public documents in California, and a purpose does not have to be stated. 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We have a group of officers who, apparently in addition to harboring very biased and racist beliefs, also may be engaging in inappropriate force that could be illegal in some cases, he said. Changes need to be made in the Torrance Police Department, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said this week in announcing an independent investigation into the text messages. The officers also shared instructions on how to tie a noose and a picture of a stuffed animal being lynched inside Torrances police headquarters, according to the documents. Announces an investigation into the Torrance Police have confirmed 15 officers were placed on administrative leave as a result the..., Yeah it was Weldin, dude, I know firearm discharges ) torrance police department complaints! That one officer made racial threats during such a stop, and daniels a... Regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action Fire Departments costs make up 65 % of the National! 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