While they vote unanimously more often than not, members of Culver City’s City Council have disparate ideas on certain topics. And that includes one that many cities across the nation have grappled with over the last 18 months.
The News asked members of the city’s governing body how they would react if there was a controversial police shooting locally that was caught on surveillance video, videotaped by a citizen or captured on a cell phone camera as there have been in South Carolina, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Louisiana, among others and under what circumstances— if any—would they asked Police Chief Scott Bixby to release the tape.
Vice Mayor Jeffery Cooper said he would leave it up to Bixby, who is currently out of town, to determine if a video should be made public. “He’s the professional, he’s very fair and he’s the chief,” Cooper said.
Councilman Thomas Small said he has talked to his council colleagues about the potential for similar incidents and how they should handle them if they were to happen in Culver City. “Obviously, this is something that has been on all our minds,” Small said.
Depending on the situation, Small said he would be in favor of making such a video public, after consulting with Bixby, City Manager John Nachbar and his council colleagues. “I have tremendous confidence in Chief Bixby, but I have been to conferences with other elected officials and I’ve seen how they’ve struggle with this issue,” the councilman said. “So in some case I would be in favor [of releasing a videotape].”
Councilwoman Meghan Sahli-Wells said under Bixby the police department has strived for better transparency more so than in past years. She noted that Bixby embraced installing cameras in police units and the plan to outfit patrol officers with body cameras. “It’s a point of pride that the push for accountability has come from within,” she said.
Like Small, Sahli-Wells can envision certain situations where she would call for the release of a videotape in an officer-involved shooting. But she cautioned that there are certain nuances to each situation and at times other things to consider.
“It can become a privacy issue. There could be private citizens that may find themselves within the public realm,” Sahli-Wells noted.
Nonetheless, “there are absolutely moments where it would be appropriate to ask for a video to be released.”
In the midst of the police involved shootings and use of force occurrences, Bixby wrote a letter to the local community where he addressed the need for instilling and maintaining public trust through several measures, including community-oriented policing.
“Every organization must continually evaluate the service it provides and have clear, attainable goals. Our success is based on five goals,” the chief wrote, which include “the rapid response to calls or services, reducing preventing crime solving crime, efficient and effective traffic and parking programs and the morale and health of our organization.”
Many cities leaders say Bixby has put a premium on establishing good community relations with the public, which hasn’t always been the case in the department’s history.
Cooper acknowledged that prior chiefs have not been as active in engaging with all segments of the community and that is why, along with the aforementioned reasons, he trusts Bixby to make the decision when or if to make a videotape public.
“Since[former Chief Donald Pederson ]and now with Chief Bixby, our police force has really gone out of its way to be open and treat people everyone fairly. And that hasn’t always been the case,” he said.
Small said because of Culver City’s proximity to the creative arts community of Silicon Beach as well as the city’s own history with the movie industry, many people have more than a passing familiarity with video and visuals. That, he thinks, could make a difference in how the public might interpret certain images that they might see.
“The constituency in Culver City, I think, would have a better understanding than most and perhaps be less prone to be swayed by what they see on a video, because often a video doesn’t tell the whole story,” Small asserted.
The city leaders’ views on when or if a video tape should be made public comes less than three weeks before Culver City residents will vote on Measure CA, a ballot initiative that would change the current chain of command regarding who appoints the city’s police and fire chiefs if it passes.
Currently, they are appointed by the council but if Measure CA is successful the city manager would assume that duty.
Mayor Jim Clarke and Councilman Gðran Eriksson could not be reached for comment at News press time.
Gary Walker contributed to this story.