06 Attachment 3 - Public Comment Received 1101 am Thursday September 10 and 1100 am Monday September 14 2020Dear Honorable Mayor & Council Members September 13, 2020
First, I wasn’t to thank Council and Staff for holding the September 8th workshop on possible police
reforms. In addition to Chief Decena’s openness to new ideas at the workshop, I found Judge Cordell
impressive. She adds much creditability to our Town’s efforts.
I begin with my thoughts on the 3 potential police reforms Ms. Prevetti summarized on the Zoom workshop:
• I believe we have an opportunity to use budgeted, but currently unspent, Police Department
dollars to hire professional social workers as first responders to certain types of nonviolent
crime, including mental health issues and homelessness—I will speak to this further in a second
• I support the idea of some form of Police oversight to improve accountability—personally I have
had good and poor experiences in my dealings with Police Officers.
o My good experiences were fostered by officers that showed an attitude of mutual
interest and respect, and community engagement
o My poor experiences were fostered by officers who displayed arrogance and authority
• And on the 3rd issue, changing the School Resource Officer partnership, I don’t know enough to
take a position
Here are a couple of observations that stand out from participating in the Zoom call
• Because only 32 of the budgeted 39 sworn officer position are filled, Los Gatos has unspent
budgeted dollars available to provide improved services for people with mental health issues
o This gives the Town flexibility to review how it allocates Police Department resources to
meet the existing community needs, in a more empathetic, community friendly, and
potentially more cost effective ways
• Los Gatos is fortunate to have so many community volunteers that step up to help Los Gatos
Police fulfill their mission
• Mental Health Incidents are almost as frequent (90% as frequent) as Crimes Against Persons
• I noticed more than once that the Police Department seems to set a low bar for measurement,
rather than a more aggressive one that you would expect from a Police Department with the
pride and professionalism of ours
o For example, the Chief committed to meeting a mandated information reporting deadline of
2022, rather than setting a loftier goal of getting the information to the public sooner, and
o The discussion about systematic racism focused on training officers how to act without
showing racist actions, but gave no recognition that police officers, like all of us, also
feel implicit racism which could unconsciously impact how they act.
I close with four suggestions:
1. I would like to see Police uniforms look less militaristic—it impacts the public’s perception of the
police, and in some cases the Sworn Officer’s mindset
2. Have all Sworn Officers go through implicit bias testing as part of the anti-racism training
3. In the spirit of understanding police activity, I suggest future reporting of Police activity would
be enhanced if it provided greater detail of the “Other” category that represented 59% of the
total crime statistics?
4. Determine if the contract for police services with Monte Sereno covers the full burdened cost of
providing those services. And if not, I suggest the Town develop a plan to ensure
reimbursement for our full costs in the next contract?
Respectfully submitted by Terry Duryea
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