Dear City Attorney,
The California state law SB 978 requires all in-force law enforcement policies to be posted conspicuously on Culver City Police Department’s website. CCPD has been breaking this law since at least October 3, 2023 when a new regressive traffic stop policy was issued via general order, and it was hidden from the public.
We were assured that CCPD always intended to release this policy to the public when it updated its policy manual in January.
Well, CCPD has finally updated its policy manual page, and only one small section of the updated manual is included. The vast majority of the manual is not there. I have attached the “policy manual” as posted, and you can see it here: https://www.culvercitypd.org/Office-of-the-Chief-of-Police/Policy-Manual
The actual manual is over 700 pages. This document has 3 pages. Most of it just disappeared into thin air.
Needless to say, CCPD still has not provided the new regressive traffic stop policy on its website, even as other more recent general orders have been provided. I’d hope that $53 million dollars a year could buy the ability to follow simple rules.
Not only is this embarrassing for the city and department, it’s also depressingly ironic. Those charged with enforcing the law continue to knowingly break it without any accountability and without any effort by those in charge to hold them accountable.
SB 978 itself doesn’t have any remedies. But someone at CCPD or the city must have responsibility for what to do when the law is repeatedly and intentionally broken like this.
I suspect this email won’t be answered, but I am seriously asking:
Who is held responsible? What are the consequences? Where is the accountability?
The public deserves to know.
Sincerely,
Stephen Jones
