Gov. Newsom’s Policing Advisors Announce Recommendations to Improve Police Response to Protests and Demonstrations

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom Oct 13, released recommendations from his policing advisors for improving police response to protests and demonstrations and a series of actions in response. The release of the report follows the Governor’s signing of a package of legislation last month to reform policing practices and tackle discrimination in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. 

In response to the more than three-dozen recommendations, the Governor has directed the statewide Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training or POST to modernize training and guidance for law enforcement. The training includes for law enforcement to ensure that it prioritizes the protection of First Amendment rights and to develop best practices to identify, monitor and strategically detain individuals suspected of inciting violence and destruction during protests and demonstrations.

Additionally, the recommendations encourage local law enforcement agencies to require all officers in direct contact with demonstrators to wear and activate body cameras; ensure the protection of journalists and legal observers; and identify and address the role of hate groups in disrupting protests and instigating violence. Finally, the recommendations propose restrictions on the types of weapons and tactics that should be used during protests and demonstrations.

“The role of police officers in protests and demonstrations is to keep the peace, and facilitate the ability of protesters to demonstrate peacefully without infringing on their First Amendment rights,” said Gov. Newsom. “Implementation of these recommendations will help ensure our law enforcement agencies are better equipped to respond safely to protests and demonstrations and reinforce the values of community partnership, de-escalation, and restraint.”

The policing advisors are Ron Davis, a former East Palo Alto police chief who also served as the head of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services during the Obama Administration, and Lateefah Simon, a current director and president of BART and president of the Akonadi Foundation.

These recommendations follow the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, and that of other unarmed Black people at the hands of police, and the global protests and demonstrations that ensued. Gov. Newsom held meetings across the state with faith and community leaders, elected officials and small business owners, all to discuss racism, systemic injustice and how we move forward as a state. The Governor also directed the POST Commission to stop training police officers on the carotid hold.