Bay Area

Police Reform Measures: Possible Solutions for Vallejo

In an attempt to find the most promising solutions, the City Council has voted to conduct a citywide equity study that would help officials make meaningful decisions on which programs and services to fund amid the “defund the police” movement.

Published

4 years ago

August 13, 2021

Isabelle Price

Protestors with a sign that says abolish the police. Photo courtesy of Gabe Pierce via Unsplash

There is no magic solution to reforming a police department.

The city of Vallejo is learning that the hard way as it attempts to mend a police force that has killed 19 people since 2010 in the city of 120,000.

Moving forward, Vallejo will need to decide how to address not just the number of fatal interactions between the police and local residents, but also the broader issue of police-community relations and trust.

Three other Bay Area cities — Oakland, San Francisco and Richmond — have attempted reforming their police departments with approaches as varied as federal oversight to civilian commissions to community policing to bolstered social services.

At least some Vallejo leaders have taken note and seem particularly keen to apply the measures that build bridges rather than silos.

“The department needs an adequate command staff, which can help to change the culture,” said Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell. “That culture change includes a respect for citizens, officers receiving the proper training, and learning how to apply the appropriate force when confronted.”

McConnell said he is confident the city is moving in the right direction when it comes to reforming the police force, “albeit the process is going slowly.”

Among the most promising reform measures, city leaders believe Vallejo might well benefit from a civilian-led police commission with an investigative agency that reports directly to the commission. Such oversight could bring real change to the department, especially if the Vallejo community has a voice in the process.

San Francisco and Oakland have powerful police commissions — and similarly powerful investigative agencies attached to those commissions. These commissions can impose officer discipline and even have the authority to fire their respective police chiefs.

Some activists, as well as many family members of those killed by Vallejo police, however, argue that a police commission doesn’t go far enough.

They argue that federal oversight is the only way to meaningfully reform Vallejo’s police force. That can be a long process. In Oakland, for example, the Police Department has been under federal oversight for more than 18 years with no end in sight.

Civil rights attorney James Chanin, who represented victims in “The Riders” case and helped secure the Negotiated Settlement Agreement that placed Oakland police under federal oversight, said reform efforts are moving in the right direction — although slowly.

“I would like to see (federal oversight) end with all the reforms met,” he said. “It was supposed to end within five years — with two additional years if needed. That would have been 2010 — we are a long way from 2010.”

Chanin said he hopes Oakland police will come into compliance by the end of 2022.

The civil rights lawyer said police reform is about political will.

“We tried with the city of Oakland. Settlements after settlements didn’t work,” said Chanin. “There was no political will to change so we went to the court instead.”

While some attorneys for the families of victims say they would like to see a federal monitor in Vallejo, that would require a court order or formal settlement, and in the absence of such an order it’s impossible to speculate what type of oversight a monitor might seek.

The city of Richmond and its efforts to connect police with residents may offer the most promising example for Vallejo. In Richmond, a neighborhood policing model adopted under former Police Chief Chris Magnus helped reduce crime and build a bridge between the Police Department and community.

Although it faces funding pressures, Richmond has used foot and bicycle patrols to put officers more in touch with community residents, and the results have been encouraging. Although homicide numbers, for example, are showing an uptick, they remain well below pre-beat policing levels.

Vallejo has made some small steps along this path. Through its Operation PEACE (Predictive Enforcement and Community Engagement) project, begun last year under Chief Shawny Williams, the city has sought to improve interactions between police and the community, using bike patrols and other measures. And last year, the city council agreed to hire an interim police auditor to review internal police investigations. City officials are also weighing an outside project called Advance Peace that works on a variety of levels to reduce gun violence.

These steps are all encouraging, but it seems clear that police-community relations remain characterized by community distrust of law enforcement and an us-versus-them attitude among officers. The Vallejo Police Officers Association did not respond to a request for comments on this series.

Perhaps the greatest reason for hope lies in the recognition that stronger measures are needed.

Vallejo City Councilwoman Pippin Dew pushed for the survey.

“We need to understand how these systemic biases exist. If we can understand it, we can change it,” said Dew, saying it doesn’t make sense to re-allocate city money, especially from the police budget, without having a plan on where to direct the funding.

Dew said she believes “defunding the police” should be more about placing money in “comprehensive, robust, early education centers” that are affordable and located in places that families can reach by walking.

“For me, it’s about coming at that approach to reduce crime,” Dew added. “I would love this to be a long-term approach to defunding the police. That’s where we start.”

Isabelle Price

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

4 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

5 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

5 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.