One two three. We're on the island. The island city beat. There are stories on every street from the West Side and the East side .. all around town.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Hello Alameda. Welcome to the Island City Beat podcast. I'm your host, Angie Watson-Hajjem. In May of twenty twenty, the world watched in horror as George Floyd was murdered in full view of the world by Minnesota police officer. This tragic event served as a wake up call to communities across the country, including right here in Alameda, about how the police do their job and the urgent need for police reform.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:In August of twenty twenty, the Alameda City Manager created the Racial Equity Police Reform Task Force, which consisted of five subcommittees. My guest today is Jennifer Rakowski, and she served on one of those committees, the Police Department Accountability Oversight Committee. And she's here to talk about the time she spent on that committee, what was accomplished, and what more needs to happen. So with that, Jennifer, welcome to our show. Thank you for being here on our podcast.
Jennifer Rakowski:Oh, thank you so much, Angie. It's a pleasure to be here with you today.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Wonderful. So just thinking back five years ago, May of twenty twenty, the world felt like it was really just on fire. People were just outraged at what they saw on their TV screens, on their cell phones, this man being murdered in full view. And people went to the streets, they demanded action, they demanded answers, they demanded change. That was real big.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:And here in Alameda, back in 2020, August of that year, our city government created this racial equity police reform task force. And so I would like for you to give us some history about the origins of the task force, how it came to be. And you became a member of this task force. So I'm very curious how that happened and talk a little bit about some of the objectives you guys had on that committee.
Jennifer Rakowski:Sure. Yeah, I think the world was shocked, I think, when George Floyd was murdered, and you could hear him call out for his mother. I think every mother heard that call, and communities rose up across the country. For me, I had been doing police accountability work since the nineties. And so some of the shock is always about which death sparks a moment versus so many that go unaddressed.
Jennifer Rakowski:If I look at this year, there is only one day this year that I cannot find someone who was killed by law enforcement in this country. And so it is pervasive. And so when a moment like this happens and the community is engaged, it's so important to see on that moment. And Alameda was not just confronting George Floyd's murder, but they were looking internally. And one of the catalysts for that was a local incident where Molly Watkins was out on the street, 9AM in the morning, exercising.
Jennifer Rakowski:And, again, this is during the pandemic. People are doing what they need to do, self care to get by, and police were called to the scene, and he was restrained and detained, and there was a local video of that. And that brought the attention local. I think we also need to give credit to the activists at the time, and particularly, I have to acknowledge youth activists of Alameda, and the youth were really leading the charge for change. Now they weren't the only ones calling for that change, but they certainly were fundamental.
Jennifer Rakowski:And when I think of the five, committees, there were youth participants on every single one of those committees, and they were fire. They were amazing, determined, committed, holding their community accountable for making this community the one they wanted to live in. So I really want to shout out and acknowledge their work, as well as the work of so many other at that point in time.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:So the city manager created this task force, and then you became a member. How did that happen? How did you get on the task force committee?
Jennifer Rakowski:Well, I feel really honored to have been selected. There was a lot of interest. There'd been town halls with overflow over 500 people joining. There were over 200 people asking to be part of these task forces, and 50 individuals selected a really strong powerhouse of individuals who are named as the steering committee. I think for me, I have a background in public administration.
Jennifer Rakowski:I have a master's in that. I had been active in safety work and police accountability work since the nineties. And so those things plus individuals knew some of my own interactions with the police in Alameda and in other law enforcement agencies that gave me personal insight to the issues involved. So whatever combination of those things, I, was honored to be one of the individuals selected and didn't always agree with there were 50 people. We're not all going to agree, but I absolutely respected everyone and their commitment who took the time to participate.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah. So you were on the subcommittee, which was called the Police Department Accountability and Oversight Committee. That was your committee. How many people were on that committee?
Jennifer Rakowski:It varied a little bit over time, Roughly 10. There were two co chairs. I there were some changing of who was participating. Someone moved away. But, yeah, it was a core group of us who were meeting weekly for months on end, really getting into the details of what how do we create transparency?
Jennifer Rakowski:What does accountability mean? What does fairness mean? What types of tools would there need to be? And and trying to answer those tough questions. And we were we were so earnest.
Jennifer Rakowski:We were but we were also listening to we talked to attorneys and community activists and others who were trying to make a difference in neighboring communities or had previous experience with whistleblowing here in Alameda, looking at incidents that hadn't made the headlines and seeing what they told us about what needed to be done going forward.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah. Mean, guys had a huge task in front of you. I mean, sounds like it was a very job, a lot of things that you were looking at. And I'm curious, you talk to lots of people, activists, people in community and so forth, try to get their input in what they want to see. And I would love to have you talk to us about, in gathering that information, interviewing, talking to people, what really stood out for you in the conversation you had with people about police accountability and police reform?
Angie Watson-Hajjem:What were they saying to you? What were you getting from those responses from people you were talking to?
Jennifer Rakowski:I think there's a couple of memories that stand out. One was a story, and now it it is quite a few years past, but it was of a local Alameda Officer who filed a whistleblower complaint. And we did not hear directly from the officer, but we did hear from their attorney, about his experience then going and representing that officer who was making allegations against his own department. And this was someone who is quite well known in the Bay Area who we slashed. Yeah.
Jennifer Rakowski:That was one of the roughest times I had, and that stood out. And then for me, the other thing that had to stand out was what it meant to be trying to create accountability as I was experiencing incidents with the police. So in the fall, like, we were doing the work. There was one point in time where I was it was Saturday morning, and I was asleep. In fact, everyone in my house was asleep when a welfare check happened.
Jennifer Rakowski:So suddenly, my house is filled with police officers, and I'm not dressed, and no one's dressed, and nothing criminally is happening. But just that moment of going, oh, advocating for myself, advocating for the respect and the dignity of my family in this moment. I'm I'm sleep fogged. I'm I I feel so vulnerable. I don't have a weapon at my side.
Jennifer Rakowski:Gave me an insight into the challenges of others to speak up and to speak out. And so one of the things that I tried to build into that police accountability work was an understanding that it's not just about customer service in a business model. You can't just survey those who called for the police. You have to hear the voices of those are having interactions with the police. You have to hear the interactions of people who are then charged with a crime of how did they experience that interaction.
Jennifer Rakowski:Because if you leave those voices out of the conversation, you are never going to get to a point of justice. It doesn't mean that you accept their truth addressed on face value, but you have to have those voices in the conversation, and you have to build in the systems that recognize the value of those voices.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah, I would love to hear a little more about your experience with It must have been terrifying to have police officers coming to your home on a early Saturday morning and everyone's asleep. I don't know how much you feel comfortable sharing what happened in your situation, but if you could talk to us a little bit about this welfare check. Did someone call because they heard something going on in your household, but there was just some kind of incident that happened? What brought the police officers to your home that early Saturday morning?
Jennifer Rakowski:So I don't know for sure who called. I I believe it was a health care worker at Kaiser, who misconstrued, something, and took it out of context. So I don't I mean, I I absolutely don't believe the police came to my door because I was on the task force. That wasn't what it was about. So there was no conspiracy theory piece of it.
Jennifer Rakowski:It was just, but we were all safe. We were and and I'm not and it wasn't the only time. I my family has experienced a range of things. I I have called the police at times because I've needed support. I have not called the police because I have felt that they would not be helpful at particular points in time and everything in between.
Jennifer Rakowski:So but, also, there's parts of the story I'm not gonna share because they're not mine to share there. Yeah. I can relate that.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah. So I wanna go back to your time there on the Police Department Accountability and Oversight Committee. A long name, what were some of the recommendations that came out of all of the work that you guys did? Know you guys had a report and you sent that report to the city council. I never really knew what was in that report.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:I'm sure many people don't know what was in that report. So what were your recommendations? What came out of your work?
Jennifer Rakowski:Sure. Yeah. So the the task forces then went to a range of boards and commissions and then ultimately presented their recommendations to city council. Some of what they were doing is looking at calls for service and what were the police the right fit to be the responders on. And so out of some of that work, some elements of parking enforcement move to being handled by the Department of Public Works instead of being handled by the police department to refocus the police department as well as put that parking enforcement in a logical place.
Jennifer Rakowski:Another element was reviewing other forms of service. Other times, your people were calling the police where it wasn't a criminal matter, where it might be an issue of mental health or homelessness or some other service need, a medical response. And so from that, the early kernels of the care team came about. There was other recommendations in terms of policy review. So there was a lot of concern about this massive 900 plus page document, which is the police policy manual and what does it say and where is the community oversight of of that.
Jennifer Rakowski:So now when there are policy changes, they go before city council. Now they typically they appear on the consent calendar. So they often happen without any further community discussion, but there is a level of transparency there that wasn't previously there. There were some reforms of fines and fees, and I think there's more work that could happen in that area as well. And then for our subcommittee on oversight, we really focused on two main issues.
Jennifer Rakowski:One of looking at, disparate treatment. So really looking at traffic stops and, arrests and detentions and use of force and the fact that that African American and Latino and Pacific Islander and trans folks and and the folks who are marginalized in different ways in the community experience police presence in at rates that I, as a white person, don't experience. And so we asked for, a data analyst to start documenting those disparities. What we ended up getting was a crime analyst, which doesn't necessarily capture the same intent, but does track some of that data, but not with the level of transparency that I, just speaking for myself, would like to see. For me, if we are going to say, we approve you having AR 15.
Jennifer Rakowski:We approve you having tear gas. You can trust us as the community with demographic information about who the weapons are pointed towards, and what are the results, so that we can look at that total picture. And, and then, we were looking at community oversight, and we were pushing for community oversight. What ended up happening in the city council and the recommendation from the chief was they went a different direction. They went with a police auditor, and that position is in the city attorney's office.
Jennifer Rakowski:So they did listen somewhat in that we wanted that position to be outside of the police department, but it wasn't everything the subcommittee asked for. Not that we ever expected to get everything we asked for.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Right. You never do. Right?
Jennifer Rakowski:Yeah. Yeah.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:So I know the care the care team, so I totally have heard about that. So that that came out of the work that you guys did on the subcommittee, right? The formation of that. So for those folks who may be listening who aren't familiar with the care team, the care unit, tell us a little bit about that because I
Jennifer Rakowski:know we were talking earlier, and you were saying some really great things about the care team. You felt like it was working pretty well. Of course, there's things that need to be tweaked and changed, but give us a sense about what this care team is. Sure. So the Alameda care team is a partnership between the fire department and Alameda Family Services.
Jennifer Rakowski:So there is a paramedic, based team from the fire department that is dispatched through 911, when they're in identified mental health, call, and they have access to clinical support, to deescalate the situation and to evaluate the level of risk, and make assessment around a fifty one fifty from Alameda Family Services, and then Alameda Family Services is also there to follow-up and do support treatment service navigation with folks after the moment of crisis. So there are some things we should be really proud of, the program. It is an award winning program in the county. It is it has reduced the number of 51 fifties. It has I've directly heard from people who've needed to call it, who have been then connected to services.
Jennifer Rakowski:And there are things that we still need to work on about it. It was originally hoped to be a nonpolice response, but the challenge of it going through dispatch means that sometimes people call it and dispatch says that's not a care team call or the care team's not available or it so that there's not a connection to the care team, and, the police will still accompany the call. So it wasn't that original vision of a nonpolice response. And so that may cause some individuals not to call because because of the risk involved.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:I thought it hurts when someone's in a you're, you know, at home with your family and a member of your family has a a crisis and you're scared, you don't know what to do, you call 911, and you tell a dispatch person what's happening. That person decides, based on you talking to them, whether or not the police are going to come out or a care team member is going to come out. Well, I guess they both would come out, but the care team member comes out only at the discretion of that dispatch. So
Jennifer Rakowski:yes. Right. Yeah. Now the the dispatch has training and criteria in terms of how they vet it. But as someone who's made that call and trying to explain, yes, I've got someone in crisis.
Jennifer Rakowski:Yes. They're a danger to themselves. No. They're not a danger to others. That can be a tricky needle to thread.
Jennifer Rakowski:And so, not always having the confidence of it. And I do encourage people if you want a care team response, be really direct. And I do encourage dispatch and fire and the city manager and everyone to look at those types of calls where people are asking for care team where we say no because that's sending a message also to the city. It's telling the city when someone needs help and needs that presence, but is not wanting it to be a police based presence. And so there are many other types of calls that we could come up with alternative systems around, and it doesn't necessarily need to be a trained therapist who can evaluate, suicidality, but it might be someone who can help with, issues of homelessness, or it might be someone who can help with other issues that are coming up that the business owner, the neighbor, the parent, the child who's making the call needs in that moment.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:That's wonderful. Yeah, and it's really so great to hear that this care team actually won our care team here in Alameda won an award. So that is really awesome to hear that. So you were on this police accountability subcommittee for about a year and a half. So and then it folded.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:The work ended. So it's no longer a working committee that all that that was set up in 2020 is no longer going on. Jeff, let me ask you a question. So someone who's been a police reform activist who's also experienced some negative experiences with the police department, you and your family. In your mind, what does good policing look like to you, and how do we get there?
Jennifer Rakowski:Yeah. I think that is a great question, and I have attempted different strategies over different points in time. Back in the nineties, I actually was on all interview boards for police officers in San Francisco, and, tried to screen out someone who was biased or not going to be provide care. And I also sort of at that point in time was focused on police sensitivity training. Particularly, I was doing work around walking while trans and the illegal strip searches for gender identification that were happening at that point in time.
Jennifer Rakowski:There will be things still have their plate, but they don't get us across the finish line, because they rely on, you know, almost a misnomer that this is about bad apples and trying to weed out bad apples. And and, certainly, they exist. But it is also about a culture in this country that overcriminalizes people of color and over incarcerates people and puts youth on endless probation and doesn't give certain individuals dignity and respect and and works on people's fears to create repressive policies. So when I think of, for instance, when my daughter was force refused against her by an Alameda Police Officer just outside of Ensignal High School. The piece that stays with me was the community denial.
Jennifer Rakowski:The teachers and administrators who weren't aware it had even happened when my daughter is bawling in tears after having an anxiety attack, Thor, when they couldn't deny that it had happened, jumped to the conclusions that she must have fought back. She must have done something to the officer to cause them to behave a particular way. And we see that in when we look at Mario Gonzalez, when the police immediately turned to let's look at liquor stores nearby and see whether or not he had stolen anything, that that dehumanizing of the person who has just been victimized. And when we look at Molly Watkins, we look at the person who couldn't just let him be exercising on the street, but felt that the police needed to be involved, that sort of we can it's a shift in culture. It's a shift in it's looking almost at the chain reaction and taking two steps back.
Jennifer Rakowski:How did we get here and taking two steps forward? What is the objective we actually wanted to have happen? And are we creating that society that we want to have happen, that we want to see? And when we really look at that full chain of events, we see that giving opportunity, showing people that they have value, providing them resources, creating connections between people, that is what strengthens a community. And accountability has its role, but it is not the only tool.
Jennifer Rakowski:And when it is overused, then it creates separation, and it creates disparities, and it creates harm. And so when we, one of the things about local government is we can really look at policies, and we can really look at the real world implications, not just what was the ideal, but how is it actually playing out? How is it actually experienced? And to do that, you have to listen to the impacted voices, and they will be that light to give us a sense of where we can go and how we can improve things. And I don't speak on these issues to fix what happened to my daughter five years ago.
Jennifer Rakowski:That's over and done with, and she's on her own healing journey. I speak out because I hope that by speaking out, there's another mother who's not gonna get that phone call that I got. And that's why I do this work.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Wow. Powerful. And you were saying like, I was asking the question, what is good policing? And I never heard anyone talk about it the way you did, because it's not just about policies and tools, but it goes so much deeper. It's like how we see each other as human beings.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:That just goes so much deeper than any policy that you can put on someone's desk. So it's just a lot of work we have to do is how do we see our humanity.
Jennifer Rakowski:We have to grant that humanity to everyone. We can I will support? I will say we need to look at overtime, not just from the standpoint of a tired officer can make mistake. It's unsafe for that officer. It's unsafe for their partner.
Jennifer Rakowski:It's unsafe for their community. So for me to ask for the humanity of my neighbors, of my family to be recognized, I also have to grant and honor the humanity of others. And yeah.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:And I know you were saying that when your daughter was assaulted, it sounds like you didn't have a lot of support. People didn't believe her. I'm just wondering what we can do as a community when someone does have a negative violent, or even deadly experience with law enforcement? How can we support our family members, our friends, our neighbors? I know that we were talking, you were saying when Mario Gonzalez was killed, you were one of the many people that you made food and you brought the food over to the family and let them know that you cared, that they were important.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:So let me talk as we end our conversation, talk a little bit about what we can do to help our neighbors who've experienced trauma?
Jennifer Rakowski:Yeah. During this time, I had both. Right after the task forces wrapped up is when Mario Gonzalez was killed about a month later. And I went grocery shopping for the family. But, I also, a few months before, a coworker's son was killed in in a police incident in Antioch.
Jennifer Rakowski:And so I watched his family struggle with not just the grief, but the the fight to control the the narrative as and and also the strength to lead. And Angelo Quinto, who was killed, actually was a student here in Alameda. He went to elementary school here, and there are folks in Alameda who knew him as a student here. And the students now who probably would want to know that there are bills in Sacramento that have his name on it that, say it's not okay to put someone in a face down hold. And so hopefully someone else is not killed because of his work.
Jennifer Rakowski:And his family testified before city council, and we, as a city, said we're going to take excited delirium out of our policy manual before California became the first state to do that. And so when we listen to the voices of those who are most affected, and we have an opportunity right at the moment to listen to Edith, Mario's mother, they point a way forward if we have the courage to not erase their memories, to give them dignity, to give them respect, to confront the truth of their experience.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah. Wow. Thank you for that. So I know that you've been, of course, very active at police reform. I'm just going to find out what are other things that are near and dear to your heart besides being the activist that you are.
Jennifer Rakowski:Yeah. I am a proud mother and grandmother, and I have two amazing adult children and one crazy, creative, fabulous, TK. And so you will often see me out and about with them on public transit walking along the water. I also host a book club here on the island and as part of a over 50 walking group that has so many wonderful members. I've participated in the Alameda on camera, and I love, all of the ways that this island celebrates the arts and creativity.
Jennifer Rakowski:And invite me to your art opening, your music, your comedy. Will be there. I will be there because this is I yeah. I just it feeds me to connect with people,
Angie Watson-Hajjem:and
Jennifer Rakowski:And there's so much on this island that is a source of local pride. I totally agree with that. Jennifer, has been an absolute joy to spend this time with you and talking with you. I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for being on our podcast.
Jennifer Rakowski:Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. You do a wonderful service to this community to bring forth voices. And I am honored and grateful that you felt like my story was a worthy one to share. Thank you.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:It is. And thank you again. And thank all of you for listening to our Island City Beat podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show and come back for another episode. Until then, I am your host, Angie Watson-Hajjem.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Please take care. Goodbye.