Sandra Spagnoli

Sandra Spagnoli is the Chief of the San Leandro Police Department. She was hired and started working in January 2011, after the City of San Leandro settled a lawsuit brought by female police officers for sexual harassment and discrimination.

Spagnoli at first gave indications that she would use “best practices” in the running of the police department. She reorganized the department and created new policies. She also appeared to reach out to the community with frequent “Coffee with the cops”.

It soon became evident, however, that Spagnoli’s attitude towards crime in San Leandro was one of “everybody is a suspect and everybody should be treated as one”. The SLPD has become less and less transparent under her rule. She has interfered in the city’s politics, both by trying to organize lobbying of the City Council during work hours and using public resources, and by seemingly interfering with city elections (during the 2012 campaign she failed to investigate a leak of a warrant against a candidate, and chose to run a press release about a suspect with the same last name than that same candidate during election day). Spagnoli has also gotten in trouble for issuing press releases falsely accusing people of crimes they did not commit. The City of San Leandro recently settled a lawsuit based on a “sting” she authorized to try to catch homosexual men soliciting sex in public. In June 2012 the SLPD issued a press release accusing a respect High School teacher of possessing child pornography, which seems to be a complete fabrication.

Spagnoli has also earned the dislike of community members for trying to restrict bee-keeping citing the made-up danger of “over pollination”, providing false information to the City Council about the “dangers” of marijuana dispensaries and trying to place surveillance cameras throughout town without alerting the community.

She makes it a habit to provide the Council and the Community with false information. For example, she has repeatedly claimed that San Leandro’s rising clime is due to the early release of inmates due to re-alignment, when no such releases have happened. She told the City Council that the City only had one working license plate camera, with 2 about to be installed – when in reality it had 3 installed and 2 more on the works. She claimed that he department receives an average of one complain about chickens a week – when records show only one complain has been recorded in two years. We could go on.

San Leandro City Council To Vote Tonight to Spy on School Children

San Leandro City Council To Vote Tonight to Spy on School Children Police, Schools No Responses »

Dec 152014

SAFE Asks City Council to Vote Against COPS Grant

Update: The City Council voted to accept the COPS grant. All but one of the speakers spoke against having SROs in Schools.

prisonpipeline
Last week, Students And Families for Education (SAFE) helped defeat the proposal to spend $1.7 of the San Leandro School District’s education fund on police in schools. Tonight, the San Leandro City Council votes on accepting the COPS Grant.

In addition to requiring the city spend money on new police positions, the grant proposal lays out Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli‘s plan to use the grant money to start a program of identifying and monitoring children labeled as “at risk” by the SLPD, beginning in elementary school. SLPD also proposes to track children through social media and private messaging systems.

The money requirement of the COPS Grant will spend much of the Measure HH funds on a few police, without public transparency. This is not how the tax measure was sold to San Leandro citizens.

SAFE invites all concerned parents, students and community member to come out tonight to the City Council meeting at 7pm to express opposition to this surveillance plan and misuse of funds in San Leandro.

The following is the SLPD’s planned used for the COPS grant funds, as stated in page 10, item 14 of the COPS grant application (emphasis added):

The San Leandro Police Department is committed to improving its technology capabilities, both as it relates to monitoring and public communications. We feel strongly that it is essential to understand and use technology that our youth are reliant on in today’s expanding technological world. The four additional SRO officers would be tasked with working with the city’s technology experts to create an online system that can monitor youth from first signs of risk through the school system. As school administration and officers change, this would enable our SROs to know when to check-in with youth, engage them in positive opportunities and connect them to necessary preventive services. Our goal is to build relationships in elementary school years that last through graduation. It is essential for information to be readily available to SROs and to be able to save and monitor data/changes to enable the SRO time to interact with students and develop positive trust-based relationships. The additional SROs will the SLPD time to be actively involved in the community, identifying and discovering how to best work with and engage youth as well as the community and establishing a positive rapport. With funding, the SLPD also plans to increase its use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat) to monitor youth activities as well as communicate with students and our community. We plan to utilize posts on these sites to alert the public about available activities and warn them of threats.

Information from the SLPD Forum on Broadmoor Ave. Shooting

Information from the SLPD Forum on Broadmoor Ave. Shooting Police 6 Responses »

Dec 112014

Officer Luis Torres answering questions

On Thursday, Dec. 11, the San Leandro Police Department had an hour-long community meeting to address the shooting that took place on Broadmoor Ave. Mike Katz-Lacabe attended, filmed and tweeted from the meeting. The SLPD did not call on him, so he was unable to ask any questions. The following are his tweets, in chronological order followed by the video of the meeting.

The meeting concerns the December 4 shooting in San Leandro’s Broadmoor neighborhood.

In response to a question from the audience, SLPD Officer Robert McManus says Oct. 5 Woodland Ave. officer-involved shooting is not related.

San Leandro police officer had no chance to get out of way of fleeing vehicle. His leg is why there wasn’t more damage to police car.

Injured San Leandro police officer underwent third surgery today. SLPD says that the officer’s prognosis is unknown.

In response to questions, McManus says they will not share where bullets were found nor how many shots were fired because there are ongoing investigations by the Oakland PD and Alameda Co. DA.

McManus says that both officers fired at the suspect, in response to an audience question.

Reports from local residents described multiple shots (at least 5-6) fired during the San Leandro officer-involved shooting.

McManus says that there is no evidence of a bullet crossing Bancroft Avenue and striking a car in 500 block of Broadmoor.

No weapons were found on the suspect arrested at the scene of the San Leandro officer-involved shooting nor the stolen car.

San Leandro Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli says purpose of meeting was to dispel rumors and answer questions, even though they can’t answer some questions.

Chief says this child was making adult decisions and operated the vehicle as a deadly weapon.

One audience member: “I don’t care how many shots were fired at that car…I hoped that she would end up like that other gentleman.”

Speaker wants police to “work with public works to make that [Oakland] border crossing more difficult.”

Chief says that surveillance & license plate cameras will be used to solve crime in response to speaker about border crossing.

Chief says of suspects: “We feel that they were there for some sort of criminal activity.”

Meeting Video, Part 1

This is a drawing of the scene before the suspect’s car moved. The suspect’s car is the one on the street closest to Kensworth. Two private cars are parked in front of it. The two cars in the middle of the street are the police cars. The injured officer was standing by the car closest to Bancroft, which was blocking the street at an angle.

Note: I removed a note I’d made on how the officer was injured, after Tim’s comment which provides more accurate information. I urge you to read Christine and Tim’s comments below for more information on the meeting.

SLPD Shoot at Fleeing Suspects Twice in 3 Days

SLPD Shoot at Fleeing Suspects Twice in 3 Days City Hall, Civil Liberties, Police 1 Response »

Dec 082014

Police-Shooting Over the last three days, we’ve had two shootings of women driving allegedly stolen cars by San Leandro Police Department officers. One of them is in critical condition. Police missed the other, a 16 year-old girl, though one bullet wheezed past a bystander and another hit a parked car a block away. Fortunately, nobody was reportedly injured in that incident. Shooting at a fleeing subject who is not a threat to the life of others is against the law.

There is no doubt that moral blame lies on the officers who did shoot. But the real culprits, the ones where most of the blame lies, are SLPD Chief Sandra Spagnoli and City Manager Chris Zapata.

While there are surely police officers who are itching to shoot someone, I believe most of them follow the protocols established by their chiefs of police. It would seem that SLPD’s protocols condone the shooting of fleeing vehicles. The buck must thus stop with Chief of Police Sandra Spagnoli, who created such protocols. But Spagnoli could only establish these protocols because City Manager Chris Zapata has disavowed any oversight of the police. When I met with him a couple of months ago to discuss police misconduct, Zapata stated that the only time he has ever denied a request by the Police Chief was when she proposed that the City spend $60 million to build a new police department. Zapata determined the City could not afford it.

Zapata did state that, contrary to the wishes of the Police Chief, he would disable the hidden microphones present in the surveillance cameras that were to be installed at City Hall. But he admitted that he took that position after consulting with the City Attorney and learning that secret audio recording of private conversations, even in a public space, violates California’s wiretapping law. Zapata stopped short of creating any audit requirements to ascertain that the microphones were, indeed, disabled.

Beyond these two situations, Zapata has given Spagnoli free reign. The only “oversight” of the Chief there is, are weekly meetings with Assistant City manager Lianne Marshall, where, according to Marshall, the Chief informs her of the needs of the police department.

Mayor Pauline Cutter and the City Council have no direct oversight of the Chief, but they do of the City Manager. It’s time they demand accountability from him.

***

The City Council will hold their annual work session on the Police Department TONIGHT, Dec. 8, 2014, at 8 PM – after the swearing in of the new Mayor and City Council members.

On Thursday, Dec. 11th, the Police Department will hold an informational meeting on the police shootings. It will take place at the Senior Center (13909 E. 14th St.), from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

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Council Meeting Notes: Surveillance cameras, Links Shuttle, Gating Floresta Gardens

Council Meeting Notes: Surveillance cameras, Links Shuttle, Gating Floresta Gardens Council Meeting Notes No Responses »

Jul 242014

The July 23rd Council meeting went extremely long. Mike had gone to speak in favor of a strong privacy policy for surveillance data, and didn’t get to do so until nearly 11. Before that he tweeted from the meeting. My comments are in italics. The Tweets have been organized by subject. Follow him @slbytes.

The only City Council candidates present at the meeting were Mike Katz-Lacabe and Mia Ousley.

San Leandro City Council to discuss Heron Bay wind turbine lawsuit in closed session on Monday 7/21.

Surveillance camera policy is on the agenda for Monday night’s 7/21 San Leandro City Council.

Councilmember Jim Prola is absent from tonight’s San Leandro City Council meeting.

Congratulations Officer Pickard for being recognized as the City of San Leandro employee of the quarter!

Kinkini Banerjee & family accept Proclamation from Mayor Cassidy declaring Aug. 2014 as Indo-American Heritage Month.

Kinkini is one of my best friends and I love her, but I wonder why India West was not invited to receive the proclamation or at least attend the ceremony. India West is the largest Indian-American newspaper in the US, and it’s based in San Leandro!

LINKS shuttle

San Leandro LINKS shuttle: 6.25 mile loop, 23 stops to connect W. San Leandro to downtown BART. Hours: 5:45am-9:45am and 3-7pm

Bike racks added in past year. Avg. 737 riders per day. 191,646 total riders in 2013.

Goals for San Leandro LINKS: shorten route to reduce time, reach Marina Sq./Auto Mall, service to Westgate, Kaiser, 21st Amendment Brewery.

Proposed change to San Leandro LINKs to meet goals: split route into north and south routes to reduce wait and trip times.

Proposed change to San Leandro LINKS will cost: $50k from City, $165k more from business improvement dist. & $130k more from grants/business

Mayoral candidate Diana Souza sounds supportive of San Leandro LINKS. She voted against it on 3/16/09.

Former San Leandro Councilmember Gordon Galvan is Exec Dir of San Leandro Transportation Mngmnt Org, which runs LINKS shuttle.

Mayor Cassidy wants to add San Leandro to the LINKS shuttle name a la “Emery Go Round” since the City will be partially funding it.

Diana Souza had been very critical of the LINKS shuttle until now. Her change of face is interesting. Gordon Galvan, who not only runs the shuttle but is also a lobbyist, was one of main contributors to Cassidy’s campaign.

Liens

San Leandro City Council voted 6-0 to impose liens for non-payment of bus. license fees, garbage fees, sidewalk repairs, and code compliance.

Among those with liens imposed by San Leandro for non-payment of business license fees: Diana Souza campaign mgr Charles Gilcrest.

I was at the council meeting last year where the Council voted to place liens and one of the business owners who appeared complained about the cumbersome system for paying business license fees, the immediate fines and lack of communication from the city. Apparently things haven’t changed as there were many liens imposed.

Floresta Gate

Much discussion about a gate for the Floresta Gardens neighborhood.

Karen Williams of Floresta Gardens asking for gate to reduce crime from non-residents. City discourages gates communities.

San Leandro City Council approves gate on Caliente Drive for Floresta Gardens neighborhood 4-2. Gregory and Lee vote no.

Facebook comment: A neighborhood in Fremont was asking for a gate along the Alameda Creek a few years ago. After a few months of curfew enforcement and checks at the location of concern we found most of the trouble actually originated from the HOA family members and guest.

Public Comments

First speaker addresses issue of children arriving in US from Central America.

Second speaker supports San Leandro Marina. Work session Mon. 7/28 on marina and shoreline.

Marijuana Dispensaries

San Leandro selects ICF International to help craft dispensary selection process. Mass. paid $335,449 to ICFI for similar work.

San Leandro Councilmember Diana Souza recuses herself because son works for pot dispensary that will apply for San Leandro dispensary.

Nothing in the government code requires Souza from disqualifying herself from this situation, but she doesn’t want to be in record voting against medical marijuana facilities. Alas, she has been on the record speaking and voting against them before. Souza, however, did not feel she needed to recuse herself on a vote concerning the property belonging to her own campaign manager.

Surveillance Cameras

Next up: vote on 36 cameras to monitor San Leandro City Hall and other city properties.

Mayor Cassidy clarifies that the upcoming vote does not approve a policy or anything to do with public surveillance cameras.

San Leandro Councilmember Benny Lee asks about backup of the data and whether backups are encrypted: Answer from staff: I believe so.

San Leandro City Council candidate Mia Ousley notes deficiency in draft surveillance camera policy and confusion about the agenda item.

San Leandro City Council votes 6-0 to approve $156k contract with Odin Systems for City Hall cameras. Not sure if it was sole source contract [later confirmed it was].

Pittsburg PD purchased cameras from Odin Systems. SLPD Chief Sandra Spagnoli used Pittsburg as example of video surveillance success.

However, San Leandro had greater reduction in crime without cameras than Pittsburg with cameras.

Odin Systems recently “donated” 60-inch monitor to Pittsburg PD, which paid thousands for cameras from them

No bid contract approved by San Leandro City Council Mon. 7/21 includes cameras with microphones for audio surveillance [which is unconstitutional].

Facebook comment from Mia Ousley, who was also at the meeting:

Only 3 people spoke out at last night’s meeting — all against the policy as is. However, in a confusing intro, Mayor Cassidy said the Council was not voting on a potential future plan to increase the number of cameras, which is what was written in the printed or online agenda. He said that information was only in the title and was misleading. However, I don’t see it that way at all, so it’s unclear to me what the Council actually unanimously agreed to — just replacing the current cameras at our Civic Center or a plan to install cameras at other areas in the city in the future. So I decided to address that issue anyway, saying oversight must be by a neutral party, and that decisions should come from the City Council, which would allow thorough vetting by the public.

Mike Katz-Lacabe agreed, and also discussed additional security and privacy issues that were not addressed in the proposed policy.

Darlene Evans was the only other speaker on the topic, saying her bike had been stolen from the library, where there was a camera, but the officers there told her spiders covered the camera and they couldn’t see anything.

Tweets from San Leandro Townhall Meeting – 7/14/14

Tweets from San Leandro Townhall Meeting – 7/14/14 Council Meeting Notes 3 Responses »

Jul 212014

Tweets by Mike Katz-Lacabe

The San Leandro City Council no longer keeps minutes of its meetings. Anyone interested in what transpired has to listen through hours of recordings. There is no way to search through them either. San Leandro Bytes editor Mike Katz-Lacabe (who is currently running for City Council) sometimes tweets from the meetings. I’m going to start collecting his tweets to serve as the record the City Council does not want to keep. The tweets are slightly cleaned up for ease of reading.

Mayor Cassidy notes that San Leandro City Council voted to extend Measure Z (.25% sales tax) and increase to .5% mainly to fund roads.

San Leandro Town Hall meeting starts with update on Marina & Davis freeway overpass construction project. Summer 2015 ETA for completion.

Pile driving complete on San Leandro Marina overpass. Pile driving starts in August for Davis overpass: 7am to 3pm.

Question to CalTrans: Can you do something about timing of lights on Marina Blvd in San Leandro? Traffic there is horrible.

CalTrans response from Scott McCrank: We agree. We’re looking at it, but “only such green time that can be allotted.” We’re brainstorming…

San Leandro Town Hall meeting has nearly 60 attendees and about 15 City staff.

Police Chief reports that crime in San Leandro is down 7% from last year. Note that this matches regional trend.

Former San Leandro CM Howard Kerr supports increasing sales tax to 10% or more to fund more police, surveillance in streets, neighborhoods

San Leandro CMs Benny Lee, Jim Prola ,Diana Souza supported Measure Z in 2010 and support doubling

Commenter at San Leandro Town Hall: Look at cutting city government, including red light cameras, before increasing sales tax.

Dwight Pitcaithley at San Leandro Town Hall: Why aren’t voters being allowed to vote on the fate of the San Leandro Marina?

Mayor Cassidy responds to Pitcaithley: We don’t have a final plan for the San Leandro Marina yet. EIR is currently underway.

San Leandro Comm Dev Director Cynthia Battenberg notes that public wants boat harbor, but not enough to pay for it. From 11/2007 Godbe poll.

Leo West at San Leandro Town Hall: Measure Z was supposed to be a temporary tax & now it’s for 30 years. Says supporters of Measure Z lied.

Mayor Cassidy to West: We eliminated utility user tax rebate for large businesses. Spent money wisely. Doing same work with less staff.

Two more supporters of a boat harbor in San Leandro speak of a lack of vision, the marina as a gem in the Bay Area, & resident support.

Mayor Cassidy response to question from Justin Hutchison: City is working on free wifi in downtown San Leandro.

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