A new Marin County civil grand jury report calls for the creation of a citizens board provided with subpoena power to oversee the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
In its report, the grand jury states that such a citizens oversight board would facilitate trust between residents and the sheriff’s office by providing a public forum for voicing community concerns about the department and a platform for the sheriff’s office to respond to allegations of misconduct.
Assembly Bill 1185, which was signed by the governor in September 2020, empowers all counties to establish an oversight board or appoint an inspector general to assist county supervisors in their supervision of local sheriffs. The legislation also authorizes such oversight boards and inspectors general to issue subpoenas for investigative purposes.
County supervisors have not publicly voted to create a citizens oversight board, but did approve a $150,000 allocation for “AB 1185 implementation and support” as part of the county’s 2022-23 budget last week. In February, supervisors rejected a proposal to create a residents advisory group to serve as a liaison between the sheriff’s office and the community.
A citizens oversight board would be “especially beneficial in communities such as Marin City, where the relationship between the Sheriff’s Office continues to be strained,” according to the report.
The grand jury wrote that it focused specifically on Marin City’s Black community because of the history of injustices the community has experienced and recent incidents involving the sheriff’s office, including the participation with the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department in a raid on three homes in Marin City on Nov. 14, 2019.
The raid was executed following a shooting at an Airbnb in Orinda that left five men dead and several more people injured. Two 20-year-old Marin City men who were suspects in the shooting were arrested during the raid.
Sheriff Robert Doyle told the grand jury that the raid was led by Contra Costa and that the Marin sheriff’s office merely assisted with the operation.
The grand jury wrote, “Even though the raid was necessary, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office could have mitigated the trauma resulting from the raid by acknowledging its impact, holding community meetings, and sending a school resource officer to local schools.”
The grand jury stated that a citizens oversight board would provide an excellent forum for residents to voice their concerns about how the event was handled.
The other incident cited by the grand jury was the entrance of a caravan of vehicles driven by Donald Trump supporters into Marin City on Nov. 1, 2020.
The grand jury states that after the caravan arrived at the Gateway Shopping Center at about 11:17 a.m., “Marin City residents gathered in the parking lot, racial epithets were hurled from the caravan, eggs were thrown in response and traffic congestion blocked exits.”
According to the grand jury, records show that the sheriff’s office received an anonymous call at 7:13 a.m., and a call from from someone who identified themselves but was not in charge of the rally at 8 a.m., advising that a Trump rally would take place in Marin City beginning at between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
The grand jury wrote, “The sheriff’s office senior leadership repeatedly stated that they had received notice of the rally a few minutes before the vehicles arrived at the shopping center.”
The grand jury said, “An investigation could determine why the Sheriff’s Office has continued to state that it had no knowledge of the caravan until minutes before it arrived and why the Sheriff’s Office did not more effectively manage the incident.”
Doyle said, “I asked the grand jury, what authority did I have to stop traffic coming into Marin City? The authority on Highway 101 is the California Highway Patrol not the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. Those comments weren’t contained in the grand jury report.
“Everybody believes in the First Amendment and free speech,” Doyle added, “but if your free speech contains something they don’t like, then all of a sudden it’s not protected by the First Amendment anymore.”
Another issue raised by the grand jury is a complaint from some Marin City residents that they are being “over-policed” for the purpose of training deputies.
Doyle said most deputies are trained in Marin City and San Rafael.
“The reason for that is those are the two high-volume stations, and we need to expose people in training to a variety and volume of calls,” Doyle said “It’s just like in the medical profession. The surgeons train in urban settings so they can get the volume and variety of cases.”
During budget hearings last week, Supervisor Damon Connolly twice made it clear that implementation of AB 1185 is at the top of his agenda. On June 20, Connolly said, “I wanted to circle back and re-iterate that this board is committed to implementation of AB 1185.”
“By the end of this calendar year we should have a structure in place,” Connolly said, even though the Board of Supervisors has not yet voted to approve formation of an oversight board.
Connolly’s term on the board ends in December. He chose to give it up in order to compete for a state Assembly seat.
Doyle says both the supervisors and the grand jury seem to overestimate the authority AB 1185 gives county supervisors over local sheriffs.
“The board’s own attorney has told them more than once that 1185 doesn’t give them any more authority than they have today,” Doyle said.
In an email Tuesday, Marin County Counsel Brian Washington wrote that both the grand jury and the Board of Supervisors currently have the authority to subpoena documents from the sheriff’s office.
“AB 1185 grants the Board of Supervisors the authority to establish an oversight board (or inspector general) with subpoena power,” Washington wrote.
Doyle said, “We’ve asked all along, what information have you wanted that we haven’t provided to you? No one answers those questions. They don’t want oversight. They want control.”