KZMU News: Wednesday June 17, 2020

On Tuesday, Grand County elected officials opened a public conversation on race with the sheriff’s department. Members of the public, including representatives from community organizations like the Moab Valley Multicultural Center, Moab Pride and Black Lives Matter Moab were invited to participate. 

KZMU News · Wednesday June 17, 2020

Council member Evan Clapper said this dialogue was “100 percent” influenced by recent local protests for racial justice. 

EVAN CLAPPER: As a local elected official, it felt like there was a big call to action and it’d be irresponsible to ignore that. So to the people that have been gathering, to people that have been spreading messages – it has all been respectful, it’s been nonviolent. And most importantly, it’s been inspirational. So thanks to everyone who’s been showing up.

During the first half of the two hour meeting, Grand County Attorney Christina Sloan – along with Sheriff Steve White and his top officials – reviewed several current policies and procedures. Their review included the hiring process, body cams, and firearms purchases. Several of these policies were recently made public and posted to the county website. 

The group also discussed certain changes they are currently considering in light of this national conversation on race. Sheriff White said there is room for improvement when it comes to more consistent racial bias training. 

SHERIFF WHITE: We feel like on the bias training and some of that – they get it pretty good coming out of the police academy. I think they do a pretty good job. But I think after they get out of the academy – I think we have a disconnect. I think the training is limited…We get some through the county on a very small, general basis. I would like to see – and I think we’re gonna see this on the statewide level as well ­– but I’d like to see us do more law enforcement specific bias training.

The county is also looking into adding more questions to a polygraph test for potential new hires that they say could identify racial bias. 

After Sheriff White spoke, Rhiana Medina of the Moab Valley Multicultural Center said the county’s need for implicit bias training could be “a major opportunity for partnership” with her organization. The center works in crisis resource and advocacy, meaning that her staff often get a front row seat to Moab’s criminal justice system. 

On that note, Medina said she was struck by some data revealed in the meeting. According to the county, over a recent four year period, 18 percent of people in Grand County’s jail were Native American. 

RHIANA MEDINA: I think that there’s always room for improvement. I think that number of the Native population in jail – I’m in Justice Court every week and I think anecdotally I see…there’s a lot more than…our general population. We should talk about that and get curious [about] why that’s happening. Because that was a big number.

CHRISTINA SLOAN: If I could just break in – there are so many questions and so many good topics. And so [council chair] Mary [McGann] and I had discussed that we need to have a couple more conversations and one should be focused on the unique challenges to the Navajo Nation and so I think that will be a second conversation.

During the latter half of the meeting, the public was invited to ask questions. About 80 people were watching the event live through Zoom and YouTube. 

At one point, the discussion circled around stop and arrest data. A member of the public wanted to know if racial bias plays a role in citations. Attorney Sloan responded. 

CHRISTINA SLOAN: We do not see in my office, racism playing a factor in arrests. Sorry, let me start at stops. We don’t see racism playing a factor in stops. We don’t see racism playing a factor in arrests. And we don’t make prosecutorial decisions based on race. And we don’t see harsher penalties based on race in our court.

However, there were several requests for hard data to prove that racial profiling is not happening in Grand County. The Sheriff’s Office then confirmed that sex, race, and gender are tracked on every citation.  

ELAINA BUDRIS: Cool. So can we get access to that data then? Without a GRAMA request? Can we freely have access to that?

SHERIFF WHITE: We’re gonna have to follow our GRAMA regulations. You’ll probably have to GRAMA and be specific in what you want. Just remember any of that kind of stuff – it’s gonna take us a while to put it together.

ELAINA BUDRIS: Okay.

MARY MCGANN:  What I’m hearing is there is a belief by a number of the people that are on the call, that there are some issues with racial profiling and discrimination between how different people are being treated.

In addition to requesting stop, citation, and arrest data, members of the public also wanted more information about the complaint process. Addressing the Sheriff’s Office, local Jessie Wilson said the public is “taking your word for it” that complaints are handled and investigated perfectly every time. 

JESSIE WILSON: When [someone] comes to you accusing, you know, one of your officers of something – is there like a concrete report that we can see that shows that you guys are actually doing that? Because with due respect, we’re just taking your word for it that anytime you get a negative report, it’s treated perfectly every single time.

This line of questioning regarding complaint procedure lasted over 10 minutes. Finally, the following exchange occurred. We’ll hear questioner Jessie Wilson as well as Sheriff White, council chair Mary McGann and Rhiana Medina from the Multicultural Center. 

JESSIE WILSON: I think it’s clear and obvious that a lot of times those checks and balances are biased toward the police officers. And I just think that’s something we need to address. 

SHERIFF WHITE: Well, we’re open to a discussion. Let’s look at it. 

MARY MCGANN: And I do believe that there are a lot of situations where people who have felt as though they haven’t been treated correctly, or they weren’t treated correctly, are not going to go to the police to talk to about it. They’re not going to because there is too much fear. 

JESSIE WILSON: The problem isn’t with the people that are having a hard time coming. The problem is the way that they have been treated by police officers. It’s not their job to say, you know, ‘okay, I’m gonna get over this issue that I have,’ because they’re the ones that are the victims of a problem.

SHERIFF WHITE: Well, and I agree, and that’s where we’ve got to work out the problem, Jessie, we’ve got to figure out how that comes in the middle and doesn’t. 

MARY MCGANN: I think we’re now really starting to talk about what we’re here to talk about – the breakdown in communication. Because there’s right on both sides on everything. And I’m sure you see it where you [Rhiana] work where the people are very nervous and they’re very afraid. 

RHIANA MEDINA: We do…I think there is fear. I think that’s true. I think we can all agree that it’s very scary to interact with law enforcement. 

MARY MCGANN: Especially if a person feels like they are not part of the central group. So I would like to move from here to looking at ways that we can start addressing that issue.

McGann and other elected officials asked the public for examples of mistreatment at the hands of law enforcement. Local Jayne May was able to provide one. 

JAYNE MAY: I would like to speak to the idea of being a victim in this community and not feeling safe. And it is founded in both the police and the law enforcement of the sheriff’s office. To live here, to contribute here, and to have a life threatening event here. To beg for investigations. To get bounced between agencies, so much so that the county attorney’s office does not have the investigative evidence to represent a victim’s voice in this community.

May alleged that bad investigative work – at the hands of the Grand County Sheriff’s Office and the Moab City Police Department – have put her at risk in our community. 

JAYNE MAY: The work of investigation has to be done so you give people something to go to court with. So that victims like myself, aren’t dismissed and continue now to live in fear because we didn’t have a voice – even though we begged for one. And so I appreciate everything the law enforcement does. I never thought I’d be speaking like this. But I never thought I’d be terrified in my own community.

Grand County’s elected officials said that they will be meeting again to discuss these issues around law enforcement. It’s not yet clear if those discussions will continue in the public sphere. However, elected officials did express interest in hosting more community conversations on race, perhaps focusing on Native American issues as well as race and our local education system. 

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Show Notes:

6/17 Grand County ‘Conversation on Race & Justice’ (first two hours of video)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EXhxx36u3Q

GCSO Recently Posted Policies
www.grandcountyutah.net/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=247

6/09 KZMU Interview with Grand County Attorney Christina Sloan
www.kzmu.org/kzmu-news-tuesday-june-9-2020/