LONG BEACH POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION

SUPPORTING THE HEROES WHO PROTECT LONG BEACH

 

JAMES FOSTER RICH CHAMBERS
PRESDENT 

ERIC HUBBARD DAVID WHELAN
SECRETARY TREASURER

 

LODGEI CA

 

 

2865 TEMPLE AVENUE LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA 90755 (562) 426 - 1201

February 8, 2019

Jamila Henderson

Senior Associate, PolicyLink
1438 Webster Street

Suite 303

Oakland, CA 94612

Dear Ms. Henderson,

was recently made aware of the PolicyLink report you authored entitled "Equitable Growth Profile of
the City of Long Beach." Over the next several months, I am sure our elected officials will be studying
and debating the data and recommendations to formulate future policy.

My attention was specifically drawn to page 11 of the summary document which stated:

?The relationships are frayed between law enforcement and communities of color and immigrant
communities. The police department has a tarnished legacy of racial bias dating back historically to an
alleged connection to the Ku Klux Klan. More recently, tensions have emerged between police and
African American, Latinx, and Asian youth, and rates of incarceration and police shootings tend to be
higher than average for these youth. Instead of tough-on-crime tactics, the focus should be on
demarcation and approaches that combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Stronger
relationships are also needed between police and immigrant businesses. 

My understanding is that the sentence referring to the Ku Klux Klan has since been redacted, and the
rest of the statement is now at the top of page 10 within the summary.

As law enforcement professionals, our officers take great pride in their work, and I want to ensure any
concerns regarding our customer service or professionalism are immediately addressed.

Unfortunately, the statement above did not come with a footnote or stated source. The only given
reference was a comment on page 9 that noted there were "interviews with community residents,
activists, advocates, elected officials and civic leaders." There was no mention ofthe sampling size,
academic accuracy, or validation of the statement, yet it appears to be listed as a fact derived from the
work done within this research project.

lam aware of two professional polls that were done by a validated polling company within the last few
years that asked about the favorability of our police department. Both polls revealed that our Long
Beach police officers had a favorable rating across all demographics citywide. I was unaware that
another validated source had conflicting data, so lam extremely interested in how you came to this
conclusion. I?m confident you must have used a certified source, otherwise this statement would really
be nothing more than a wild supposition based on random interviews.

Could you please supply the methodology used to come to the conclusion listed in the highlighted
statement?

If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact me at any time.

Sincerely,

.., ?.47

JAMES T. FOST 
President

cc: Pat West, City Manager
Tom Modica, Assistant City Manager
Kevin Jackson, Deputy City Manager
Charlie Pa rkin, City Attorney
Robert Luna, Chief of Police