Six Months?!

Well, well, well...the data on drunk arrests don’t support San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis' version of events as to why San Jose Police Officers arrest so many drunk folks and why so many of those folks are Latino.

First, let's see how our leaders are responding to the new news...

• Chief Davis, at a loss to explain the data which contradicts everything he's said thus far, says, “the simple answer is that the more we look at all of the data, the more obvious it is there are no simple answers.” Which is what some folks have been saying for some time. Ironically, Chief Davis is actually shielding more information than he is sharing...
• (Even as he stabs them in the back) Councilmember Pete Constant continues to defend the Chief and Police Officers saying that the police are trying to do the right thing and statistics don’t paint a complete picture...what is the complete picture then Pete? Perhaps you should have shown up to the Council meeting when this issue was being discussed to help paint that picture...
• Mayor Chuck Reed, well known to be a fan of data and analysis, is seeing the light, apparently. Now saying, "It's pretty clear to me that we have some problems that need to be fixed." Which is (close to) the exact opposite from what he said in a KCBS story two months ago: "...Mayor Chuck Reed says it's a socioeconomic problem..."
  

Now let's review a bit about how we got here...

The issue of drunk arrests first came up in mid-October...which led to accusations of racial profiling...which led to the City Council deciding to take a look at the issue in mid-November.

Prior to that mid-November meeting, Councilmember Sam Liccardo put forth a set of changes that would track, monitor, and implement how drunk arrests are done in San Jose. At the actual (long, long) City Council meeting, Mayor Reed and Councilmember Campos thought it would be best to study the issue further and called for a Task Force. Liccardo responded by saying Task Forces are “…the place where good ideas go to die...” Nonetheless, the Council moved forward on the Task Force idea...

Since the City Council meeting, three weeks went by and nothing happened until...a flurry of activity this week when...

• ...we learned that Officers are now offering Breathalyzer tests to those folks who want them...(one of Liccardo's ideas that the Mayor/Campos want to study for three months)
  
• ...City Manager Debra Figone finally submitted a Memo with a timeline for Task Force meetings along with groups who should participate. (It only took three weeks to write a 6 page Memo...2 pages a week ain't, bad I guess...)
• ...we all got some data about the actual drunk arrests and they don't support anything the Police Department has been saying...(surprise, surprise)
  

So what have we learned?

• It takes three months for the City Council to set out a three month strategy to address a pressing problem...which seems to be ok with the Mayor, the Police Chief, Councilmember Campos, and Councilmember Constant...
  
• Chief Davis didn't give the City Council a clear picture of what was going on in his Department, either because he didn't know or didn't want to say...either way, that's a problem...
• Councilmember Liccardo was right -- Task Forces are a place where good ideas go to die...if the Task Force ever gets off the ground...
  

So let's hear it for the Council -- who else can take a pressing issue in October and stretch out not finding a solution until April?

A question that the Mayor, or Campos, or Constant, or Chief Davis, or the City Manager should answer before they leave town:

What will we know about the problem and possible solutions in April that we don't know today...or that we didn't know in October?