For the last 16 months, The Oceanside Sanctuary Justice Works Team has been working with other Oceanside churches and San Diego Organizing Project on the “Live Free Oceanside” campaign, an effort to make policing safer, more equitable, and more just for communities of color in Oceanside, CA. This campaign is based on the policy proposals of the 8 Can’t Wait Campaign to change police departments across the United States.
Live Free Oceanside has chosen to focus on advocating for The Oceanside Police Department to adopt an enforceable de-escalation policy for its officers. Currently, OPD has a recommended de-escalation policy which outlines de-escalation procedures, but this policy is not enforced as mandatory, when possible.
Here are the reasons we have chosen to focus on this change:
Research shows a decrease in use of force of up to 15% when deescalation is a requirement. (Campaign Zero Use of Force Project and Statistics)
OPD’s current de-escalation policy is non-enforceable, and therefore less safe for both citizens and officers (Oceanside Police Department Consolidated Use of Force Manual)
Officers who could otherwise use de-escalation tactics, but choose not to do so, cannot be held accountable because of the non-enforceable language: (Union-Tribune Article on San Diego’s development of an enforceable de-escalation policy)
Enforceable de-escalation policies have been successfully modeled by other San Diego County police departments (Union Tribune article on City’s of San Diego & La Mesa de escalation policies)
You can join us on November 9th at 6:30 PM to ask for this important change. Click here to RSVP today.