Modesto invites residents to talk about the police as it begins looking at reforms
Residents soon can tell Modesto officials about their experiences with the city’s police officers — good, bad and indifferent — and what changes they’d like to see in how officers do their jobs.
Modesto is expected to hold a special City Council meeting May 22, which is a Saturday, to let residents share their concerns and ideas about policing in the city. The meeting will be held in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place as well as on Zoom.
The Police Department will be the meeting’s only topic. The city will release more details about the meeting in the coming weeks.
City officials updated the council Tuesday about the special meeting. It is part of looking at potential reforms of the Police Department, such as changing how mental health calls are handled, that a city committee will consider over the coming months.
Modesto is calling its review “Forward Together” and comes as communities across the nation are talking about how law enforcement does its job after the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in Minneapolis police custody.
The conversation has intensified in Modesto after one of its officers fatally shot Trevor Seever, a 29-year-old unarmed white man in December. The officer, Joseph Lamantia, was fired from his job in March and has been charged with voluntary manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Tuesday council meeting also featured more than a dozen audience members, including members of Seever’s family, rebuking Councilman Bill Zoslocki for his remarks during last week’s budget hearings.
Zoslocki repeatedly advised moms and dads to train their children to obey police officers, something he said his dad taught him in the 1950s. Zoslocki said obeying could save a child’s life.
Speakers called for Zoslocki to resign, said his remarks reflected his white privilege, that Latino and Black parents teach their children to obey yet their children still are harmed, and that the councilman’s advice was an insult to Seever and his family, especially his mother.
Seever’s family and friends held a candlelight vigil last Saturday to honor his 30th birthday, and his brother, Kyle, called on the council to acknowledge Seever’s birthday.
‘Happy Birthday’ in honor of slain man
Councilwoman Jenny Kenoyer asked her fellow council members at the end of the meeting to join her in singing “Happy Birthday,” which Zoslocki endorsed. Council members ended the meeting singing in honor of Seever.
Deputy City Manager Caluha Barnes said a Spanish language translator — and perhaps an American Sign Language translator — will be at the May 22 special meeting.
The City Council is expected June 8 to approve a scope of work for this initiative based on the top themes that emerge from the special meeting. The council also is expected to appoint the members of a committee that will spend six months to a year looking at solutions to address those themes. The committee will then present its recommendations to the City Council for potential adoption.
Barnes said the plan is for the committee meetings to be open to the public. She said the committee’s members will come from organizations and groups that represent Modesto’s various constituencies, such as its neighborhoods, businesses and social justice advocates. The committee will have members who represent the city’s racial and ethnic diversity.
Barnes said the committee also will be charged with educating the public about law enforcement and building stronger ties between the community and police.
Seever’s family and other audience members repeated their demand for an independent auditor and civilian review board for the Police Department at Tuesday’s meeting. Modesto officials have said they want to go through the Forward Together process to see if those proposals emerge as potential solutions.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
