An Open Letter to the Santa Cruz City Council

As you know, many residents of our community continue to be concerned about your decision to accept a $251,000 grant from Homeland Security to fund the purchase of a Bearcat armored response vehicle. Also as you know, grassroots activists have formed the group SCRAM! Santa Cruz Resistance Against Militarization to provide a community voice for those concerns.

SCRAM’s mission is threefold: (1) to bring the BearCat back onto the SC City Council agenda for a full public hearing and to rescind the approval; (2) to establish a long term policy for grant applications and acceptance in the City that ensures timeliness, transparency, full public disclosure and input; and (3) to help develop and implement policies that prevent military equipment from flowing into law enforcement agencies throughout Santa Cruz County. As witnessed at the most recent council sessions, the community has rallied around these goals and there has been substantial movement toward revisitation of the BearCat purchase as well as for citizen participation in developing the policies and procedures by which future grants for military-style equipment will be reviewed. But concerns remain as we move through this process and I address those as an individual resident of Santa Cruz and not as a SCRAM member.

It is my opinion, the issue of the militarization of law enforcement impacts our community far beyond the simple fact of the purchase. It raises an issue of trust between residents and police. Over the past several years, many members of the community have worked tirelessly to establish a “bond of trust” between officers of the law and the residents they are sworn to protect and serve. For reasons I have addressed to council at Oral Communication, I believe that the Bearcat purchase may irrevocably breach this “bond of trust” we have all worked so hard to create. I think we can agree that we must not let that happen.

Just as importantly however, the BearCat purchase also raises an issue of trust between members of council and the community members each of you were elected to represent. I will tell you as someone who respects the office of Council Member, that there is a tangible feeling in our community that members are not always listening to their constituencies and are not as responsive to the concerns of the people they serve as some might wish. I will hasten to say that as with any sweeping statement or generality, this can never be entirely true. But there is always a kernel of truth and I believe that good people such as yourselves must find that troubling. We as community members cannot all be policy makers in the way that elected civic leaders must be. But we are all stakeholders when it comes to the welfare of our community and all of us equally share a common concern for its well-being.

My point is this, your service to the community will always be judged by your actions more than your words. On the issue of the BearCat purchase and the potential for militarization of local law enforcement you have shown you possess the capacity to be both responsive and responsible in the performance of your duties with respect to the concerns of the community during this emotionally draining and sometimes-raucous process. Understanding that you are public servants and not perfect servants, I urge you to consider these good works as a model for the future.

Respectfully,

Steve Pleich