I was a cop. My son was killed by a cop. Here’s how the system needs to be reformed. | Opinion

I am a retired San Diego Police Officer, so I understand that policing is a dangerous and difficult job. But I also know what it is to lose a family member in a police shooting.

My son Jeremy was shot and killed by a Star police officer on June 15, 2022.

It is my contention that the only legitimate way to hold law enforcement accountable to the public is with a Citizen Review Board.

All law enforcement officers are covered under qualified immunity because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling due to the nature of their job. However, that immunity should not give them the right to become judge, jury, and executioner. Their primary oath is to “preserve life.”

Part of the process of reviewing critical incidents should require unbiased investigation and review. An unbiased investigation will not be the result if the investigation is led by law enforcement in any capacity (active or retired officers, prosecutors or even city officials). That’s true even when the investigation is turned over to an “uninvolved agency” as stated in the Ada County’s CITF statement.

The “outside” prosecutor in our son’s case was previously an Ada County prosecutor for 15 years.

Law enforcement is intertwined. Boise PD officers will respond to a call from any agency in Ada County. A prosecutor relies on law enforcement to win cases. City officials have a political agenda, as seen in the firing of the director of Boise Police Accountability.

Imagine being an officer in Boise calling for backup. You just spoke up about another officer’s involvement in an instance where this officer crossed the line of professionalism. You report it to the supervisor. You are blackballed by fellow officers for “ratting out” another officer. How do you think your next call for backup will go? Will the responding officer show up quickly? Will you be passed up for the next promotion?

The only way law enforcement will be held accountable is by unbiased, non-law enforcement, non-city officials including legal counsel — by citizens.

A citizen’s review board, in this case the “Commission for Accountability of Treasure Valley Law Enforcement,” needs to be established. This board would have the ability to write subpoenas, review reports, review investigations, ask questions of all involved and come to a recommendation separately from any CITF or internal investigations by the agency.

The recommendation would then be forwarded to the head of the agency involved. The recommendations should be followed judiciously. This would improve transparency with the public, initiate new policies and procedures, and provide improved training for officers.

This will lead to increased trust with the public, as happened when body cameras became widely worn, and put agencies on notice that they and their officers will be held accountable.

Along with this transparency, families should be able to get information regarding the incident and the progress of the investigation. It took 10 months for the investigation of my son’s shooting to be completed. Then Ada County Sheriff’s made a public announcement via media that they were releasing video and reports of the incident. Not once was our family contacted by Ada County regarding the investigation except in response to our requests for information, to which their response was “no.” Law enforcement wants to control the narrative.

We also requested video from the investigation after it was completed, to which their response was: We will give you redacted versions for $2,000. The review board will give families the opportunity to get updates in real-time not hindering the investigation process, giving them answers to their questions and most importantly comfort.

In our situation, officers involved had already made a determination prior to the incident. They predicted a “not good” outcome before they created the scenario that ended with them taking my son’s life unnecessarily. As we stated in our media release in response to CITF report, had they followed policy and procedures they would have intervened in what they knew was a crisis situation for my son at our home and taken numerous other avenues to help him. They chose not to.

A public outcry from the citizens of the Treasure Valley is what is needed to stop these officer-involved shootings from occurring more frequently. As I write this another Boise Police Officer has been involved in the department’s 6th shooting this year. From 2015 to 2022, 71 lives have been taken.

What can you do?

Call your mayor, city council and state legislators.

Write to Ada County Commissioners.

Contact the ACLU and the State Attorney General Raúl Labrador.

Insist that a “Commission for Accountability of Treasure Valley Law Enforcement” be established, that follows the guidelines of the “Department of Justice Citizens Review of Police Approaches.”