CONCERNED
COMMUNITY
FOR JUSTICE

10 GENERAL MEETINGS

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Held 10 General Meetings via Zoom sharing updates and issues with the public and other advocates.  Guests/Presenters Included:  Rose Yee, candidate for Congress, invited to hear family Issues, Q&A, vote to endorse.

Jesus Ocampo, parent, and Robin McCollum, neighbor, asked for help with CPD excessive forceincidents against son w/ disability.

Monica McDaniel, PCAB’s “homeless” Rep. on issues and City Council candidacy.

Daniel De La Cruz, his complaints against CPD, after hearing about CC4J on KZFR.

Scott Rushing (speaker & CC4J GM member), son killed by CPD July 17, 2017 and efforts to bring lawsuit

CA AB 481 & CHICO POLICE DEPARTMENT’S (CPD) USE of MILITARY EQUIPMENT (UME)

3/28/24 CPD’s Community Engagement Meeting (CEM) held at City Council Chambers

Contacted community groups, made presentations and encouraged participation at CPDs CEM.
Presented at NAMI, Quaker “Friends”, Chico Peace Alliance, DACC, and Interfaith Council.
Sent CPD’s Police Community Advisory Board (PCAB) info about the CEM and requested they attend.
Asked Chief Aldridge to get us the formal meeting notice & information (website for comments, public meeting date/time/location) so we can help him get a good turnout. And we did, the room was full!

Emailed the notice to our 80 “active” people, sent to big mass mailing list and posted it on the
website. Our “ask” was that people come to the CEM, write LTE’s and/or spread the word. Email also
included our review of CPD’s UME Policy and possible “talking points” people could consider: Comply with AB481; remove from service AR15’s, machine guns, Super Sock bean bag shotguns and
weaponized robots with tear gas deployment capacity; consider Bola wraps to reduce excessive use
of deadly force; and use more de-escalation.

4/16/24 CPD’s “Use of Military Equipment” presentation & request for approval at Chico City Council meeting (CCC) & CC4J’s “Public Input”

Zoomed with John Lindsay Poland about support for helpful AB 481, including participating in
statewide advocates coordinating meeting this summer. Researched the term de-escalation. Will
continue the discussion with Chief Aldridge about differences between verbal approach of de-
escalation vs using less a lethal approach.

Our public comment input:

1. Ask the CPD to amend their policy to reflect the above talking points
listed for the CEM.

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2. Postpone the vote to renew the CPD report and policy so the Councilmembers
would have more time to review them, Sent an email blast encouraging people attend the 4/16 CCC meeting when a final vote on CPD’s UME policy was to be approved, and/or, send in a “Comment Card”. Email included sample comments and how to access comment cards.

INDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY

Parent and community member came to talk about multiple police contact/abuses of adult son w/
Developmental Disabilities. Father and son are homeless. Charged adult son with resisting arrest,
went to court, put on probation. City attorney told Dad “you have a lawsuit here.” They came to CC4J asking for our advice and help. Assisted in referral and reactivating FNRC’s services and pro bono legal assistance from BEDP. Attended a meeting with Probation and provided ongoing support.
Young man decided not to file a complaint against CPD for excessive force.

Homeless man heard about CC4J on local radio KZFR. Contacted us about his complaints against
CPD. Helped him file formal CPD complaint and write multiple email requests for follow-up. No
response other than “file a lawsuit”. We’ll use this as an example of “issues” with CPD’s Complaint
Process.

Stayed in contact with parent and her daughter, who contacted CCC4J about police abuse.

Followed case of Dana James, a woman left at the dump by Oroville PD was awarded $3M.

Tyler Rushing Case Rushing vs. CPD trial ~ 7yr saga of parents trying to get justice and sue CPD
after their son was killed in Chico. Father attended most CC4J General Meetings by zoom and got
lots of community support. Sent PR’s regarding the trial asking people to attend. Several (8-10)
CC4J members went to the trial in Sacramento, some every day. Emailed and posted info/updates
on our web/blog sites.

Community Member and freelance reporter, contacted us and came to a SOT meeting. She
witnessed a late-night police action outside Safeway on Mangrove, which she videoed. She was
concerned by the number of police and excessive tasing of someone who seemed to be having a
mental health crisis. Police noticed she was recording and more than one came to her and asked her
questions about what she witnessed. She felt intimidated. She hadn’t talked with but found the
woman online, and showed us a very old-fashioned style “Wanted” poster from El Dorado Co. She
researched and found court reports, arrest logs and charges. Woman arrested was appointed a
Public Defender (PD) in Sacramento. Community member left 2 messages with PD but hasn’t heard
back and doesn’t want to file a CPD complaint. CC4J’s follow up will be to talk with Aldridge at the
meeting as an example of lack of complaints.

CHICO CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS
Publicized and attended Chico Chamber of Commerce “Candidates Forum”. Emailed all Chico City
Council candidates asking their positions or views on Law Enforcement regarding: Budget, Excessive
use of Force, Transparency and the Complaint Process, Qualified Immunity or any other issues they
deem important. Posted the Candidate’s statements received on our Website.

Attended League of Women Voters forum. Sent questions, which weren’t asked, due to their format:
Questions we submitted to LWV:
1.    Police respond to calls concerning people with mental health problems. What ideas do you
have for supporting a 24/7 working relationship between the Chico Police Department (CPD) &
Butte County Behavior Health (BH) when calls come to CPD’s dispatch and there is a mental
health issue present? 

 
2. Annually the City expends an undetermined amount of money in legal fees for actions
undertaken by CPD officers.  How would you work towards ensuring that information is
transparent to the public? 
 
3. When a police officer uses excessive force, they can be disciplined or fired. How would you
support the CPD’s Chief effectively disciplining an officer who uses unwarranted excessive force?

Additional related questions:

4. Homelessness is a big concern for the Chico & its citizens.  What direction would you give
to City staff to address this issue?
 
5. There is a one time $20 million PG&E fire settlement coming to the city of Chico.   If there were
no stipulations on how this money must be spent, where would you direct this money? 

CC4J member and KZFR programmer interviewed City Council candidate Bryce Goldstein and Katie
Hawley. Forwarded KZFR’s “show archive” link to our members to hear these candidate interviews.

POLICE COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD (PCAB)
Chief Aldridge restarted PCAB appointing members representing various community groups.
A CC4J member WAS appointed, he will bring our issues and concerns to PCAB.
We are making contact w/ other PCAB members and adding them to our email list.
Sent PCAB info about CPD’s “Community Engagement Meeting (CEM)” and requested they attend.
Responded to & publicized a PCAB community survey and attended their May Town Hall meeting.
CC4J issues of concern relayed to PCAB:
- To help build trust, consider a Mediation or Ombudsman process for people who disagree or
question police actions or findings. May avoid costly lawsuits. Many people just want to be heard, get
an apology, and feel safer.
- Continue to advocate for less lethal use of force.
- Allow PCAB members to serve longer than 1-year terms.
- Pursue advocating for more legal campgrounds as “Homelessness” was the top issue on PCAB’s
survey.
- Represented CC4J at an August PCAB forum where each PCAB member was asked to invite
someone from “their” community to share what they think are CPD issues.

Per PCAB Chair Roger request to all PCAB members, sent info about CC4J.

MEET WITH CPD’s CHIEF ALDRIDGE
3/19/24 four CC4J members met with Chief Aldridge.
The Chief began by asking us questions.

What are your Goals of this meeting?
Do you see/think CPD is making progress?
Why don’t I see anything positive about police on CC4J’s website?

We talked about policies vs best practices and planned to discuss these topics:

1.Use of Force: Big topic of concern that CC4J hears from community.

a. Best practices information

b. De-escalation training information

c. Calming and pausing techniques for officers entering an event, training

d. How are officers are assessed for their abilities to determine “reasonableness” and “totality of

the circumstances”?

e. How are Officers trained to assess if individuals have limited ability to comprehend “command

and control” per 300.3.2 (f) and (g) for those with cognitive impairment (AB 392) and limited

understanding of the English language?

f. How is the Duty to Intercede (300.2.2, 300.2.3 and 300.2.4) reinforced in the CPD?

g. Deployment training for munitions under 308 and 309.

2. Complaint process: AB 1421 and Policy 300.9
a. Is data collected only for officers (exclude administrative personnel or animal control) and
internally (staff complaints against officers). Does public have access to those complaints.
b. What is done to follow up on Officers receiving multiple complaints under AB 1421, What is the
public’s access to that information?
c. Have a more user-friendly process, minimize complicated steps.
d. Vulnerable populations (AB 392-more contacts with law enforcement), is there Ombudsman
assistance?
e. How to mitigate fear of retaliation, by the public’s & Officer’s if make a complaint. Officer’s have
a “Duty to Intervene”, but fear backlash.
f. Are there any differences of CDP’s “Standard of Practice” or do they just follow Lexipol’s,
especially in regard to students, people with disabilities (DD, MH, physical...)
g. “Excited Delirium” is it used to justify lethal force? (Force Science Institute)

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CC4J ORGANIZATION UPDATES
Website Continued to improve and add to our website and Blog posts.

Elevator Speech Developed short consistent statement, & "Elevator Speech," to use with Media and
other groups to share CC4J’s mission.

“Concerned Community for Justice (CC4J) works with the community of Chico in support of a police
culture that values the dignity of all. We work to eliminate all use of implicit bias and excessive force. 
We encourage our Chico community to participate in decisions about the scope of local policing,
emphasizing transparency and accountability on the part of law enforcement. We work to educate the
public about Chico Police Department policies and practices, as well as, policing related laws and
civic actions that affect us. We work to ensure that officers receive the mental health support and
training they need to de-escalate critical situations. We come together in hopes of improving trust and respect between law enforcement and the people they serve.”

Contacts & Coalition Building People contacting us via the website are sent them basic info about
CC4J (Focus Points, Ways to be Involved) and asked if they want more info or to volunteer.
We continue to make connections with community organizations and “coalition” members and hope to get more active involvement from orgs representing vulnerable “police contact” populations such as; people of color, unhoused and/or those experiencing poverty, mental illness or in mental crisis.
Planning Future Events Explored having educational and fundraising events with speaker such as
Andy Duch (retired Butte College law enforcement), Cephus Uncle Bobby X-Oakland (Uncle of Oscar
Grant, killed by police) Stevante Clark (brother of Stephon, also killed by police)

Finances Yearly expenses are modest but necessary. Our website/WIX & internet/Gmail cost
$612/yr. With just one end of the year funding appeal, we now have $673 ,enough to cover our 2025
expenses.

Meetings Decided to combine Strategic, Outreach & Technology (SOT) and General Membership (GM) meetings in 2025 in an effort to increase active participation and reduce overlap in meetings.