BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Councilman Andrae Gonzales will make two recommendations at Wednesday night's Bakersfield City Council meeting.
In an interview with 23ABC's Alex Bell, Gonzales said he will propose that the council ask Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Terry to review a set of policy recommendations called #8CANTWAIT. The recommendations were created by a non-profit called Campaign Zero and have been proposed to law enforcement agencies nationwide.
The #8CANTWAIT recommendations are:
- Immediate ban of chokeholds & strangleholds
- Require de-escalation tactics
- Duty to intervene for all officers
- Require warnings before shooting
- Ban shooting at moving vehicles
- Require comprehensive reporting
- Exhaust all alternatives before shooting
- Implement a use of force continuum
Gonzales said he will recommend Chief Terry come back to the council with an analysis and action plan within 30 days. The recommended action plan would need to include which actions have not yet been implemented and analysis of policies the police department might not be able to implement and why.
Gonzales also stated a number of actions have already been taken to meet the #8CANTWAIT recommended policies but said there are still others that can be adopted.
“I think with regard to the #8CANTWAIT priorities those things seem very straight forward. Those are things that we should review. We know at a national level those are things that many advocated are asking for. We need to do right away, we need to do that analysis and come back with recommendations for the full council as quickly as possible. That’s something that we can work on immediately,” said Gonzales.
During the interview, Gonzales also stated he will recommend that Bakersfield City Manager Christian Clegg and Chief Terry, “develop a six-month task force made up of community members to work on policy recommendations for the police department for the city council to adopt. So that we can move forward.”
The councilman also stated there are efforts currently underway.
“By the end of this month... every single police officer who’s in uniform, from the police chief down, will be equipped with a body worn camera,” said Gonzales.
Gonzales said the body cameras that were approved in this year's city budget is a big step in the right direction.
“What I hope is that people who are concerned about practices of the police department in our community, that they really take a look at what work has been done first,” said Gonzales.
