In support of IOLERO
EDITOR: We were glad to see Rollie Atkinson’s editorial last week supporting Sonoma County’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO). The ACLU appeared at the Dec. 4 Board of Supervisors’ meeting to strongly support the mandate and scope of IOLERO and its Community Advisory Commission (CAC), especially at this critical juncture when the board will shortly select a new director and probably redefine that body’s mission. IOLERO’s mandate is broad, ambitious and fully justified (on its website: sonomacounty.ca.gov/iolero), but its efforts have fallen short because of a lack of promised staffing.
All five supervisors supported the continuance of IOLERO, including James Gore, a strong supporter from the beginning, but only Susan Gorin voiced strong advocacy for finally giving the auditor the full funding that the BOS promised but never followed through on.
In our statement, we urged the board “not only to continue the existence of this valuable investigative and advisory body, but to further strengthen its mandate, procedures, independence, staff and funding.” We continued: “any restrictions placed on its staff or reductions in mission or budget … will inevitably compromise the transparency, integrity and correctness of critical procedures within the Sheriff’s Department, not to mention compromising the civil and legal rights of citizens subject to them. We believe that Director Threet’s recommendations will result in a more professional and effective Sheriff’s Office, as well in policies and procedures that more effectively than at the present reflect the expectations of the community in the area of protection of civil and Constitutional rights.”
We hope that local citizens will echo these sentiments to their supervisor.
Dave Henderson and Patricia Morandi
Co-Chairs, the Sonoma County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
