Conclusion As the Covid-19 crisis continues with no definitive end in sight, any effort at projecting into the near future – in any arena – becomes that much more complicated. The City of Vallejo, its residents, and its Police Department are grappling like everyone else with health concerns, new paradigms for interaction, and daunting financial setbacks. We submit this report in the midst of a very unusual time, and we acknowledge that the circumstances that shaped our various recommendations are shifting with unusual levels of speed and uncertainty. Some key components of our analysis – including the City’s commitment of significant resources to VPD staffing and infrastructure – are potentially affected by that uncertainty. In another way, though, the disruption created by the pandemic creates opportunities for positive innovation amidst the hardships. Individual people, organizations, institutions, and whole communities are being called upon to adapt – to evaluate their priorities and find new ways of achieving them. There is nothing welcome about the need to do this, or the suffering and loss that are the persistent backdrop for this time period. Nonetheless, and however much timelines need to be re-imagined or priorities reconsidered, the current challenges need not completely derail whatever constructive initiatives remain viable. As we have tried to convey throughout this report, our belief is that VPD now has the leadership, the potential, the support, and even the desire to change longstanding dynamics for the better. Many of these are dependent on money for hiring and other neglected supports; we hope that the concrete plans to accomplish this can still be realized in spite of the pandemic’s tremendous strain on City coffers. Others, though, are matters of culture and enforcement philosophy that relate to resource allocation without depending on it completely. And some are matters of internal policy that could happen as quickly as VPD has the institutional will to do so. In speaking with current Department leadership and reviewing their policies and protocols, we saw a real potential for implementing meaningful reform, and for changing the fundamental relationship with the Vallejo community into something more trusting and collaborative in both directions. A very thoughtful member of the command staff spoke to us about the important distinction between police actions that are technically lawful and/or “in policy,” and those that build
63
