Publisher’s Notebook

• Tweaking the Law •

ANNE SOBLE

Sheriff Lee Baca, for whom we have great respect, has completed his review of the sheriff’s department’s policies related to the release of arrestees from the Lost Hills Station. The need to acknowledge civil rights concerns and expedite the release of misdemeanor violators through the system are valid issues, but so is the fact that Lost Hills is not a typical urban police station with 24-hour access to public transportation and the kind of external environment in which individuals who do not know the area can readily navigate, especially when they are without money, communications, or means of transportation.
Malibu has a bad enough rep to deal with—just ask the folks who packed last week’s Regional Water Quality Control Board hearing—without now being known throughout the blogosphere as a community that treats its visitors, whatever their alleged transgressions, poorly. Issues of race, gender and sexual identity are interwoven with charges of insensitivity and elitism. It is not unfair to ask whether the community might want to see policies that could prevent anyone from disappearing, even if it’s by choice.
Earlier quotes from the sheriff’s department that it is not a babysitting service and that people who break the law have to deal with the consequences may be fair, but they don’t alter the reality that some violators are treated differently than others. What is done according to the book is legal, but is it always right? Those of us who have lost children to disease, accidents or other dire fates should not be the only ones able to put ourselves in the shoes of family members unable to understand how those supposed to “serve and protect” might have let one of their kin down. That we may not yet know the whole story in this particular missing person case doesn’t mitigate the need to address these issues in the abstract.
Much can be accomplished if all parties engage in a reasonable and civil exchange of ideas that results in a meaningful assessment of whether release policy changes are called for at sheriff’s stations in remote areas. Perhaps a waiting area other than the lobby is a better alternative to putting released arrestees in a locked cell until someone can pick them up, especially if it means they won’t head out on foot. Similarly, do cars have to be impounded for violations that are usually field citations? Asking questions like these might mean that another story like the Mitrice Richardson saga won’t have to be written.