After a months-long, nationwide search, the City Council will consider Parker for executive director of the Commission on Police Practices, a watchdog group that oversees the San Diego Police Department
A few months ago, Paul Parker, the hard-charging leader of the Sheriff’s Department’s civilian oversight board, resigned from his post in frustration.
“I just felt like I wasn’t able to make the progress that I thought was needed,” he said Friday.
Will the city of San Diego’s Commission on Police Practices be a better fit?
After a months-long, nationwide search, the City Council on Tuesday will consider Parker for the position of executive director of the commission — a watchdog group that oversees the San Diego Police Department.
The creation of the commission began in November 2020, when voters overwhelmingly passed Measure B. The ballot measure sought to replace the city’s old Community Review Board on Police Practices with an independent oversight group outfitted with professional staff and the authority to investigate police shootings, in-custody deaths and some incidents of alleged misconduct.
But in some ways, the group’s work is just beginning.
For years after the vote, an interim version of the commission languished under a flurry of member resignations and a backlog that reached about 150 cases.
The board is now flush with members, but they’re still a couple months away from submitting the procedures that will govern how they go about their investigations and issue disciplinary recommendations — procedures that need to be approved by City Council.
If appointed, Parker would be coming in on the ground floor.
“He’s courageous, he has grit, and he thinks out of the box,” said commission Chair Gloria Tran. “And that’s what we need if we’re going to affect change. We’re so excited to get someone of his caliber, who knows San Diego, as we build this foundation.”
Parker, 53, is a former police officer who migrated to medical examiner’s offices in Arizona and Nevada before coming to San Diego County in 2017 to run the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB. The group provides oversight for the Sheriff’s Department and the county’s Probation Department.
He left the following year when he was named the chief deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, but he returned as the CLERB executive officer in 2020.
During his time at the helm, Parker doggedly worked to expand the board’s role and authority, particularly when it came to deaths in county jails. San Diego County has recorded a high number of in-custody deaths for more than a decade. So far this year, five people have died in sheriff’s custody.
In his March resignation letter, Parker hoped the board would continue to build on its successes.
Under his leadership, the CLERB doubled its resources from five positions and a budget of less than $1 million, to 10 positions and a $2 million budget.
The department began calling Parker or his staff to the scene of investigations that were likely to result in a CLERB review. Before, the oversight board had to wait to begin its probe until the Sheriff’s Department referred the case — a process that sometimes took months. The agency also started publicly announcing jail deaths instead of waiting until lengthy internal investigations were completed.
“With his extensive experience, commitment to transparency, and leadership in oversight, Mr. Parker is well-positioned to lead the Commission, ensuring fair and professional law enforcement services for the community,” the city said in a staff report on the appointment.
But some changes were never implemented, despite Parker’s lobbying.
He spearheaded an effort to expand the board’s oversight to include jail medical staff, since the health care workers are frequently involved in treatment decisions and practices that lead to deaths in custody.
Parker also repeatedly pressed Sheriff Kelly Martinez to scan sheriff’s deputies on their way into jail to help prevent drug smuggling and overdoses, and to release Sheriff’s and Probation department records, including internal reports from the department’s Critical Incident Review Board.
“It seemed like I was talking to myself,” he said of his time with CLERB. “I was banging my head against the wall.
“I was definitely too proactive for that board.”
Suffice it to say, Parker understands the frustrations that can sometimes come with oversight groups. But he sees the potential of San Diego’s fledgling commission — and it seems to him like everyone from the city to the police chief to the commissioners want to see it succeed, he said.
And San Diego’s model excites him, Parker said Friday. Compared to CLERB, the city’s commission has greater access to police department documents, making it easier to identify systemic issues and trends, he said.
“And not just bad things, but also to identify, ‘Hey, this is like a gold standard. This is good stuff.’ That’s exciting to me,” Parker said.
Despite the inherent frustrations, the mission of oversight boards, in his mind, is worth it.
“It’s facilitating a conversation,” he said. And although he had difficulties while leading CLERB, he’s proud of what the board accomplished. “My whole point was to put as much forward as possible, be as transparent as possible, knowing these recommendations are going to start a conversation.”
He said if he’s appointed, he’ll be spending his first few weeks doing a lot of listening. He wants to hear from the community, the city, the police department, the board’s staff members and commissioners.
“I want to just listen, listen, listen for the first month, month and a half,” he said.
Parker, who lives in Little Italy, would be paid an annual salary of $203,700 with other benefits, according to a staff report.