A civil grand jury report released last week found that the Marin County Board of Supervisors has lagged in implementing legislation passed over a year ago that would increase accountability and transparency in law enforcement. The bill, A.B. 1185, authorizes counties across the state to hire an inspector general and create a sheriff oversight body consisting of citizens granted subpoena power enforceable by superior court action.  

The jury recommended that, by the end of the year, supervisors create a citizen’s oversight committee that would improve accountability of the Sheriff’s Office, establish a forum for residents to voice their concerns and build trust between the office and the communities it serves. 

Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said establishing such a committee is a priority, and his board is considering hiring an inspector general to oversee the sheriff. Supervisors are working with the county administrator’s office to conduct community outreach regarding how such a committee should be formed. 

Sheriff Robert Doyle, who has been in office for 26 years, was supposed to retire in January 2023, but when his undersheriff Jamie Scardina won the June 7 primary election uncontested, he decided to retire early. Sheriff Doyle is set to leave today and Undersheriff Scardina will take over immediately. 

The jury report stated that the change in leadership presents an ideal opportunity to encourage a new culture of policing, and Undersheriff Scardina said he is open to it. “We appreciate the time and effort of the grand jury,” he said. “We are always looking for ways to improve as an organization.” 

Many members of the public have shown strong support for sheriff oversight, including Inverness residents Tom Gardali and Camille Ptak. 

Mr. Gardali commended the grand jury’s report. “It did two things that I think are really good,” he said. “One is that it centered those communities most impacted by law enforcement, and it also made a recommendation for oversight that is empowered, and by that, I mean recommending A.B. 1185.”  

Ms. Ptak said that because Marin has waffled over establishing an oversight body, she’s pleased the report calls for action by the end of the year. 

“I definitely feel like it should have happened by now or at least the progress should have been so much further at this point,” Ms. Ptak said. “I really felt grateful to see a date in this last document saying let’s push for this specifically, as opposed to ‘We’ll come back to this.’” 

Mr. Gardali, Ms. Ptak and four of their neighbors started meeting in 2020 for support during the pandemic. After the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide racial reckoning that followed, the group began discussing use of force in Marin County. Ms. Ptak was appointed to a county working group that analyzed Marin’s use of force policy, but after its attempts to improve the policy failed, the neighbors agreed that establishing a citizen oversight committee would be the most effective way to make real change in law enforcement. 

According to county data posted on the Racial Identity and Profiling Act dashboard, a disproportionate number of traffic stops involve people of color. Of the 4,158 stops last year, 53 percent of drivers were white, 22 percent were Latino and 17 percent were Black. Marin’s racial makeup is 85 percent white, 16 percent Latino and less than 3 percent Black. 

The grand jury report focuses on relations between the Sheriff’s Office and Marin City’s Black community, highlighting what the jury found to be a history of injustice and strained relations. The jury suggests that an independent oversight committee with subpoena power would allow impacted communities to voice their concerns and hold the office accountable. 

Sheriff Doyle said the report was biased in that it failed to include comments from him and from communities outside of Marin City. “I don’t think it’s a very objective report,” he told the Light. “There’s 3,000 people in Marin City, which is less than 5 percent of the people we serve in the field.” 

The sheriff said he didn’t understand the need for subpoena power and felt that giving that power to an oversight body or an inspector general would create an adversarial relationship with his office.

“We’ve told the board over and over again that if they want any information, just ask us what they want and we’ll give it to them,” he said. “Somehow people think that subpoena power is going to give this group or this person that the board can appoint some kind of authority that exceeds the law, and it doesn’t.”

Supervisor Rodoni said regardless of the sheriff’s willingness to share information, subpoena power remains important.

“He thinks he makes everything available and that certainly may be true, but the subpoena power allows the oversight committee to subpoena specific things and talk to people under oath,” he said. “It just takes it to another step and heightens the independence of this group that doesn’t have to follow the sheriff’s rules; it follows its own rules.”

Mr. Gardali emphasized the importance of residents’ ability to report misconduct to an entity other than the sheriff’s department. “You can imagine how some people who want to report misconduct would be afraid to report it to the sheriff,” Mr. Gardali said. 

Implementing A.B. 1185 was initially difficult due to Sheriff Doyle’s lack of support, Supervisor Rodoni said. In search of an alternative, a Board of Supervisors subcommittee worked with the county administrator and the sheriff to propose a “community working group.” That body would not have had subpoena power, and the jury described how the proposal was formed without public input and would have given the sheriff influence over who was appointed. The working group’s proceedings would not have been subject to the Brown Act. The proposal was rejected in February amid vocal public opposition. 

Sheriff Doyle said that although he believes oversight could be beneficial, he feels that a working group would be more appropriate than an oversight board. 

But Mr. Gardali and other Marin residents appear ready for a bigger change.  

“I think we should see sheriff oversight bodies as a positive, not an enemy of the sheriff but a true partner,” Mr. Gardali said. “So if the new sheriff has that mindset, then I think that is very forward-looking in terms of evolving our law enforcement and our view of what public safety actually is.”