Police

Boba and Badges: How police are using tea to build bridges with community

You may have heard of “Coffee with a Cop,” or its summer version, “Chill with a Cop,” which involves ice cream in an effort to sweeten relations and foster dialogue between police and the community. On Friday, the Richmond Police Department updated their menu when they hosted “Boba and Badges,” serving the popular Taiwanese drink made with “bubbles” of tapioca,   in an informal community event at the Pacific East Mall. Designed to invite local residents to ask questions, voice concerns, and get to…

From Brown to French, it’s official

RICHMOND, CA – Interim City Manager Steven Falk named Assistant Police Chief Bisa French as the new interim chief of police for Richmond after announcing at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that Police Chief Allwyn Brown stepped down from his position. French is the city’s first black woman to lead the Richmond Police Department. Interim City Manager Falk indicated there will be no active search for a new permanent police chief this year.  “It is not my intention to initiate a…

Council takes no action on proposal to charge fees for public records related to police misconduct

The fee, intended to charge enough to cover the actual cost of the service, applies only to previously private police misconduct records made disclosable by the recent and upcoming police transparency legislation Senate Bill 1421 and Assembly Bill 847. SB 1421, enacted in January, has made a number of formerly unreleased police misconduct records disclosable to the public, including records related to officer-involved shootings, uses of force resulting in serious injury, on-duty sexual assaults and police dishonesty.