Submitted by Lon Peterson, City of Santa Clara Communications Director
On April 19th, the Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD) released documentation in response to a Public Records Act (PRA) request. The California Public Records Act contains requirements for redaction by public agencies to balance the public’s right to know with residents’ rights to privacy. After a review by the City Attorney’s Office, they discovered that some of the information inadvertently included was exempt from releasing publicly and should have been redacted since the information implicated medical privacy rights, reporting party and witness information, and public employee personal information.
Similar information has been redacted, on similar grounds, in prior PRA responses by the City of Santa Clara, and is not limited to information relating to Councilmembers. Upon discovery of the inadvertent release, the SCPD reached out to the requestor and respectfully asked that the unredacted documents that were released be destroyed (see, e.g., Ardon v. City of Los Angeles (2016) 62 Cal.4th 1176, 1182–1183; Newark Unified School Dist. v. Superior Court (2015) 245 Cal.App.4th 887, 894). The requestor was advised that the City was preparing properly redacted and code-compliant documents that would be sent as soon as they were ready. A properly redacted copy of the records was provided shortly thereafter. Visit https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showdocument?id=72789 to download a copy of the City’s communication with the requester and the City’s final response to the PRA.
Editor’s Note: this was in response to an opinion column by Debbie Algieri on Friday.
I am very concerned that it is.
This blog and all of the associated comments are really deflecting and distracting from the main topic, did two instances of domestic violence occur at now councilmember Kevin Park’s residence in 2017 and 2018, were these incidents properly investigated by SCPD. Is Kevin Park a domestic violence abuser? If not stopped will the abuse continue?
I asked a friend familiar with police protocols to help me decipher the information released from SCPD. The 2 calls for service in 2017 and 2018 are not police reports, in fact no police reports were taken in either incident the Dispatch Center 911 call logs are the only record, with that said this info tells a lot. In the 2017 incident it was listed as a 415 DV, 415 is the penal code section for a disturbance and DV for domestic Violence. The Disposition is listed “N” for No Report. The address location is 902 Pepper Tree Ct, Kevin Park’s residence. The log shows that a police unit did respond and was on the scene for over one hour. The 911 call taker notes that “a female was crying and said her husband hurt her” even with all of that, a 911 call for help, a police officer (s) responding, a victim stating that “her husband had hurt her” what happened?.. Nothing, the police left with no report or any action taken.
Fast forward to the incident in 2018, again a 911 call for a 415 disturbance at 902 Peppertree Ct, again Kevin Park’s residence. This time it is Kevin Park calling stating to the 911 operator “That his wife is upset and threatening to call the police and say that he hit her” he then tells the dispatcher that he was told that one of them would have to leave the house and changed his mind and requested the police cancel. What happened? The police cancelled their response, no report, not even a welfare check for a possible victim, in fact the entire call was just over six minutes.
So getting to the repeating history part, in 1984 a woman walked into Santa Clara Police Department stating that she was raped and that the rapist was a Santa Clara Firefighter named Badenegro. The case was assigned to then Santa Clara Police Detective Pat Kolstad, (later Councilman Kolstad). See the attached Mercury News story Herhold: Bucalo’s killer had history of assault – The Mercury News. What is similar? No report, no investigation by SCPD. Was there then and is there now a cover up in Santa Clara PD
to protect one of the cities own? To be fair in 2017 and 2018 the SCPD was under the reign of then Chief Mike Sellers not our current Chief Pat Nikolai.
On a strange note Mike Sellers is a Director of the 49ers Independent Campaign Committee that backed Kevin Park with over $800,000.00 in campaign advertising. Campaigns and cover ups must be the new “Santa Clara Way”.
Who on the council or in City Hall knew prior to the election?
Lastly the most important issue, is Kevin Park an abuser, is his wife safe? We don’t know Santa Clara PD has failed to investigate. There needs to be a thorough independent investigation before another domestic violence victim ends up dead!
Please, demand that independent investigation. SILENCE IS VIOLENCE!
Interesting conspiracy theory you got there. The Gillmor-Barry Kool-Aid must be stellar stuff. Maybe they can get Mr. Magoo on the case or better yet gestapo SS officer Bob O’Keefe to seek justice.
No one has considered that maybe Mrs. Park may be suffering from mental illness and could be why there was no action by SCPD? Sounds like cherry picked facts to spin a narrative.
This is a Nothingburger, where is the beef ?
yep that’s what most abusers say about their victims that they have mental issues and are off their meds to cover up for their abuse
textbook case here
It seems as though the police were called out on a domestic violence call to the Kevin Park residence. There needed to be some redaction to the report for personal information.
There was still a call to the Park residence for domestic violence, correct?
If the authorities knew about the problems and chose not to prevent them, then clearly something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
(Line from Hamlet and written by William Shakespeare)