Police Block Release of Davis Pepper Spray Report

    California Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ruled that the findings must be postponed in conjunction with California Penal Code sections 832.7 and 827.8, which bar release of confidential police personnel records.

    UC President Mark G. Yudof appointed a task force on Dec. 15 in the aftermath of the Nov. 18 pepper spray incident. The task force, led by former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, compiled the report, which was scheduled for release on Tuesday. 

    The officers’ union that requested the postponement hopes to censor the names of involved police personnel and replace them with pseudonyms. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, several officers, namely Lt. John Pike — the officer caught on film spraying the protesters — were probably referred to by name in the report. The union believes that the inclusion of officer names and actions is a violation of the state law, which protects the confidentiality of on-duty officers’ privacy.

    The unreleased task force report provides an analysis of police action during the Occupy UC Davis demonstration, in which police doused over a dozen protesters with pepper spray. The report will also include recommendations for action in this and future cases.

    As recently as March 3, the UCD website noted that the report would be available for download by the general public on March 6. 

    A statement released March 5 by the UC Office of the President said that the UC General Counsel’s office tried to block the ban, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

    “The entire UC Davis community deserves a fully transparent and unexpurgated accounting of the incidents in question,” Yudof wrote. “Though I have not seen the reports, I am told the task force and its supporting investigators have provided just such an accounting.”

    A separate UCOP statement made Tuesday by General Counsel Charles Robinson said that the UC System would continue to pursue the immediate release of the report.

    “We look forward to the next round, and we will fight vigorously in court to ensure that the task force report sees public light as soon as possible,” Robinson said.

    A hearing regarding the report’s release to the public is scheduled for March 16.


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