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San Ramon Police Department
Friday January 24th, 2025 :: 01:27 p.m. PST

Community

Derogatory Social Media Comments

You may have seen the recent influx of negative and derogatory social media comments toward the San Ramon Police Department. So far, these comments are limited to our most recent Facebook posts; if you have seen them, you might be curious about their origin. If you are interested, here is the backstory. 

The comments began Wednesday afternoon after a video was posted on YouTube. The video was created by a channel called LackLuster, which has over 1.3 million subscribers. The content includes a dashcam video and courtroom testimony associated with an arrest and use of force incident from 2009. The courtroom testimony is from 2015 and shows the Attorney who represented the San Ramon Police Department in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is directly related to the discussion of qualified immunity for the Officers involved in the 2009 incident.

The 2009 incident began when a suspect entered San Ramon through Crow Canyon Road after committing an armed robbery in Alameda County. The dashcam video posted shows San Ramon Police Department Officers taking the individual into custody following a 23-mile pursuit that traveled through Alameda County and then entered San Ramon streets, which is when San Ramon Police Officers became involved. Following the incident, the suspect pled guilty to numerous charges and spent over two years in custody for his crimes. After being released from custody, an excessive force lawsuit was filed against the San Ramon Police Officers. The courtroom testimony shown in the YouTube video is the Attorney representing San Ramon in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which occurred six years after the incident. The specific topic of discussion between the legal counsel and the Appellate Judges surrounds the actions of one Officer and the legal standing behind the individual's right to pursue litigation against the involved Officers for damages.

The City of San Ramon and the San Ramon Police Department were represented by the Municipal Pooling Authority of Northern California, or MPA, throughout this litigation. For clarification, the MPA jointly represents 21 cities in Northern California, 17 of which are in Contra Costa County. In simple terms, MPA provides legal representation and litigation/settlement insurance for these 21 cities (including San Ramon) during complex litigation and the negotiation of settlements that may avoid lengthy and costly court trials. Once the MPA is involved in the legal representation or settlement negotiations surrounding a lawsuit, the City of San Ramon has limited influence on the outcome, and the same was true for this specific case. The City of San Ramon did not negotiate this settlement, which was $240,000, nor did the $240,000 settlement come directly out of the City's General Fund. In short, the MPA made a financial-based business decision to settle this case because they felt it would be far less expensive than fighting the trial in court.

If you want to watch the YouTube video, here is the link (www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T3Kz6Vl7gk). I've seen it, and it is interesting to observe and hear the Appellate Judges' comments on the job done by our personnel. Unfortunately, this video has become an excuse for some to flood our recent Facebook posts with threatening and derogatory messages. Please know that from what we have seen, none of the comments posted appear to originate from members of the San Ramon Community. They come from different parts of the country, and the people writing them have no direct connection with the San Ramon Community or our organization.

Every member of the San Ramon Police Department is committed to providing law enforcement services to everyone in the San Ramon Community with the utmost professionalism, and that will not change.

As always, I am open to connecting with anyone who wants to discuss this in more detail.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our organization,
Denton Carlson, Chief of Police
San Ramon Police Department
Email - dcarlson@sanramon.ca.gov

Address/Location
San Ramon Police Department
2401 Crow Canyon Rd
San Ramon, CA 94583

Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
Non-emergencies: 925-973-2700

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