Harris received highly positive coverage in such publications as U.S. News and World Report for her declaration that it was long overdue for there to be “an honest, transparent and data-driven conversation about police use of force.” U.S. News also depicted Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, as a visionary for coming up with the idea in 2014.

Harris and Rodriguez may end up amply deserving credit if they do usher in a new era in which statistical tools illustrate the extent of police misconduct. But little of the coverage of URSUS focuses on the question of incentives within law enforcement agencies. As Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and many others have written over the past 40 years, police of all ranks have many reasons to create tidy narratives about their actions.

Officers have an incentive to not report their violent incidents and to depict injuries suffered by suspects as not their fault; the other officers who witness such violence have an incentive to not report or to inaccurately depict such injuries because of a police culture with a still-strong “code of silence”; and police chiefs and top police brass have an incentive to not accurately report incidents within their ranks because of concerns on how it would reflect on them and their departments.

This long history of police not acting to limit misconduct is a factor in the huge gap between African American and white perceptions of police misconduct, according to recent research by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Justice.

State law requiring reporting of fatalities flouted in L.A.

Now the San Francisco Chronicle, analyzing research done by Texas State University covering the years from 2006-2015, has given an example of how the incentives for police to resist oversight have resulted in a lax police culture in California.

A state law adopted long before the controversies over police killings in New York City, Baltimore and Cleveland requires local law enforcement to report fatal shootings by officers to the state government.

But the Chronicle’s analysis found it to be broadly ignored over the 10 years of data compiled by Texas State University researchers. Some of the key findings:

• At least 439 fatal police shootings were never reported to the state, 30 percent of the estimated 1,480 such killings over the decade.
• The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the largest sheriff’s department in the United States, didn’t report at least 34 fatal shootings; the Los Angeles Police Department didn’t report at least 21; and the Fresno Police Department didn’t report at least 24.

The Chronicle’s data suggests California law enforcement agencies may be getting better at reporting such fatal shootings. The 10-year average of unreported police killings was 30 percent. Last year, the percentage appears to be closer to 25 percent, though exact numbers are not yet available.

But in San Francisco, the percentage of unreported police killings in 2015 was 100 percent. The Chronicle said city police officials didn’t notify the state of any of the six police killings last year.

By John Seiler

The Nooner site on California politics has compiled a nifty grid with all the newspaper editorial-page opinions on the 11 propositions. Click on the Y or N for the link to each individual editorial. Here it is:

As you would expect, the more liberal papers are tax-giddy. The San Jose Mercury-News, the L.A. Times, the S.F. Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee all backed Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 tax increase.

The Bakersfield Californian opposed Prop. 30, but backed Molly Munger’s Proposition 38.

Daily News

Strangely, the L.A. Daily News, usually conservative, backed Prop. 30. They wrote:

“It is this ultimatum — pay up or the children will suffer — that has given our editorial board the most trouble in taking a position.

“On the one hand, this is a page that has criticized Sacramento’s bad management of the state treasury. The principled stand is that Californians must refuse to bail lawmakers out of the financial hole they dug themselves. Let them reap the financial chaos they have sown and perhaps we will finally get some real budget reform for the state.

“But what happens in the meantime to the education of our children? California already ranks among the lowest in per-pupil spending. The state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, already has the shortest school year in the nation.

“There’s too much at stake to oppose this measure on principle, which is why we’re recommending a yes vote….

“Critics of Proposition 30 are correct that California’s taxes are high — but the revenue from this initiative represents just over half of what was lost when three other taxes expired in 2010 and 2011. The overall tax burden will still be lower than it was two years ago.”

But those tax increases were supposed to be “temporary.”

“General fund spending will be $11.6 billion lower than five years ago and will represent the same share of the economy as in 1972-73, according to the department of finance. This is not profligate spending.”

Yes it is. Five years ago was 2007, the height of the real estate boom that turned into a bust. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was spending like berserker Oktoberfest Austrian, increasing the general fund by 25 percent in just two years. The extravagance couldn’t last, didn’t, and shouldn’t be restored.

As to the level of spending being the same as 1972-73, that’s because revenues — and spending — always drop during tough economic times. Today’s economic “recovery” is the slowest since the Great Depression. What’s needed is not more jobs- and business-killing tax increases, but a complete overhaul of the state budget, beginning with the bloated pensions.

Prop. 39

On another tax measure, Proposition 39, the Daily News came out opposed. The measure would impose a new $1 billion tax on out-of-state businesses, killing jobs here (contrary to the misleading pro-39 TV ads). Curiously, the liberal Chronicle also opposed it, but for liberal reasons. They wrote:

“California needs to fix a corporate tax system that gives an undue break to out-of-state companies. But Proposition 39, which would direct about half of the extra $1 billion in annual revenue to energy-efficient projects, corrupts a very good idea (tax reform) with a very bad one (ballot-box budgeting).

“The last thing voters in a state with such dire fiscal problems should be doing is locking in more than $500 million a year in spending for a program that is undeniably worthy — but not necessarily the highest priority. Californians should consider whether that revenue would be better spent on education, public safety, parks, foster care or myriad other priorities that have been cut severely — and may be facing even deeper cuts if the two tax measures (Props. 30, 38) fail in November….

“This loophole should be repealed in the Legislature, and all of the new revenue should be available for the highest state priorities. Vote no on 39.”

So they still want the tax increase, just not the designated spending. That’s another good reason to saw S.F. off from the rest of the state and let it be its own state, or even country.