By NPA • 19 Aug, 2018
The National Police Association has filed a request for an Investigation of San Jose, CA Independent Police Auditor (IPA) Aaron Zisser with the San Jose Board of Fair Campaign and Political Practices.
The National Police Association’s concerns regarding the San Jose, CA Independent Police Auditor are three-fold. First, IPA Zisser has been derelict in his duty, put officers’ lives in jeopardy and fails to serve the best-interests of the public, which in at least one significant case, directly threatened the life/lives of San Jose Police Officer(s). Second, IPA Zisser’s coprime function as IPA is to provide independent oversight of and instill confidence in the complaint process through objective review of police misconduct investigations. However, IPA Zisser’s own conduct, and proven inability to be either independent or objective in connection with his role as IPA, leave little doubt that IPA Zisser cannot meet the core mission of IPA. Finally, IPA Zisser’s inability to perform one of his main assigned responsibilities, the reporting function, further shows that he is not fit to serve as IPA.
Inmate Stephen Garrison directly called IPA Zisser’s office and reportedly stated that the next time he came across law enforcement he was going to shoot them. There is no doubt that this information should have been shared with law enforcement. Law enforcement officers place their lives on the line for the public every single day and they have the expectation that when a direct threat to their lives is made that they would be alerted so that they can take the necessary precautions. That threat that was given directly to the IPA office was not relayed to law enforcement.
The second concern of the NPA is Zisser’s personal involvement in anti-police rallies, events and other gatherings. Zisser has stated he attended an anti-police rally to let them know he heard their message. However, there has been no such sighting of IPA Zisser at any pro police activities to let anyone know that he is there to hear their message.
The final concern to be addressed regards IPA Zisser’s 2017 IPA Year-End Report producing misleading statistics supporting false claims of police racial bias. In one case IPA Zisser used percentages to try to show that the number of minorities going to jail over whites in similar situations was higher. However, it was later learned that that was based on only seven cases and looking at just one additional case could seriously change the percentages.
It is for these reasons the NPA respectfully demands a full-review and investigation into the conduct, activities, and whether IPA Zisser is appropriately fit for office in serving as IPA.
Our letter requesting an investigation is here
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