FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

CONTACT:
MayorPress@sandiego.gov

SAN DIEGO Just two weeks after announcing his intention to eliminate civil gang injunctions in the City of San Diego as part of his police reform package, Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced today the dissolution of all remaining civil gang injunctions

Gang injunctions are outdated and do not serve their alleged purpose of protecting public safety. This is why I advocated to eliminate them as part of my police reform package," Mayor Todd Gloria said. Im grateful for the work of the District Attorney and our City Attorney to finally remove all civil gang injunctions. It is the right thing to do and gives hundreds of San Diegans an opportunity to live without the fear a stale accusation could hurt their chances for good-paying jobs, education, and housing.

DA Stephan officially filed petitions in San Diego Superior Court to lift all 20 civil gang injunctions in place in San Diego County, successfully removing the names of all 349 individuals from the injunction lists.

In 2019, my Office began working with the San Diego Police Department to remove from the City's civil gang injunctions the names of individuals who no longer posed a public safety threat,San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliott said."I commend the District Attorney and Mayor for their commitment todissolving these injunctions completely, andI'm proud to be a part of this effort.

A civil gang injunction is a tool used to permanently file a restraining order against individuals associated with specific groups. The injunction labels the group as a nuisance to the community and restricts individuals associated with that group from engaging in activities in a defined geographic area. Many of these individuals are identified as gang members due to their associations in the community or are reformed gang members that have turned their lives around.

"Eliminating gang injunctions is a necessary step on the long road to reimagining public safety and equity in law enforcement," said Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, chair of the Committee on Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods. "There are no similar injunctions for white supremacists or hate groups. Therefore, we can clearly see how gang injunctions unfairly target, harm, and potentially ruin the lives of innocent members of our Black and brown communities. I thank Mayor Gloria for his partnership, as we work through the police reform and public safety platforms. We must also thank Geneviéve Jones-Wright, chair of the Gang Documentation Committee, the Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention, as well as local activists, who have fought relentlessly for many years to put an end to these injunctions and protect the constitutional rights of people of color."

Mayor Gloria announced his public safety priorities and police reform package on April 9. Additional policy changes in the package include:

• Appropriately funding and faithfully implementing the independentCommission on Police Practices
• Implementing controls for the procurement and use of military-grade weapons
• Strengthening additional "unconscious" or "implicit bias" training for all officers
• Reviewing police hiring practices to ensure we attract the best candidates
• Adopting and implementing the Surveillance and Privacy Advisory Board ordinances
• Removing the Office of Homeland Security as a program of the San Diego Police Department
• Exploring policies that would limit the use of pretextual stops and consent searches
• Exploring alternatives to arrest for low-level offenseswith nonpolice responses
• Exploring options that would limit the use of tear gas and other specialty munitions
• Reviewing of the types and categories of calls dispatched to the San Diego Police Department

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