San Diego 101 Podcast: Who Polices The Police?

By Maya Srikrishnan, the Voice of San Diego

October 19, 2021

There’s been a lot of attention on law enforcement after many highly publicized killings of unarmed people by police. The call for reform, and increasing police accountability, reached a peak after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. People throughout the country, including in San Diego, took to the streets to demand change.

In Episode 2 of the San Diego 101 Podcast, hosts Adriana Heldiz and Maya Srikrishnan explain how law enforcement works in San Diego – and who, if anyone, holds police accountable after they kill someone.

To do this, we delve into three cases where officers killed unarmed men in San Diego.

Apollo Olango tells the story of his brother, Alfred Olango, who was killed by an officer from the El Cajon Police Department in 2016. Rocio Zamora talks to us about the killing of her cousin, Jonathan Coronel in 2017, by a San Diego County Sheriff’s deputy.

Heldiz and Srikrishnan also talk to VOSD’s Jesse Marx, who wrote about the death of Earl McNeil, who died while in-custody of the National City Police Department in 2018.

All of these killings were found to be justified by the District Attorney’s office – another part of law enforcement.

There have been some changes and important discussions happening in the city, county and state when it comes to police accountability since George Floyd’s death in 2020 – and we get you up to speed on those, too. You can also watch out San Diego 101 video on who polices the police here.

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