San Diego police officer accused of stealing from school safety program

Good Morning, I’m Andrew Dyer in for Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, June 5th.

A San Diego police officer is accused of stealing money from a school safety program.

More on that next. But first... the headlines….

This week the county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved spending nearly $30 million dollars on a new substance abuse treatment facility in National City and a mental health crisis center for children in Kearny Mesa.

The funds come from state grants paid for by last year’s Prop 1, which authorized bonds to overhaul the state’s mental health care system.

The substance abuse treatment facility will have spots for up to 89 people at a time.

The children’s crisis center will have 16 residential beds. It’s seen as an alternative to hospitalization for children with serious emotional health needs and will be the first of its kind in the county.

The city of San Diego is again hiking ambulance prices.

This week the city council unanimously approved an 18 percent increase in fees for ambulance rides over the next three years.

It’s the 5th consecutive year the city’s increased the fees. According to the Union-Tribune, that amounts to an increase of more than 32 percent over that time.

City Council members said the hikes will be paid by insurers – not patients.

The South Park restaurant raided Friday by ICE agents has reopened.

Buona Forchetta reopened five of its San Diego County locations yesterday.

They’d been closed since Monday. iIts owners saying in a statement its employees needed rest in the wake of the raid.

Four employees were arrested on suspicion of being in the U-S illegally. Several more employees were reportedly handcuffed and detained during Friday’s raid.

The restaurant said on instagram its Liberty Station location will remain closed through the week..

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.

Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

A SAN DIEGO POLICE OFFICER STANDS ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO BUY PERSONAL ITEMS. INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER SCOTT RODD SAYS THE OFFICER ALLEGEDLY STOLE FROM THE CITY’S SCHOOL CROSSWALK PATROL PROGRAM.

Investigators served officer Curtis Doll with search warrants last year. They were looking for a range of items they believed he illegally bought using a department bank account.

And they found plenty: Airpods, nutritional supplements, holsters, and electronics. Even the pair of Costco pants Doll was wearing that day.

Doll served as director of SDPD’s School Safety Patrol. The program trains young students to patrol crosswalks. His alleged actions came to light during a court hearing last month. 

“Man, I was, like, blown away.”

Tasha Williamson is a local advocate for police accountability and attended the hearing. 

Some funding for the crosswalk patrol program comes from the city…and some comes from parents.

“Yeah, I think it erodes trust…parents did not put their kids in this program or these programs to then have money embezzled.”

Doll has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge. He remains a paid employee of the police department. His arraignment is set for later this month.

Scott Rodd, KPBS News

IN OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT NEWS, SAN DIEGO POLICE ARE NOW USING ENCRYPTED MESSAGES TO CONTACT OFFICERS. IT’S A WAY TO PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION RELATED TO CRIME VICTIMS. CRITICS SAY IT'S ALSO BLOCKING CRUCIAL PUBLIC INFORMATION ABOUT POLICE ACTIVITY. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY REPORTER THOMAS FUDGE HAS MORE.

San Diego’s police department is following a national and statewide trend that is making privately owned police scanners go silent. In California it’s part of a mandate by the state department of justice, which says communications with officers contain addresses and the names of victims that should be protected. But encryption is also blocking information about dangerous events happening in your neighborhood. San Diego police lieutenant Daniel Meyer says his department is working to find new ways to share information. Like communications with watch commanders and a new website with a ‘dispatch portal’ that the public can use.

“Those avenues that I described that are going to bridge that gap for the media and for the public, we will continue to try to enhance those capabilities so that we are not seeing a diminished return for the public.”  Critics argue monitoring police calls was the bread and butter of how the public learned about police activities and events like shootings and wildfires. Thomas Fudge, KPBS News.

VOTING BEGINS IN THE SOUTH BAY THIS WEEK, IN THE RUNOFF ELECTION FOR SAN DIEGO COUNTY’S DISTRICT 1 SUPERVISOR. A RACE THAT WILL DECIDE WHETHER DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS HAVE MORE INFLUENCE OVER THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT. SOUTH BAY REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS THE TOP TWO CANDIDATES WOULD TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH WHEN IT COMES TO RAISING AND SPENDING TAXPAYER DOLLARS.

Right now, there’s quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the San Diego County budget. Republican members of Congress are considering a range of cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other federal programs the county administers. 

The Board of Supervisors is debating whether to open up the county’s reserves – their rainy day savings – to fill holes caused by those potential cuts. 

Paloma Aguirre is a Democrat and the mayor of Imperial Beach. She strongly supports looking at the county’s reserves as an option.

“This is a full-blown storm that we're living, thanks to Trump and DOGE and Elon Musk. So, we need to make sure that we don't cut essential public services that people heavily rely on, especially in district one.” 

Running against Aguirre is John McCann, a Republican and the mayor of Chula Vista. He agrees that they need to preserve services like Medi-Cal. But he thinks they should look at cutting other programs first.

“Right now the county only has 60 days of reserves and those reserves are for when there's an emergency situation or a major economic down crisis. So if you suddenly get rid of those reserves, you now have no safety net.” If you live in District 1, the last day to cast your ballot is July 1st. Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.

CALIFORNIA PASSED AB-101 TO MAKE ETHNIC STUDIES A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENT, AIMING TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC RACISM AND EXPAND HOW STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT RACE AND POWER. BUT NOW, THE STATE MAY BE WITHHOLDING FUNDING TIED TO THAT LAW.

HOST ANDREW BRACKEN SPOKE WITH U-S-D PROFESSOR JAMES FABIONAR WHO SAYS WITHOUT RESOURCES, SOME SCHOOLS MAY STRUGGLE TO IMPLEMENT THE COURSE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY.

So, you know, you've testified before on this AB-101 law. Remind us what that law would have done, you know, with proper funding. Yeah, um that's a really good question in terms of what it would done. I mean, the history of ethnic studies at the state level uh actually goes back about 20 years. I I've The first time I I testified before the state assembly was really in its infancy when legislators were first thinking about what it would look like to have an ethnic studies curriculum and requirement in secondary schools. And so here we are 20 some odd years later. We've seen progress but not surprising we're seeing push back we're seeing delays and as is often the case we see kind of this as an unfunded mandate. So really what we are looking at, I think, in terms of AB-101 and the spirit of AB-101 was that ethnic studies has really been kind of conceptualized as a policy remedy to systemic racism. I believe AB-101 was really about introducing ethnic studies at the high school level. Not just waiting for our folks to have access to ethnic studies once they get to higher education, but recognizing the ethnic studies is a really important shift to our public education system at the secondary level and even before that. So AB101 uh if funded properly was was uh is is intended to provide a course a semester long course requirement to all public secondary education uh schools. And uh as a way to um uh diversify curriculum and instruction as a way to give context uh to uh our understanding of race relations uh power dynamics in society, and giving context to kind of the the the the conditions that uh some of my most challenged populations uh live under in California and across the country. So now that Governor Newsom is, you know, withholding this funding, what does that mean for local school districts who've been working on implementing this curriculum? Yeah, I think what it really means is that school districts where there has already been a philosophical alignment and a strong political will and a degree of expertise in the field will continue on in their efforts because their efforts for ethnic studies precede AB101. But AB101 I think provides a lot of legitimacy in in letting folks know who are don't have a background and understanding of ethnic studies that this is the law of the land. And this is to be expected that we believe that for California to be a peaceful and equitable society that we need to we need to learn our way to being peaceful and equitable. Um and so I think what that means is that you're going to see some school districts that were already resistant and maybe have just kind of um been implementing ethnic studies uh you know in a kind of a in name only kind of way. They'll continue uh with um kind of half-hearted efforts to implement design and implement ethnic studies. And then you'll see on the other end into the spectrum, school districts, where they really wholeheartedly believe that ethnic studies is important and they'll continue to do the very best that they can as they always have with limited resources. So it's, you know, it's a it's a shame because I think, you know, folks require the support, they require the resources in order for ethnic studies really to reach its full potential. Unfortunately, for education scholars, especially those who are are concerned about access, opportunity opportunity, equity. This isn't especially surprising. Um, at every uh stage in our country's development around public education, um our efforts to make them more equitable, more accessible and more responsive to our linguistic and cultural diversity of our complicated racial past. So, you know, given all that, what are your predictions for the future of ethnic studies in high school classrooms, you know, especially with this latest news about statewide funding? Yeah, so my mind goes to a couple different places with the question. I I think, you know, to to some degree, culture always trumps policy, right? And so when I think about where ethnic studies sits as, you know, representing the history, the traditions, and the wisdom from below, and people who are not going to go away, and people who are are determined to maintain their identity in a sense of self-determination, it may go away as a policy mandate. It's not going to go away in terms of the determination and the resistance of people to uh be fully represented and fully humanized in schools, right? So in a very broader philosophical response to your question, I think that that's where ethnic studies will always sit. In terms of where it'll go in terms of funding, um I think we're already seeing, you know, there was already a precarious degree of commitment uh from the governor, right? This was uh if you recall that the the AB-101 was twice uh vetoed It wasn't until it was the political pressure from minority communities in response to the racial reckoning of 2020 that really mandated that he signed it. But I don't know that we've ever seen a full throated support of it. And so, you know, I think until I think that we don't yet know kind of how our state is going to respond to the broader national moment and in terms of, you know, our own history of race in our in our states. Um, but I think depending on what the upcoming elections look like, I think it'll have some serious implications.

THAT WAS U-S-D PROFESSOR JAMES FABIONAR SPEAKING WITH KPBS ROUNDTABLE HOST ANDREW BRACKEN.

STICKING WITH EDUCATION… MORE THAN A DECADE AGO, SAN DIEGO UNIFIED LEADERS MADE IT HARDER FOR STUDENTS TO GRADUATE. BUT EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE BOARD APPROVED A NEW GRADUATION PATHWAY THAT MAY UNDO SOME OF THOSE CHANGES.

IN OUR NEXT "WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT," VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S JAKOB MCWHINNEY (MICK-win-ee) EXPLAINS WHY THIS TWEAK COULD BE A BIG DEAL.

In 2011, San Diego Unified leaders noticed a worrying trend – thousands of students were graduating without having taken the classes needed to be accepted into four-year universities.Those students were disproportionately Black and Latino. 

So, they adopted new standards that meant pretty much every graduating senior was able to head straight to college.

But in January, San Diego Unified’s board opened a side door to those requirements.

Leaders approved a new graduation pathway that allows students to take fewer college preparatory classes but adds new career-focused requirements. 

Interim Superintendent Fabiola Bagula argued that this decision is all about flexibility and meeting the needs of students who consistently don’t graduate. 

But a statistic shared by a staff member also likely played a role in the decision– only 57.8 percent of high schoolers district wide are on track to graduate.

This new pathway will certainly help ensure more students graduate. But it may also end up replicating that old system, where thousands of district graduates are unable to head straight to college. 

That’s especially true because officials will focus on students who are currently off-track to graduate. Those are almost certainly the same ones who were hardest hit by that old inequitable system.

Leaders say they will monitor this new pathway for inequities, but that will be challenging.

I’m Jakob McWhinney for Voice of San Diego and that’s why it matters.

THE PEOPLE IN THIS NEXT STORY ARE DRESSING UP IN A BEAR SUIT EVERY DAY FOR AN IMPORTANT JOB.

NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN EXPLAINS IN THIS UN-BEAR-ABLY CUTE STORY.

“That is bear formula.”

Stacy Richason is a wildlife care specialist at the San Diego Humane Society Ramona Wildlife Center.

She … along with a team … takes care of an abandoned black bear cub that was about two months old when he was found.

“Some hikers found him in Los Padres National Forest.”

Angela Hernandez-Cusick is the Wildlife Rehabilitation supervisor here. 

“Getting one this young in the season is rare for us. Some of the challenges that we’ve face is, just behaviorally, how do we want to provide for him as much as a mother bear would?”

And part of that is dressing up as a bear anytime the team interacts with him.

They are going through all this trouble because the ultimate goal is to release the cub back to the wild.

But that won’t be for another year or so. For now, the cub is doing well and reaching his milestones.

Alexander Nguyen, KPBS News

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Andrew Dyer in for Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Thursday.