African American leaders express concerns about SDPD

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Members of the San Diego African American community met Wednesday night with the police department and city leaders.

One of their concerns is that a culture of selective intimidation and wide spread ethnic and racial profiling has taken root in the San Diego Police Department.

A host of police officers were present alongside Chief Shelley Zimmerman, an obvious indication of how seriously they take these concerns.

“We still feel there is a very serious issue with racial profiling, one, and we feel like this (getting documented) is racial profiling on steroids,” said Mark Jones of the Black Students Justice Coalition.

According to the recently released SDPD PERF Report, many minority community members described their personal experiences with the SDPD as negative.

“It’s critically important that we have the very best police community relations, so that what’s happened in other cities doesn’t happen here,” Zimmerman said.