Claims of racial bias against Santa Cruz police under investigation

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) The Santa Cruz Police Department said an investigation is underway after a victim of an assault shared allegations of racial bias.

Police said the claims were made in a post on the site Medium.com. They did not share a link or title identifying the post to which they refer.

The incident reportedly happened at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, and in the post, the victim, a Muslim African American woman, complained about how officers investigated the incident.

In response to the claims, police said the following:

• Officers recorded that the woman was the victim of an assault, not a suspect.
• Police filed the case with the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office within three days.
• An internal investigation is underway to find out whether the officers followed policy.
• The case will be reviewed by the City Council's Public Safety Committee, and an independent police auditor before a synopsis is publicized on the department's transparency portal.

Although police did not identify which specific post they referred to, KION staff found a post that matches the police description of the claims.

In the post published Monday, a woman claims she had a VIP ticket to a show at The Catalyst about a year ago. When she arrived, she said she got a stamp to indicate that she had a VIP ticket, but said she was confronted by a security guard during the show who claimed that she did not have a VIP ticket and needed a green wristband as proof.

The woman said another security guard got involved a few minutes later. At that point, she said the two attacked her and punched her repeatedly.

After she said a man helped her out of the Catalyst, the woman said she called Santa Cruz police. She claims that the officers who arrived did not take notes, continually asked her if she had been drinking while refusing to provide a breathalyzer test and tried to talk her out of filing charges. She claims the officers did not complete the police report for more than 6 months and listed her as the suspect.

Police are asking witnesses or anyone with information about the incident to send the information to Professional Standards Sergeant Scott Garner at sgarner@citysantacruz.com.