Bonus: On Our Watch

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[3] Hey, everyone.

[4] We love showcasing work from our colleagues.

[5] And today, we've got a really great episode to share with you from the series On Our Watch.

[6] It looks at what goes on behind the closed doors of internal police misconduct investigations.

[7] It comes from a partnership with NPR and member station KQED.

[8] Which is where our editor, Julie Kane, worked before coming to ThruLine.

[9] Julie, along with our former boss, Nigeria -E -N, brought the show to NPR.

[10] And one of the show's producers, Sandia Dirks, just joined the Race and Identity Desk at NPR.

[11] And Ramtin wrote the theme song and a bunch of other music for it.

[12] Lots of shared connections.

[13] So we wanted to make sure you get a chance to check it out.

[14] When we come back, episode one of On Our Watch.

[15] On the TED Radio Hour, MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle, her latest research into the intimate relationships people are having with chatbots.

[16] Technologies that say, I care about you, I love you, I'm here for you, take care of me. The pros and cons of artificial intimacy.

[17] That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR.

[18] I just don't want to leave a mess.

[19] On Bullseye, the great Dan Aykroyd talks about the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and his very detailed plans about how he will spend his afterlife.

[20] I think I'm going to roam in a few places.

[21] Yes, I'm going to manifest in Rome.

[22] All that and more on the Bullseye podcast from Maximumfund .org and NPR.

[23] Police apartment.

[24] Did you call 911 again, Catherine?

[25] Yes, I did.

[26] Okay, what was the issue?

[27] My car again.

[28] Okay.

[29] We've been to your house.

[30] This is the second time tonight.

[31] Yes, it is, sir.

[32] It's September 30th, 2018.

[33] It's still dark outside, around 3 o 'clock in the morning, in this little town called Rio Vista, which is in the Sacramento Delta region of Northern California.

[34] A 56 -year -old white woman named Catherine Jenks has called 911.

[35] Two cops are now at her door, their body cameras rolling.

[36] And that's what you're here for is to serve me and protect me. No. A warning, this story contains explicit language and audio of a violent interaction with police.

[37] Your progression of calling 911 over the past couple weeks have been...

[38] Let me finish.

[39] Okay, you've called 911.

[40] When do I have to hear you?

[41] You're supposed to hear me. No, I'm telling you that...

[42] Over the past week, Catherine Jenks has called 911 about seven times.

[43] And each time, when officers arrived, there didn't appear to be an emergency going on.

[44] And you're falsely reporting...

[45] You know, what, wait a minute.

[46] Let me get my shit in here, okay?

[47] If you're calling 911 to report something that's not of an emergency, that's a crime.

[48] She insists, and it sounds like she believes that there is an emergency.

[49] But whatever fears she has, the two police officers who have been dispatched, Manly and Natalie Rafferty, don't think there's any evidence for them.

[50] Okay, it's evident that...

[51] that we've been here have not been an emergency.

[52] On an earlier call, Lee and another officer had talked about bringing this woman in for a psychiatric hold.

[53] But instead, they just gave her a warning.

[54] Okay, well, excuse me. This time, the cops do something different.

[55] No, don't push me out there.

[56] Catherine, I'm going to need you to put your hands around your back, okay?

[57] Why?

[58] Because.

[59] Officer Man Lee reaches for his handcuffs.

[60] We're going to arrest you.

[61] Stop resisting.

[62] Okay?

[63] We're going to arrest you.

[64] That's okay.

[65] Just push your hands with your back.

[66] God, damn it.

[67] Stop it.

[68] Stop picking me. Stop resisting.

[69] Don't.

[70] This woman, Catherine Jenks, is very slight.

[71] She's 56 years old and maybe 115 pounds.

[72] We're going to arrest you.

[73] We're going to arrest you.

[74] She calls out for her partner, Dave, who lives with her.

[75] His full name is David O 'Reilly.

[76] Out.

[77] Leave her alone.

[78] She's me alone.

[79] Oh, inside.

[80] Stop buying me. She hasn't done anything.

[81] I haven't.

[82] Oh, stop kicking me. Can you stop?

[83] What are you doing?

[84] I don't know.

[85] What are you picking on her for?

[86] Sir, go back inside your house.

[87] Sir, go back inside your house now.

[88] Go.

[89] In the video, you can see her sit down on her butt on the front step of the porch.

[90] Okay, honey, you need to stand up.

[91] We're not going to drag you.

[92] To use her body weight to kind of resist being.

[93] taken into custody.

[94] Can you understand what we're telling you?

[95] You hear the officer's police dog barking in the back of the patrol car, and then suddenly that sound gets closer.

[96] There's a button on Rafferty's belt so that she can remotely release the dog from the back of the car if she gets in trouble.

[97] Somehow it gets pushed in the struggle with Catherine Jenks.

[98] The dog lunges out of the darkness.

[99] It attacks Catherine Jenks and bites Catherine Jenks and bites down on her arm.

[100] I'm Suki Lewis, and I'm a criminal justice reporter.

[101] So when there's a police incident where it seems like something went wrong, like officers hurt someone by mistake or shot someone who's unarmed or lied about an arrest, it's my job to ask questions about what happened and ask if there'll be any consequences for officers.

[102] Usually I get a standard official reply of, you know, we're going to find out what happened.

[103] I am concerned by the actions of some of our officers.

[104] We're going to handle it.

[105] I will absolutely look at the case in its entirety.

[106] Just trust us.

[107] We have opened an internal affairs investigation into this.

[108] An internal affairs investigation.

[109] That's how departments look into cops who break the rules.

[110] It's how they hold themselves accountable.

[111] And it's an incredibly secretive process, especially here in California.

[112] As a reporter, I never got to know if I'm cop was disciplined.

[113] I never got to know the story behind those official responses, or if this whole system really works at all.

[114] And victims of police brutality and the family members of people killed by police couldn't get the answers they were looking for.

[115] Even prosecutors and defense attorneys couldn't get these files.

[116] Until that all changed.

[117] The same day that Catherine Jenks was arrested, the governor signed a police transparency law.

[118] The right to know, the right to No Act, or Senate Bill 1421, would basically allow public access to a very narrow set of records.

[119] Records related to the use of serious or deadly force on -the -job sexual assault or on -the -job dishonesty.

[120] This change in the law promised to do something extraordinary.

[121] Open up thousands of internal case files, body camera footage, and audio tapes that would give us a window into this shadow system of police accounts.

[122] And let us see inside confidential internal affairs investigations that the officers thought would never be open to the public.

[123] There have not been cover -ups.

[124] I mean, the cover -ups are, frankly, very, very rare in my experience.

[125] But actually getting those records from every police department in the state is a fight that's still not over.

[126] a fight to figure out just what those police chiefs and city officials meant when they said trust us, how well police police themselves, and who is hurt when they don't.

[127] When these transparency hits and you can see the internal investigations, what you see is that there are officers who lie.

[128] And the first records that we got, the internal affairs investigation into an arrest that went sideways, the arrest of Catherine Jenks.

[129] She was calling them for help, and they ended up brutal.

[130] realizing her and take her in her jail.

[131] I think it's messed me up a little.

[132] Can you see how the words that you put into this report appear that you're trying to elevate the situation?

[133] She was not just passively resisting.

[134] She was kicking and biting officers.

[135] This is on our watch, an investigative podcast from KQED and NPR.

[136] Over the course of this series, we're going to bring you into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who the system really serves and who it protects.

[137] Every weekday, NPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics podcast to explain the big news coming out of Washington, the campaign trail, and beyond.

[138] We don't just want to tell you what happened.

[139] We tell you why it matters.

[140] Join the NPR politics podcast every single afternoon to understand the world through political eyes.

[141] Numbers that explain the economy.

[142] We love them at The Indicator from Planet Money, and on Fridays, we discuss indicators in the news, like job numbers, spending, the cost of food, sometimes all three.

[143] So my indicator is about why you might need to bring home more bacon to afford your eggs.

[144] I'll be here all week.

[145] Wrap up your week and listen to The Indicator podcast from NPR.

[146] It's late 2018, just over a month since Catherine Jenks was booked into jail for allegedly harassing 911.

[147] and resisting arrest.

[148] The district attorney has filed criminal charges against her, and she's still recovering from a wound to her arm.

[149] The police dog bit through her skin and subcutaneous tissue.

[150] But what Catherine doesn't know...

[151] Okay, the date is November 7, 2018, and the time...