STOCKTON, Calif. — San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar told reporters on Monday Stockton police should bring in an outside party to investigate the department's policies and practices.
After reading a list of criminal charges her office filed against former Stockton police officers Nicholas Bloed and Ny Tran, Salazar said she's reaching out to other agencies to provide oversight of the department.
"You cannot build trust by saying the same agency that employed this person and allowed all of these crimes to occur over an extended period of time, is now going to handle the investigation," she told reporters. "That just doesn't build trust."
According to San Joaquin County jail records, Bloed was booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on Wednesday just before 1 p.m.
Charges include a number of sexual felonies including assault to commit rape, assault by a public officer, paying for prostitution and asking or receiving a bribe.
Stockton police said Tran was turned over to the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigations in connection to an investigation for theft from an elder, forgery, grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.
Stockton Police Department provided the following statement in regard to the district attorney's call for an investigation into the department's policies and practices.
"Over the years, our department has self-initiated administrative and criminal investigations against our employees and have even arrested some of our own," police said, in part, in a statement to ABC10. "No one is more disappointed in a bad cop than a good cop. We feel we have a good system in place for checks and balances when it comes to internal investigations. All our investigations are subject to State and Federal review when necessary."
Patrick High, president of the Stockton Police Officers Association, also addressed the comments from the press conference.
"For Ms. Verber to callously allege that this Association and our members condoned the alleged behavior of Mr. Bloed and Officer Tran is patently false," High said in a statement to ABC10. "Our members were the ones who investigated, wrote the search and arrest warrants, and ultimately placed handcuffs on Mr. Bloed. It was our Association members who were called upon to arrest Officer Tran."
He added that, if proven in a court of law, the alleged actions by Bloed and Tran were repugnant and would forever erode trust in law enforcement for many.
Salazar is urging members of the public who might have been victimized by Bloed or Tran to reach out to the District Attorney's Office.
"I have 55 of the best investigators in the state of California, and they are independent of all law enforcement agencies, we operate completely under the umbrella of the district attorney's office," she said. "So they can call our hotline and will immediately dispatch one of our detectives."
Community activist Toni McNeil said oversight of the Stockton Police Department is something the community has seeking for several years.
"Who has some teeth, right? That can hold law enforcement and the police officer's association accountable to doing a true, thorough, authentic job of investigating what's going on within our own department," McNeil said.
Stockton currently has a "City Manager's Review Board' which was established in part for "improvement of community-police relations."
The board includes the city manager and police chief, as well as a diverse cross section of representatives from local nonprofits, such as the NAACP and "Visit Stockton."
A full statement from the Stockton Police Officers Association is viewable below.
