San Diego Police still deploy a type of grenade that the nation’s largest police department stopped using after fatal injuries connected to their use.
SWAT teams use flash-bang grenades to temporarily confuse suspects when looking for drugs, contraband or evidence unannounced. The devices are also used in hostage and barricade situations. The New York Police Department banned the devices, which have been implicated in dozens of death, disfigurement and injury incidents across the country.
Records uncovered by contributor Patrick Maynard for Voice of San Diego show San Diego Police used this grenade 45 times last year, five times more than the Irvine Police Department and half as much as Anaheim’s.
San Diego Police say most departments still use the grenades and that they help de-escalate situations. Still, local defense attorneys say the department is behind the times.
What’s Up with All the Sales Taxes on the Ballot?
Our Scott Lewis joined KPBS to explain why there are so many sales taxes on your ballot this year. There’s one voters will consider in the city of San Diego, then a county-wide proposal and several in North County cities.
We hosted a debate on the city of San Diego’s one-cent sales tax increase on the ballot, Measure E. You can watch that debate from Politifest 2024 here.
North County Report: A Mayor’s Race and More Camping Bans
Oceanside has an eye-popping median rent of $3,400. Renters are spending 77 percent of their income on average just for housing — and the candidates for mayor have some thoughts about it.
Our Tigist Layne writes that the two candidates have different stances on how to deal with the housing affordability crisis. The city’s current mayor has supported affordable housing projects, but has resisted calls for bigger developments, saying they cause traffic problems and can damage neighborhood character. Her challenger, a current councilmember and Republican, has taken a more pro-growth stance.
To read about homeless money in Oceanside and stricter homeless regulations being proposed in Oceanside check out the full North County Report.
Read the North County Report here.
Feds Won’t Let Anticipated Sewage Spill Hit the Tijuana River After All
Remember that warning about more raw Tijuana sewage headed toward San Diego this month?
That’s not happening anymore, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an update on the state of sewage pipe repairs in the Mexican city.
Our MacKenzie Elmer reported last week that up to 30 million gallons of sewage would spill into the cross-border Tijuana River each day Mexican officials work on upgrading the city’s biggest and broken down sewer main mid-October.
Instead, Mexican military engineers will be building an extra pipe called a bypass, borrowed from Acapulco where it was used for hurricane recovery, and sending the flows to the the International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego for treatment.
In Other News
- The troubled nonprofit, Veterans Village of San Diego, will no longer be allowed to provide substance abuse services after the state revoked its license following concerns about client safety. (inewsource)
- San Diego Unified’s new superintendent just secured a new contract that will bring her pay to $433,124 per year. (Union-Tribune) ICMI: Our Jakob McWhinney spoke to Fabiola Bagula about her plans for the district. You can read more here.
- A LA developer is using a state housing law to try to build a 22-story high-rise in Pacific Beach. The community, council representative and mayor are not on board, the Union-Tribune reports.
- A new report from Maplight, a nonprofit research organization, finds that — surprise, surprise — big money dominates local San Diego politics. The report found that fewer than 800 people accounted for 67 percent of donations to City Council races in 2022.
Correction: We’ve updated the “South County Report: Allegations Roil Chula Vista City Council Race” to reflect the correct amount that Cesar Fernandez spent on hotel bills.
Correction: We misidentified the author of a report on money in politics. The report was created by Maplight, a nonprofit research organization.
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer, Will Huntsberry and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.