Families take action

Evening, i'm jim scott.

Tami: i'm tami mlcoch.

We begin with several local families demanding action by the u-s justice department, saying bakersfield police can't be trusted to police their own.

We told you last week that the attorneys representing those families were preparing a complaint for the justice department's civil rights division.

Today, they formally announced their plan.

17's olivia lavoice was at today's news conference and joins us with the details.

Olivia.

Olivia the families of four men killed by local law enforcement stood together this morning, and said they won't stop their fight for justice.

They say the city's claim that convicting former bpd detectives damacio diaz and patrick mara rid bpd of its bad elements ignores deeper, widespread problems in the department.

Now they're asking the federal government to get involved.

The families of jorge ramirez, david silva, jason alderman, and james de la rosa are asking the civil rights division of the department of justice to investigate bakersfield police.

They say change needs to happen.

----------- chris silva: when you have statistics that say you're the deadliest in the country, maybe you should address that properly, absorb it, and do something about it, instead of just resisting, and constantly being on the defense.

----------- olivia: attorney ben meiselas represents the families.

He says the criminal investigation of disgraced former detectives damacio diaz and patrick mara does not address the civil rights violations alleged by his clients.

He says the effort is not anti-cop, but pro- community.

--------- ben meiselas: what we advocated for today is to actually help the community, to make a safer community.

In order to achieve that, we need certain reforms in the bakersfield police department.

--------- olivia: the families have banded together for about three years, they say, in an effort to get their message across.

They say it's gotten results-- bpd had 13 shootings last year, and only two so far this year.

-------- nicole ramirez: i really feel like all of us have changed something.

Whether it was one of us, two of us, 100 of us, we all stood strong.

We're still going to stand strong until change is made here in kern county.

------- olivia: meiselas says he approached city and police leadership to move bpd community relations forward, but those efforts were rebuffed.

Now he says it's up to the department to fix itself, or the federal government may do it for them.

--------- ben meiselas: that's my advice to the bakersfield police department.

Stop digging.

Dig yourself out of this hole, and implement the necessary change to improve your department and make this community safer.

Olivia the family of david silva recently received a 3- point-4 million dollar settlement from the county for his death at the hands of sheriff's deputies and the highway patrol.

Chris silva tells us he intends to use some of that money to fund civil rights advocacy locally.

We contacted bpd, the city manager's office, and the local u-s attorney's office.

We didn't hear back from the city manager's office or the us attorney's office, and bpd declined to comment, but said it will address various issues, including allegations of widespread corruption, after patrick mara is sentenced.

However, mara's sentencing date has been pushed back from the 17th, one week to october 24th.

Olivia lavoice, 17