The police chief of Davis, CA near Sacramento is apologizing for the way his officers handled a suspected racial bias incident.
As AsAmNews previously reported, Khou Lam had arrived to the apartment complex earlier this month to visit his parents when he was questioned by two residents who asked what he was doing there.
At least one of them called police. When an officer arrived, Lam explained that he was visiting his parents and had been Facetiming his wife when the residents questioned him. Lam described the officers as unsympathetic.
“I very much agree that the contact you had with members of the Davis Police Department on July 10 offers valuable learning opportunities to those involved, and our community at large,” Chief Darren Pytel wrote to Lam, according to the Davis Enterprise. “It’s unfortunate that it comes at your expense — I do apologize for that.”
Pytel pledged to implement bias training at his department which he described as “currently lacking.”
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“There are many times that calls to the police later result in subsequent discovery of legitimate behavior misinterpreted by another. Humiliation, frustration, and anger are all common emotions in these circumstances,” the letter says. “I have no doubt that this was an emotional and unsettling event for you. In the end, perfectly legal behavior resulted in a police contact, which was entirely unwanted by you.”
The Davis Vanguard reports Lam recently completed his fellowship in neuroradiology at the University of Washington at Seattle. He came to visit his parents prior to beginning his new job August 3 in Dallas.
He immigrated from Vietnam in 2000 and has lived in both Sacramento and Davis.
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