KENSINGTON -- Demanding greater oversight, residents of a small, affluent East Bay community reacted sharply Monday to a report that a local police officer had his gun stolen during an encounter with a Reno prostitute last year but wasn't suspended for nearly nine months.

"As a resident of Kensington for over nine years, never have I felt more embarrassed by how we are handling our civic affairs," resident Brian Meckler wrote in an email to this newspaper, calling for the hillside town to contract with another community for police services. "I don't want the liabilities, the old-boy protections and political rats nest required for maintaining our own police force."

Kensington police officer Keith Barrow at a community event at which he was honored in February 2009 in El Sobrante. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

One member of Kensington's Police Protection and Community Service District board broke the panel's silence Monday in a statement calling for greater police oversight about how the investigation of Sgt. Keith T. Barrow was handled.

"I've heard from dozens of residents. Many are embarrassed for our community, others are shocked and angered by the board's absence of leadership in this matter," Director Vanessa Cordova wrote, suggesting the district consider looking outside the small department for oversight.

"If enlisting the expertise of an outside agency is what it takes to regain the trust and confidence of our community, then it must be done." She said she was not yet prepared to discuss more specifics, or what agencies she meant.


Board president Len Welsh said Monday that Cordova "should not be commenting. I was not informed of this." He declined further comment.

District officials, citing strict police personnel-record protections, have refused to discuss Barrow. The police sergeant remained at work and wasn't disciplined until this newspaper started asking the board questions last week about revelations that Barrow had fallen asleep and been robbed by a prostitute last May in Reno.

The town board is scheduled to meet Thursday night for both a closed-session review of Police Chief Greg Harman's job performance and a public vote on a new police union contract. Barrow, president of the local union chapter, helped negotiate the proposed deal.

On a local online bulletin board, a resident called for people to "storm the meeting (and) demand accountability."

Barrow's lawyer, Justin Buffington, told this newspaper late Friday that his client would be suspended for an undisclosed period of time as discipline for the Reno incident, and that an investigation of the incident by his law firm suggested Barrow may have been drugged.

A Reno Police spokesman said Monday there is no mention of a possible drugging in a report on the gun theft taken when Barrow showed up at the Nevada department's headquarters on May 23. He was in the company of "fellow officers," the spokesman, Officer Tim Broadway said. They were not identified, and their identity is unclear.

Barrow's gun was recovered the next morning when the prostitute's pimp shot himself in the leg with it during a dispute with two people at a pawn shop.

Policing experts said Barrow should have been placed on paid leave, the stolen-gun incident quickly investigated, and harsh discipline such as firing or demotion meted out.

Harman wrote in a July report to the board that he was investigating an incident involving an off-duty officer for alleged dereliction of duty. The department's monthly reports show that Barrow was heavily involved in its day-to-day activities over the next six months while Harman continued to report the investigation was ongoing.

In an email Sunday to board members, resident Anna Shane demanded "immediate action" to suspend Harman "without pay while his conduct is investigated." Welsh did not respond to an email requesting a response.