Vallejo Police Department agrees to California DOJ oversight of police reforms
The California Department of Justice will oversee reforms to the Vallejo Police Department for the next five years under a consent decree following a series of police shootings and misconduct cases over the past several years, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday.
ALSO READ: Vallejo police confirm viral video of officer punching female shoplifting suspect being investigated
During a press conference at Vallejo City Council chambers, Bonta said the state DOJ entered into a stipulated judgment with the Vallejo PD and the City of Vallejo with regard to ongoing reforms to the police department's policies and practices. The agreement resolves the DOJ's complaint against Vallejo Police alleging the department routinely violated individuals' constitutional rights and engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional conduct.
The consent decree request follows a years-long effort by the state DOJ to push the Vallejo PD toward reforms following several police shootings between 2016 and 2019, including the 2019 shooting of rapper Willie McCoy in which officers fired 55 shots into McCoy's car while he was unresponsive in the driver's seat with a gun on his lap.
The agreement also builds upon a May 2020 memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the state DOJ and the City of Vallejo to collaboratively reform the police department's use-of-force procedures, implement anti-bias training, and bring the department's training, policies and transparency in line with national standards and best practices.
While the 2020 MOU had been in development for several months, the timing of the announcement came just days after a Vallejo police officer with three prior shootings killed 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa after allegedly mistaking a hammer he had in his pocket for a gun.
The following month, it was revealed that Vallejo police officers engaged in a tradition in which officers bent the tips of their badges to indicate they had been involved in a fatal shooting. The ACLU filed suit in 2022 against the city of Vallejo to compel it to release public records regarding the badge-bending practice.
A petition filed by the ACLU in 2022 showed that while 22% of Vallejo residents are Black, only 7% of officers are Black. In addition, half of all police use-of-force incidents between 2017 and 2019 were against Black residents, according to department data cited in the petition.
Meanwhile, the reform efforts agreed to in 2020 stalled. Last fall, Open Vallejo and ProPublica revealed that Vallejo police had completed just two of 45 reforms endorsed by the state DOJ.
On Monday, Bonta said 20 of the 45 reforms have now been complied with, but that the progress was "not enough."
"We can't allow for lapses in improvement, we need to keep moving forward, continuing to make that progress. We can't allow for complacency," said Bonta. "The people of Vallejo deserve a police department that listens to them and guarantees that their civil rights are protected. Again, we'll accept nothing less."
A state DOJ review of the MOU which expired in June showed that Vallejo Police failed to uniformly and adequately enforce the law, based in part, because of defective or inadequate policies, practices, and procedures. Bonta said the DOJ is seeking a judgment requiring Vallejo and the police department to implement the remaining reforms, as well as additional reforms to addressing civilian complaints, bias-free policing, and ongoing oversight of these reforms.
In July, the Vallejo City Council on Tuesday approved an emergency proclamation over chronic police staffing shortages. The proclamation allows the police department to use resources from other law enforcement agencies, re-hire retired officers, and find ways to recruit new officers.
