California Attorney General Rob Bonta has stood with Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell and Interim Police Chief Jason Ta to announce a five-year plan for reforming Vallejo’s troubled police department. 

The parties on Monday signed a mutual agreement that includes an expanded list of changes and the appointment of an independent evaluator who oversees the police department and reports to the court and the Department of Justice. The agreement is pending approval by the Solano County Superior Court.

“It allows my office to seek court enforcement of the terms of the judgment in the event the city or the police department falls short on their commitments outlined in the agreement,” Bonta said of the five-year oversight plan. “Again, that accountability component.”

Body cam footage shows Vallejo police officers at the scene of the officer-involved fatal shooting of Sean Monterrosa. (Photo courtesy of Vallejo Police Department)

Vallejo’s police department has received international attention for its long history of disproportionate use of force against people of color and strong-armed tactics, drawing criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union and the justice department. The officer-involved fatal shooting of Sean Monterrosa during the George Floyd protests of 2020 brought widespread criticism to the department.

A scandal involving a ritual by Vallejo officers, bending the tips of their badges to mark the fatal shootings of suspects, is still affecting the department and community. Recently, in an Oct. 13 bystander video, a Vallejo police officer was shown allegedly punching a woman in the face during an arrest. 

Progress for sure, but also not enough. Attorney general rob bonta

In 2020, the Vallejo Police Department entered into a memorandum of agreement with the department of justice that included a list of reforms, including policies and practices regarding officer-involved shootings, community input into critical incident reviews and diversity in recruitment in hiring. By the time the agreement expired June 2023, the police department had complied with 20 of the 45 recommendations.

“Progress for sure, but also not enough,” Bonta said.

The new stipulation agreement requires the Vallejo police department to comply with all 45 of the original reforms plus additional changes related to bias, use of force and searches, seizures and arrests. 

“This new agreement requires ongoing audits of incidents where an officer points or brandishes a firearm at or in the presence of a community member,” Bonta said as he listed some of the new reforms. Officers and supervisors will be held accountable for not reporting or investigating incidents of unreasonable force. They will be prohibited from conducting consent searches during a consensual encounter, and there will be new protocols for responding to persons with a mental health crisis or disability, he said. 

Understaffing was mentioned 13 times in Monday’s press conference and said to be one of the reasons the Vallejo Police Department was not able to meet its goals by the June deadline. In July, the city council declared a state of emergency regarding Vallejo’s lack of law enforcement officers and staff. 

Just the beginning

Chief Ta admitted that the department was struggling to cover administrative work, which has slowed their internal use-of-force reviews and the release of public information.

“The goal is really to set a system in place where we don’t have to wait for a complaint,” he said.

“All of the improvements are centered around systems,” Ta said. “Systems for review, systems for transparency, systems to correct any issues that need updating. Whatever the system that we’re looking at, there will be certain audits, reviews, reports, and data collection happening in real time, so we can see what’s happening and make changes in the moment.”

“ … make no mistake that this is just the beginning; it will take an unweaving commitment by city leaders and police leadership to implement the changes.” John Burris, civil rights attorney

Civil rights attorney John Burris said he is glad to hear about the binding agreement but remains wary.  

“Having sued the police department for over 20 years for their treatment of African Americans,” he said, “I am encouraged that better days can be ahead. However, make no mistake that this is just the beginning; it will take an unweaving commitment by city leaders and police leadership to implement the changes.”

Mayor Robert McConnell spoke to the challenges of changing the culture of policing in Vallejo.

“It’s often said that culture will eat programs for breakfast,” he said. “As we’ve progressively but steadily made these changes, small and large, it will demand the full attention and understanding of the citizens of Vallejo, the state and indeed the world, all of whom are watching the Vallejo police department as we speak.”

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.