Critics blast Vallejo police settlement with DOJ

VALLEJO, Calif. - The California Department of Justice has entered an agreement with the city of Vallejo and the police department, forcing Vallejo to make reforms, which will be overseen by an independent evaluator.

"Repairing trust between our law enforcement and the communities they serve is a foundational part of public safety and rebuilding that trust takes swift, decisive action," Bonta said in a statement. "It’s past time the people of Vallejo have a police department that listens and guarantees that their civil rights are protected." 

But the settlement agreement, announced Thursday by Attorney General Rob Bonta, is coming under swift criticism by civil rights attorneys who strongly believe that the oversight should fall under a judge's mandate – which this does not. 

"Is this more window dressing or is this actually something that's going to change what's been going on in Vallejo?" asked Lawyers for the People attorney Adante Pointer, who has filed several civil rights suits against Vallejo.

He added that there is this "supposed independent agency that's looking into them and will hold them accountable, whereas we as the community have no confidence or faith that the city of Vallejo will monitor itself or will comply with the independent monitor."

Pointer said emphatically: "They need judicial oversight. They need oversight that has teeth. There's nothing that we've seen heretofore that gives us any type of confidence that the city of Vallejo can police itself or will listen to an independent agency, unless that agency has an ability to override the city's hesitance to do the right thing. And just as importantly, when they run afoul of this agreement, hold them accountable and enforce it."

The agreement comes after the DOJ alleged that the Vallejo Police Department engaged in a "pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct" and after civil rights attorneys have cried for more oversight for a department whose officers have killed more than 20 people since 2012. 

Some of those included the deadly shootings of Willie McCoy, who officers shot 55 times; Ronell Foster, who had been riding his bicycle without a light; and Sean Monterrosa, who was shot during a George Floyd protest in 2020 while he had a hammer in his pocket. 

Vallejo paid McCoy's family $5 million and Foster's family $5.7 million, the largest settlement amount in city history at the time. 

The evaluator selected by Vallejo is Jensen Hughes, a global consulting firm. The decree will last until the reforms are met. 

Pointer has represented both the McCoy and Foster families, and acknowledged that even though the Department of Justice can step in at any time to oversee the evaluator, he questioned: "If you look at the track history, what has the Department of Justice done as it relates to holding people accountable?" 

Specifically, the DOJ has been asked to intervene in the Monterrosa death, where prosecutors found the shooting justified. Community members have asked Bonta's office to look into several other Vallejo police shootings, which were all declined. 

Vallejo's requirements include 45 reforms that the city agreed to implement in a 2020 contract with the Justice Department, but remained incomplete last year at the end of a three-year term. Vallejo is in substantial compliance with 25 of those reforms, according to the settlement agreement, which was signed by the mayor, the city attorney, the city manager and interim police chief, Jason Ta. 

Reforms include addressing unreasonable force, promoting community partnerships, using the police oversight commission to develop bias-free policing strategies, and conducting impartial investigations. 

In October 2023, the parties agreed on a comprehensive five-year plan to address the numerous areas that need improvement and modernization to bring police into alignment with contemporary best practices and ensure constitutional policing, Bonta's office said. 

However, the stipulated judgment had remained unsigned by the court and therefore unenforceable. 

The Vallejo Sun reported that the Solano County judge indicated he would not enforce large portions of the agreement, and might not enforce it at all. He objected to the restrictions on stops and searches and the Justice Department’s plan to appoint an evaluator who would report to the court, the news site reported.

Since the Solano County Superior Court judiciary would not agree to oversee the reforms, Pointer characterized the situation as an "agreement without a home." 

And now, the agreement states that Bonta will ask an Alameda County judge to oversee the settlement. But, as Pointer put it, there are "serious questions as to whether or not a different municipality, a different judicial district, can actually enforce something on a city that's not within its jurisdiction." 

Pointer said there is a movement to move this issue into federal court.

"We intend to push for our own oversight, frankly, federal oversight," Pointer said. "We don't think that the city of Vallejo is going to respond to a watered down version of supervision. They need the strongest measure of medicine in order to get the reforms that this community deserves."