Photo: San Jose press conference

San Jose launches tool for access to police misconduct records

06 December 2022

by Sarah Wray

San Jose has launched an online tool that allows the public to search Independent Police Auditor (IPA) records relating to police misconduct investigations.

People can access closed IPA misconduct case information involving San Jose Police Department officers from 2014 to 2020 and search by category, date and officer name.

“This online search tool leverages transparency to continue building trust between our police force and our community, as we advance the national conversation around police accountability,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.

The information made available aligns with landmark state legislation that came into effect in 2019. SB 1421 allows certain police misconduct records that were previously exempt to be disclosed through California’s Public Records Act.

Prior to the regulation, such records – including investigations into officer-involved shootings, use of force resulting in great bodily injury, and sustained findings of sexual assault and dishonesty by police officers – could only be made available via court proceedings.

San Jose’s search tool aims to provide the public, the media and others with quicker access to information without having to wait for a potentially lengthy public records request process.

The City of San Jose said the records are only available to 2020 so far due to lack of staff resources and time.

A spokesperson said: “However, now that there is new staff and other projects are winding down, the IPA’s office will have the capacity to put up more cases on the portal.”

Tech team

The portal was designed by the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Information (MOTI) and a team of engineering, law and design fellows including CodeX – The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, Coding it Forward, Berkeley and UCLA.

“I hope [this] serves as a reminder that some records are so sensitive that they need to be centralised, made accessible and mindfully presented to our community,” said Stephen Caines, Deputy Information Officer, MOTI.  “I strongly encourage other departments and municipalities to follow the lead of San Jose. Public safety is not merely providing services; it also involves robust oversight mechanisms overseeing the delivery of those services.”

From 2023, an additional state law, SB 16, will expand the categories of misconduct records to be made available to include sustained findings of: excessive force, failure to intervene in an excessive force incident, unlawful search, and prejudice or discrimination. These categories will also appear on San Jose’s portal.

Accessibility

Mayor Liccardo said accessibility was key and it was not enough that information was available in the public domain.

“Simply putting information out there with a large data dump does not make it accessible for the public, for the media or for anyone else,” he commented. “We need to make the information truly accessible, meaning it has to be well organised and easily obtained by anyone who wants to get it.

“I think what this is really going to do is change what other cities throughout the state are doing, because we’ve been on some of those websites. To be blunt – it’s really hard to find information.”

He said the tool could also help to prevent officers who have committed misconduct being hired in other police departments.

The city noted that the portal reflects only IPA records. The San Jose Police Department holds additional records relating to body-worn camera footage, police reports, computer-aided dispatch records and photographs.

The San Jose Police Officers’ Association did not respond to a request for  comment about the new transparency initiative.

Several US cities are taking steps to improve transparency around policing. In Minneapolis – where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020 – the city launched dashboards on officer-involved shooting, use of force and arrests. Chattanooga launched a Policing and Racial Equity Dashboard including citations, arrests, use of force, and citizen complaints by race.

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