With the passage of a California law requiring the release of police misconduct records, recent public records requests reveal a number of instances in which police departments in the Bay Area failed to adequately inform the public. The Fremont Police Department reported 8 cases of police conduct in 2017 but details were never made public. In Burlingame, the police department fired an officer for offering to help a woman charged with a DUI if she would have sex with him. The district attorney is now considering reopening the case after learning of two other reports of similar incidents involving the officer that surfaced under the new state transparency law. (KTVU News, January 17, 2019, by Lisa Fernandez)
Inglewood failed to uphold the spirit of the transparency law as the city council authorized the destruction of records of over 100 police shootings and investigations before the new law went into effect. The Inglewood department had a reputation for covering up reports of excessive force. (Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2018, by Liam Dillon and Jack Dolan)
For previous FAC coverage on the issue, click here, here, and here.