Vallejo police dashcam footage shows police officers approaching Alexander Schumann after shooting him. The officers’ identities are concealed, in violation of the public records law.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – In a victory for police transparency, a Solano County Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Vallejo must release video recordings from the August 2025 police shooting of Alexander Schumann. Unless modified, the ruling requires the City to release the records by September 24.
Representing the Vallejo Sun, FAC’s lawsuit challenged the Vallejo Police Department’s (VPD) refusal to release complete video footage after officers shot Schumann, a man experiencing a mental health crisis. While the city showed selectively edited footage at a public town hall — with officers’ faces blurred — it denied the Vallejo Sun’s request for recordings of the incident, claiming pending criminal charges against Schumann allowed it to withhold them.
The court rejected the city’s arguments, affirming that the California Public Records Act requires public agencies to disclose audio or video recordings depicting “critical incidents” in which officers shoot at people or use force resulting in death or great bodily injury.
“The Vallejo Sun relies on multiple video angles and video of the events leading up to a police shooting incident to tell as complete a story as possible, but the city of Vallejo has sought to release only select portions of this material, leaving numerous unanswered questions,” said Vallejo Sun editor Scott Morris. “We’re grateful that the court recognized the city was in violation of California public records law and for our counsel at the First Amendment Coalition who argued the case.”
VPD has a long, controversial history, including transparency problems, excessive uses of force, and police shootings. From 2010-2020, its officers killed 19 individuals, the second highest number of deaths among the 100 largest police forces nationwide. In 2024, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement agreement with the City of Vallejo that calls for extensive reforms within the police department. And just last month, after a years-long lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Northern California, VPD released an internal report detailing how officers had bent the tips of their badges to commemorate police shootings.
“When police officers use force against a member of the public that could be lethal, the public needs prompt and complete access to recordings that show what happened,” said FAC Senior Staff Attorney Aaron Field. “The Legislature recognized this when it passed AB 748. We are pleased that the Court’s ruling recognizes this, too, and requires the City of Vallejo to disclose much more about this incident.”