General news

County sheriff’s officers are three times more lethal than city police, a CBS News investigation has found… CBS News gathered and analyzed federal law enforcement data that showed while more people died overall in encounters with city police, deaths in encounters with county sheriffs occurred at a significantly higher rate. For every 100,000 people arrested, more than…

Sheriffs in California wield enormous power. They’re in charge of law enforcement in counties and in unincorporated areas. They run the jailsand oversee emergency services. The magnitude of the sheriff’s role and power creates conditions that can lead to a lack of accountability, endangering public safety and civil liberties.

Sheriffs hold massive power in California counties over jails, law enforcement, emergency services, court-ordered evictions, and more. They are elected officials who must be accountable to the public that they serve. 

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors took a step that many police accountability advocates have for years clamored for: civilian oversight of the sheriff’s department. The Board voted to create a seven-member Oversight Board and an Office of the Inspector General on Tuesday that was recommended in a report authored by former Alameda County Chief…

Michael Acosta, who lost his eye after being shot with a hard projectile by San Jose police during protests following the 2020 killing of George Floyd, is set to receive millions in a city settlement. The $3 million payout is part of a $3.35 million total settlement the city is weighing for Acosta and a…

A police oversight committee in Dallas is investigating four police officers after video shows them laughing at a disabled veteran that urinated on himself. The committee watched police body cam footage on August 8 that took place after two off-duty police officers at a Dallas restaurant denied him use of the bathrooms.

Too many Americans today live in fear that they may suffer abuse or excessive force at the hands of police officers who are sworn to protect them. To keep Americans safer, the federal government and state and local governments need to match continued investments in policing with reforms that make law enforcement agencies as a…

Despite being stopped and searched far more often than white people, Black people were less likely to be found carrying contraband, the data shows. They were, however, more likely to have force used against them.

“While boards of supervisors have a general responsibility to supervise sheriffs, their ability to do so is limited and they lack subpoena power over the office of sheriff,” reads the jury’s report. “The office of sheriff thus combines enormous power with little accountability.”

President Biden is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday aimed at bolstering police accountability… Biden will call for the creation of national standards for the accreditation of police departments and a national database of officers with substantiated complaints and disciplinary records, including those fired for misconduct.