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Thousands of pages of testimony portray Laurie Smith as willing to bend and defy laws to defend her agency and practices.

[T]his week’s revelation that the San Francisco police crime lab used a sexual assault victim’s DNA against her in an unrelated property crime case — and the allegation that it may be a common practice in California — has prompted a national outcry among law enforcement, legal experts, lawmakers and advocates.

The group would have consisted of 15 to 20 residents who would meet regularly with the sheriff’s office to provide feedback on issues of community importance. Yet it would have lacked the transparency requirements and subpoena power afforded to independent oversight committees under Assembly Bill 1185. 

Santa Rita Jail is run by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and holds roughly 2,000 detainees on any given day, making it one of the largest jails in the country. The jail’s treatment of people with mental disabilities was at the core of the class action lawsuit—Babu v. Ahern—and the practice of locking people in isolation…

Analysis of San Mateo police data has found Black and Latino people are disproportionally more likely to be arrested or have use-of-force interactions compared to white people, with law enforcement leaders acknowledging more must be done and community leaders pushing for substantial change.

The unit, named the Civil Rights and Public Integrity Detail, has pursued a long-running investigation into one of Villanueva’s most vocal critics, L.A. County Inspector General Max Huntsman, and others despite sheriff’s officials being told by the FBI and state law enforcement officials that it appeared no crimes had been committed, a senior sheriff’s official said.

According to a 26-page report compiled by the Office of Independent Review (OIR) Group, an outside law enforcement auditing group, major obstacles to meaningful reform include a lack of extensive data collection and inaccessibility to information.

Historically, the political and social response to police violence has been muted in Bay Area suburbs, where use-of-force is subject to less oversight than in cities. The reasons are complicated, but the reality is unsettling: more deaths in areas with fewer mechanisms to bring justice to families, transparency to the public or robust investigations of…

Now, a KTVU investigation has found that Bay Area law enforcement agencies engaged in long-term reform efforts — including having independent oversight — are paying much less in civil penalties in recent years for injuring or killing people than many departments left to police themselves. 

Some saw success, like in Colorado, New York and Virginia, which all passed sweeping new laws addressing use of force, funding and community oversight, among other things.