Open Vallejo (https://openvallejo.org/)
We spent a year building a database of generational police violence in Vallejo. Today we are making it public.
The tradition is known at the highest levels of Vallejo city government and to Solano County’s district attorney, sources say.
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Open Vallejo is an award-winning, independent, non-partisan, nonprofit newsroom serving the public interest. We seek to illuminate a small city long burdened by police violence, neglect, and corruption. Our core team consists of journalists, First Amendment and open government lawyers, press freedom advocates, data scientists and other subject-matter experts.
As the first project of the Informed California Foundation, Open Vallejo is also a permanent design laboratory for open source, high-impact, broadly-accessible frameworks for ensuring local transparency, accountability, and information justice.
Former Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou poses for a picture with officers Matthew Komoda, David McLaughlin and Kevin Barreto on April 29, 2016.
Over the next two-and-a-half years, Komoda would participate in three shootings, McLaughlin in two, and Barreto in one.
Cynthia Beeman / Ernest J. Gaines Center, University of LouisianaAuthor Ernest J. Gaines in Vallejo. It was always the old folks and their busy ways. Always needing something. Always wanting something. Always looking for something from the young folks. They never would let the children rest or play on their own time.
Open Vallejo has won a 2020 James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter for its work exposing records of police and government misconduct. Founder and Executive Editor Geoffrey King was recognized in the citizen category for Open Vallejo’s “rigorous reporting and relentless use of the California Public Records Act to shine a light on a troubled local government,” SPJ said in a press statement Thursday. Now in their 35th year, the awards celebrate individuals and organizations “who have made significant contributions to advancing freedom of information and/or expression in the spirit of James Madison, the creative force behind the First Amendment.”
Open Vallejo “shed new light on police violence and misconduct last year and forced officials to disclose information they sought to shield from public scrutiny,” SPJ officials wrote. “At a time when there are perilously few journalists reporting in Vallejo, this citizen has provided a beacon of hope to a local community desperately in need of sunshine.”
“We are honored by this award, and for the opportunity to serve our community,” King told the Vallejo Times-Herald. “This project is inspired by values learned here in Vallejo — values like loyalty to community, respect for one’s neighbors, and the importance of speaking truth to power.”
One of Open Vallejo’s earliest milestones was compelling the disclosure of body camera video of Vallejo police officers killing Ronell Foster in 2018 and Willie McCoy last year.
Vallejo Chief Assistant City Attorney Randy Risner has been fired or abruptly resigned from three cities after coming under media scrutiny.
In 2011, a federal judge sanctioned him for ‘serious’ misconduct involving client funds.
Despite protests, the city council voted 6-1 to approve a union contract limiting drug testing of officers following shootings and other serious incidents.
Vallejo city attorney sought prosecutorial “partnership” with court