Open Vallejo (https://openvallejo.org/)
Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams was notified in March that his second-in-command had been drinking before he showed up to a homicide scene in a department SUV, according to an internal memo obtained by Open Vallejo. Now, sources say the city has opened an outside investigation — which the chief says he knows nothing about.
The Vallejo Police Department’s flawed handling of fatal police shootings allowed six officers to use deadly force again before their first cases were decided. Experts say the department’s system “isn’t even basement standard practice” and needs oversight.
Vallejo Police Department policy requires written authorization before officers launch drones. When an Open Vallejo investigation found no evidence that the rule was being followed, the department decided to change it.
Vallejo police need better facilities and deserve safe working conditions, write Andrea Sorce and Anne Carr, but a waterfront headquarters at 400 Mare Island Way is not the answer.
Gretchen Zimmermann asked Vallejo police about violence prevention strategies following a downtown shooting. They pushed a private surveillance company’s products instead.
After Aaron Quinn’s girlfriend Denise Huskins was kidnapped, Vallejo police insisted that he had murdered her. When Huskins was released two days later, they accused the couple of making it all up.
As Vallejo moves to fire the detective who killed Monterrosa, newly-released records raise questions over officials’ handling of investigation.
In the early 1960s, a small group of Black workers began organizing for equal treatment at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard — and inspired nationwide reforms.
Former Lt. Herman Robinson, Vallejo’s longest-serving police officer, accused Chief Shawny Williams of making false statements under oath as Williams sought to fire him, records obtained by Open Vallejo show.
“Those who commit the murders write the reports,” observed investigative reporter Ida B. Wells, whose birthday is today.