Open Vallejo (https://openvallejo.org/)
If Nichelini is reinstated, “it should raise concern from the streets of Vallejo to the attorney general’s office about how seriously the police department is taking reform,” Otis R. Taylor, Jr., the reporter who received the menacing email, told Open Vallejo.
The Journalistic Integrity Award is Open Vallejo’s eighth since 2019, and its second from an organization focused on criminal justice.
In 2020, the California DOJ endorsed 45 reforms for Vallejo police. The department has implemented just two of them.
The City of Vallejo has signed a $100,000 consulting agreement with former Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn, whose tenure included the fatal shootings of Stephon Clark and Darrell Richards.
The Vallejo Police Department is hiring a new deputy chief, promoting multiple officers to the upper echelons of its command staff, and disbanding two key programs — all while the police chief is expected to be out of the office for weeks, Open Vallejo has confirmed.
Half a century ago, Vallejo had twice as many patrol officers per resident as it does today.
In response to a California Public Records Act request filed by Open Vallejo, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office has disclosed body camera and vehicle camera footage from the fatal shooting of 28-year-old man on June 19.
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.