Vallejo residents on Thursday night demanded accountability from the city’s police department and expressed frustration with a years-long reform effort led by the California Department of Justice.
The meeting was hosted by Jensen Hughes, a Chicago-based consulting firm hired by the state DOJ to evaluate Vallejo’s progress on police reforms. The firm invited residents who attended the 90-minute Zoom meeting to share their feedback, experiences, and goals for improving a department known nationally for its lethal violence.
Community members had plenty to say. Liat Meitzenheimer said she has heard police department leaders tout their progress on reforms but believes those claims are “a little bit disingenuous.”
“The actual work of the reform hasn’t been initiated,” she said. “We’re not seeing it in the community. We’re not seeing it reflected.”
Roughly 70 people attended the meeting, including more than a dozen Jensen Hughes staff members and observers from the California DOJ. The state agency earlier this year entered into a settlement agreement with the Vallejo Police Department outlining scores of changes to the department’s policies and training.
Debra Kirby, the lead evaluator for Jensen Hughes overseeing the reforms, said her team has submitted its first annual work plan to the California DOJ for approval, which she expects to receive within a month. In the meantime, she said, the “work has continued in Vallejo.”
Under the proposed plan, Jensen Hughes has identified the department’s uses of force and handling of personnel complaints as top reform priorities for the first year of the agreement, Kirby said.
“The reality is not everything can get done at once,” she said. “What we’ve seen tonight is a start.”
The police department must also approve the plan, according to the agreement.
The organizers of Thursday’s meeting split attendees into small discussion groups. When they reconvened, it appeared that many shared common grievances and interests: concerns about low staffing in the police department and its impact on public safety; a need for cultural change in the department, starting with strong new leadership; and a desire for transparency, accountability, and community engagement.
Jensen Hughes staff took notes during the discussion to share with their reform partners but said they would maintain confidentiality around the community members, asking participants to do the same. Open Vallejo received permission from community members quoted in this story to use their names and words.
City Manager Andrew Murray, appointed to his post in May, is now working with an outside recruiting firm, Bob Hall and Associates, to hire a permanent police chief for the city. Officials expect to fill the position by October. Interim Chief Jason Ta has led the department since former chief Shawny Williams’s sudden resignation in 2022.
“We need a chief who’s going to recognize and validate to the public the wrongdoing and the hurt that has gone on from this department,” Paula Conley, a Vallejo native, said during the meeting. “It needs to be acknowledged if we’re going to move forward. It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, we’re not going to do it again.’”
Bridget Doherty said she has recently encountered rude behavior and dangerous driving by Vallejo police officers involved in chases. Police pursuits resulted in two civilian deaths and numerous crashes involving injuries last month in Vallejo. Doherty also called on officials to release a sealed report into the department’s “Badge of Honor” scandal, revealed by this newsroom in 2020, in which officers bend the tips of their badges to mark fatal shootings.
In addition, Doherty said, the department should remove from its ranks officers who have killed civilians — a request echoed by several other community members in Thursday’s meeting.
“We don’t feel safe with them. We don’t want them on the force,” Doherty said. “In order for this police department to really be reformed, we’re going to have to get rid of those officers.”
The California DOJ and Jensen Hughes have been involved in Vallejo police reform for more than four years. The state agency has been investigating the department since at least May 2020. The following month, it entered a three-year collaborative reform agreement with Vallejo, which included 45 recommended reforms. The department has “substantially complied” with 27 of the recommendations to date, according to the DOJ.
After that agreement expired with little progress, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the city to impose a consent decree on Vallejo. However, met with pushback from a Solano County judge, the state agency dropped the lawsuit and instead entered a settlement agreement, which contains the same reforms that would have been imposed under a consent decree.
Kirby, who worked as a top executive at the Chicago Police Department before joining Jensen Hughes, said her firm’s history in Vallejo is an “advantage” because it will help expedite the process of implementing reforms.
“We have an understanding of the department,” said Kirby, who also noted the firm’s experience in other Bay Area cities. “We have seen this process and approach work with the San Francisco Police Department.”
