Skip to content
  • About Us
  • Our Team
  • Board and Advisors
  • Our Impact
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Contact
Support Us
  • Support Us
  • logo
  • logo
  • Support Us
  • Global Navigation
    • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Board and Advisors
    • Our Impact
    • Newsletter
    • Donate
    • Contact

Open Vallejo - Knowledge is power. Power to the people.

Open Vallejo (https://openvallejo.org/tag/news/)

Subscribe

News

Original investigative and explanatory reporting from Open Vallejo, an award-winning, independent, nonpartisan newsroom serving the public interest.

Then-Vallejo Councilmember Hakeem Brown speaks at a city council meeting on police reform on Dec. 6, 2022. Brown is a Black man in his mid-40s wearing glasses, a green Pendleton-style cap and green vest over a black shirt. He has a goatee.
Civil Rights

Hakeem Brown to lead Vallejo NAACP despite domestic violence revelations

By Geoffrey King | January 13, 2023

A disturbing history of domestic violence, verbal clashes with colleagues and constituents, and vocal support for Vallejo police defined the former council member’s turbulent tenure.

A stocking hanging outside the Vallejo City Attorney’s office on Dec. 21, 2022 reads, “We’ve been GOOD, we PROMISE!!” In September, Deputy City Attorney Katelyn Knight hired a firm to uncover the identities of authors behind two social media accounts, an Open Vallejo investigation has found.
Surveillance

Vallejo spends thousands to expose online commenters

By Geoffrey King | December 23, 2022

The Vallejo City Attorney’s Office hopes to identify the authors behind two pseudonymous social media accounts, confidential records obtained by Open Vallejo show.

Vallejo Police Lt. Michael Nichelini takes a selfie with colleagues in front of his family’s winery in St. Helena, Calif. during a “training ride” on Nov. 14, 2019.
Public Safety

Termination overturned for Vallejo police lieutenant who threatened journalist

By Geoffrey King | December 1, 2022

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.

Awards
The logo for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a statewide advocacy group. It is blue, white and black, and features a hand holding the scales of justice and the text, "CACJ."

Open Vallejo wins statewide criminal justice award for journalistic integrity

By Open Vallejo | November 10, 2022

The Journalistic Integrity Award is Open Vallejo’s eighth since 2019, and its second from an organization focused on criminal justice.

Featured
Members of Willie McCoy's family hug in front of Vallejo City Hall during a protest on Feb. 28, 2019, three weeks after Vallejo police killed the 20-year-old.

Vallejo police reforms stall despite scrutiny over killings

By Laurence Du Sault | November 8, 2022

In 2020, the California DOJ endorsed 45 reforms for Vallejo police. The department has implemented just two of them.

Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams is seen at his swearing-in ceremony on Nov. 12, 2019, at Vallejo City Hall.
City Manager

Vallejo police chief resigns, former Sacramento chief to consult

By Laurence Du Sault and Geoffrey King | November 4, 2022

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.

Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams speaks with Annice Evans, whose son Angel Ramos was killed by a Vallejo police officer on January 23, 2017, at a Vallejo City Council meeting on March 8, 2022. Ramos did not have a weapon.
Public Safety

Shake-up looms as Vallejo police chief takes time off

By Laurence Du Sault and Geoffrey King | October 27, 2022

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.

Five Vallejo police officers pose indoors with another man in a black and white group photograph taken in the 1970s or early 1980s. Front row, left to right: John Lynch, Peter Zander, Ronald Guerra. Back row: unknown, Herbert Shrum, Burky Worel, Louis Baldino.
Public Safety

Vallejo patrol staffing drops below 1975 levels

By Laurence Du Sault and Geoffrey King | September 21, 2022

Half a century ago, Vallejo had twice as many patrol officers per resident as it does today.

Public Safety
A shirtless man holding a handsaw blade approaches two deputies, one of whom is pointing a handgun, outdoors during daytime, from the perspective of the body camera of a third deputy, who is pointing a Taser at the man.

Solano sheriff releases footage of Juneteenth shooting in Vallejo

By Geoffrey King | September 3, 2022

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.

Then-San Jose Police Department Capt. Jason Ta, left, poses in the Vallejo City Council chambers for a photograph with Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams minutes after Williams was sworn in as Vallejo's police chief on Nov. 12, 2019. In 2021, Williams recruited Ta to serve as his deputy chief of police.
Ethics

Deputy police chief arrived impaired to Vallejo homicide, memo alleges

By Laurence Du Sault | July 20, 2022

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.

Load more articles

Editor’s picks

  • Members of Willie McCoy's family hug in front of Vallejo City Hall during a protest on Feb. 28, 2019, three weeks after Vallejo police killed the 20-year-old.
    Vallejo police reforms stall despite scrutiny over killings
  • Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams is seen at his swearing-in ceremony on Nov. 12, 2019, at Vallejo City Hall.
    Vallejo police chief resigns, former Sacramento chief to consult
  • Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams speaks with Annice Evans, whose son Angel Ramos was killed by a Vallejo police officer on January 23, 2017, at a Vallejo City Council meeting on March 8, 2022. Ramos did not have a weapon.
    Shake-up looms as Vallejo police chief takes time off
  • Five Vallejo police officers pose indoors with another man in a black and white group photograph taken in the 1970s or early 1980s. Front row, left to right: John Lynch, Peter Zander, Ronald Guerra. Back row: unknown, Herbert Shrum, Burky Worel, Louis Baldino.
    Vallejo patrol staffing drops below 1975 levels
  • Then-San Jose Police Department Capt. Jason Ta, left, poses in the Vallejo City Council chambers for a photograph with Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams minutes after Williams was sworn in as Vallejo's police chief on Nov. 12, 2019. In 2021, Williams recruited Ta to serve as his deputy chief of police.
    Deputy police chief arrived impaired to Vallejo homicide, memo alleges
  • A flashlight leaves a streak of light through a crime scene at night.
    Vallejo tolerated officers’ mistakes. Then they killed again.

Newsletter

Support Our Work

Donate Securely

Support Open Vallejo

We depend on your support. A generous gift in any amount helps us continue to bring you this service.

Donate

About Us

Open Vallejo is an award-winning, independent, nonpartisan newsroom serving the public interest.

We are a project of the Informed California Foundation, a periodical publication, wire service and press association that produces and supports impactful, responsive, local accountability journalism in communities across the state.

Follow

  • Podcast
  • RSS Feed
  • Newsletter

Policies

  • Editorial Independence
  • Ethics
  • Donor Transparency
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Privacy

More

  • Send Us Tips
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Awards
  • Jobs

© Copyright 2023 Informed California Foundation

Open Vallejo is a project of the Informed California Foundation,
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our Tax ID is 84-4618329.
All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑