The Vallejo city attorney’s office has long resisted public scrutiny of the police department’s frequent shootings. With a new law poised to force the release of shooting records, a lawyer and a detective made a decision no court can reverse.| Open Vallejo
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.| Open Vallejo
Open Vallejo is an award-winning, independent, nonpartisan newsroom serving the public interest.| Open Vallejo
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.| Open Vallejo
Despite protests, the city council voted 6-1 to approve a union contract limiting drug testing of officers following shootings and other serious incidents.| Open Vallejo
The Vallejo Police Department has prepared an update on California Department of Justice reforms it plans to present at a special City Council meeting tonight. But one notable stakeholder was left out of the department’s assessment — the DOJ.| Open Vallejo
Bonta gave the clearest indication to date that his office intends to continue — and potentially deepen — its review of Vallejo police.| Open Vallejo
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.| Open Vallejo
In 2020, the California DOJ endorsed 45 reforms for Vallejo police. The department has implemented just two of them.| Open Vallejo
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.| Open Vallejo
Half a century ago, Vallejo had twice as many patrol officers per resident as it does today.| Open Vallejo
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.| Open Vallejo
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.| Open Vallejo
This month's shootings in Vallejo come on the heels of one of Vallejo’s deadliest years in decades, with 25 killings in 2024.| Open Vallejo
Vallejo has experienced an elevated number of homicides since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 20 or more killings each year since 2020, Open Vallejo research shows.| Open Vallejo
As Vallejo moves to fire the detective who killed Monterrosa, newly-released records raise questions over officials' handling of investigation.| Open Vallejo
Vallejo police are investigating the first homicide of 2025 after a man was stabbed in the neck in South Vallejo Friday afternoon.| Open Vallejo
“Mr. Lind is the only eye-witness to this case and his testimony is critical for the People to have the ability to prove their case,” prosecutors wrote in court papers filed the day before the 82-year-old was killed.| Open Vallejo
Both suspects attended the prestigious Lakeside School in Seattle, studied computer science, and appear to sympathize with fringe Bay Area group described as a “murder gang.”| Open Vallejo
Damien Davis is among five people killed in July shootings in Vallejo. Born in Vallejo and raised in Fairfield, he grew up playing basketball and baseball, his mother said. He loved cooking and always brought his laid-back personality and big appetite to large family gatherings.| Open Vallejo
A Vallejo traffic stop turned into a deadly chase early Saturday morning, killing one person and sending five others to the hospital.| Open Vallejo
The tradition is known at the highest levels of Vallejo city government and to Solano County's district attorney, sources say.| Open Vallejo
The shooting follows several deadly incidents on the same stretch of Sonoma Boulevard in recent weeks.| Open Vallejo
“I’ve determined that we will begin anew not because people weren’t qualified necessarily, but in terms of the totality of the circumstances," Interim Salinas City Manager Jim Pia said in a statement.| Open Vallejo
Records show that Vallejo Police Ofc. Ronald Maurice Dupree is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Calif.| Open Vallejo
Ta is the second police chief to leave Vallejo since May 2020, when the California Department of Justice began scrutinizing the “number and nature” of shootings by officers.| Open Vallejo
This week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is expected to file a lawsuit in Solano County Superior Court alleging that the Vallejo Police Department has routinely violated individuals’ constitutional rights, necessitating court-ordered reforms, a half-dozen people with knowledge of the matter told Open Vallejo.| Open Vallejo
