Thousands of Secret California Police Misconduct Made Public - Almost 12,000 Cases Involving Sexual Assault

This story is diabolical, and I'm baffled that mass media isn’t all over it. Let’s talk about one of the most insane reports I’ve seen in my years of working this job.

VIA Missionlocal.org

The Police Records Access Project database has now made thousands of previously secret files on alleged police misconduct in California public through a searchable database.

They assembled more than seven years of work done by journalists, activists, and data scientists. It went public on Monday with paperwork from more than 400 government agencies across the state.

Nearly 12,000 cases are now listed, involving an array of police misconduct from the use of serious force, dishonesty, and complaints about repeated patterns of sexual harassment by officers. You can access the database HERE.

This project was made possible by a domino effect of politics, which allowed all this information to become public. With it beginning in 2018, when California’s state legislature reversed decades of secrecy and mass unsealed all police records involving the use of serious force or findings of office dishonor/sexual assault. Then another law, a couple of years later in 2021, further unsealed all records involving findings of police discrimination, excessive force, wrongful arrests, or wrongful searches.

As a result, journalists spent years and hours going through piece by piece and requesting documents from various law enforcement/transit agencies, prisons, coroners’ officers, prosecutors, and more. More than 30 news outlets then went on to collectively pool their work to make this database happen.

Then, researchers from Berkeley and Stanford University created the database, with help from the ACLU and funding from places like the state of California, the Sony Foundation, and even Jay Z’s company Roc Nation.

This database isn't just a window into the past…it’s a mirror held up to the present. For decades, Californians were kept in the dark about the actions of those sworn to protect them.

Now, with these records finally exposed, the question is no longer whether misconduct happened; it’s what we’re going to do about it.

Police officers and other government employees are paid with public tax dollars. That means their conduct isn’t a departmental matter; it should be a matter of public record. Transparency like this shouldn’t stop at California’s borders. Every state should follow suit, because accountability shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code.

It’s time for nationwide transparency, and for the public to use this information to demand meaningful reform, not just awareness.