Police

California Cities Have Shredded Decades of Police Misconduct Records

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Written by WLA Guest

By Darwin BondGraham, The Appeal

A landmark California transparency law making police misconduct records public for the first time went into effect in early January, but some city governments shredded files while lawmakers were considering the legislation.

In late 2018, Fremont, a suburban Bay Area city 25 miles south of Oakland, destroyed a multi-decade archive of police records. Some of the shredded files covered officer-involved shootings including 11 “training review board” investigations. Since 2002, the Fremont Police Department has convened such boards to examine shootings, vehicle pursuits, and similar incidents. If the board determines that an officer may have violated a law or department policy, it forwards the case to internal affairs for a separate administrative investigation that can result in discipline.

“We routinely purge police records based on our retention schedule, including internal affairs documents,” Geneva Bosques, a public information officer for the police department, wrote in an email response to questions about the recent records purge.

Bosques said the shredding was unrelated to the legislation, Senate Bill 1421. “In 2016, the police department initiated a review of the records we had in our possession to include but not limited to police reports, personnel records, officer involved shootings and internal affairs investigations,” she said.

The timing of the purge, however, ensures that numerous records that may have been disclosed under SB 1421 can never be reviewed by the public.

‘Shoot me’

One review board file that Fremont destroyed was an investigation into the shooting of Glenn David on Feb. 18, 2004. Briefs and depositions contained in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by David’s family in federal court, and police incident reports obtained from Fremont through a public records request, describe some of what happened that day.

David was working his shift as an assembler at an electronics plant when he became distraught and stabbed himself in the abdomen with a knife. He told a co-worker he was trying to kill himself and the plant was then evacuated.

When police arrived, they found David alone inside the building, bleeding from his abdomen and wrist. Officer Michael Chinn ordered David to drop the knife, but according to the lawsuit filed by his family, David was having a mental health crisis exacerbated by methamphetamine use and yelled and threatened suicide.

“Shoot me,” David shouted at Chinn. Officers radioed for backup to bring less-lethal weapons, but David allegedly advanced toward the officers. Chinn fired twice, killing David. A mere 49 seconds elapsed between the time the police made contact with David and when Officer Chinn killed him.

David’s family contended that the police should have been better trained to deal with suicidal individuals and that Chinn needlessly escalated the confrontation rather than waiting for backup. But in 2006, a federal judge ruled that Chinn acted lawfully.

The Fremont police never opened a separate internal affairs investigation into the David shooting, according to police records quoted by a federal judge in the lawsuit brought by David’s family. Because FPD’s policy is not to open an investigation that could result in discipline against an officer unless the review board recommends it, the result is that the only record of the incident was the training review board’s file which the city destroyed.

File classifications changed

When California lawmakers approved SB 1421, they did so with the finding that the public “has the right to know” about officer-involved shootings and serious uses of force, and to see how law enforcement agencies police themselves. Fremont’s decision to destroy training review board files prevents the public from examining how shootings were reviewed by the police department as well as its response to people in mental health crisis.

Fremont also recently changed the way it classifies training review board files so that the public is prevented from examining officer-involved shootings that don’t result in internal-affairs investigations. In November 2018, Fremont’s City Council voted to amend its records retention policy by adding a classification of police personnel files known as “other admin review.” According to city officials, because “other admin review” files aren’t part of an internal affairs or criminal investigation, they have to be kept for only two years before they are destroyed.

Another file shredded by Fremont concerned the fatal shooting of Zaki Shinwary on Jan. 16, 2015. Like David, Shinwary was armed with a knife, acting erratically and threatened people before two officers confronted him. Police said he advanced on them with the knife in his hand and was shot and tased.

Fremont appears to have shredded eight files concerning officer-involved shootings last year.

Union City shootings

Union City, a suburb adjacent to Fremont, also destroyed a large number of police records in June 2018 while SB 1421 was moving through the legislature toward the governor’s desk for signature.

Police shredded reviews of officer-involved shootings, vehicle collisions resulting from high-speed pursuits, and use of force reports from 1983 to 2015, according to documents obtained through a public records request.

At least 12 records of incidents in which officers fired their guns were destroyed, including three in which officers shot and killed dogs, as well as two “unintentional shootings” in 1989 and 2009 that were judged to be “out of policy,” but it’s unclear what transpired in those incidents, whether any person was injured or any officer faced discipline.

Many of the traffic collisions involving Union City cops were determined to be caused by an officer’s poor decision making and to be preventable. Supervisors issued written reprimands to officers and made them attend training sessions, according to brief descriptions of the destroyed files. However, it’s unclear if members of the public were injured in any of the collisions.

Union City officials did not respond to questions about whether their destruction of records was related to SB 1421.

A purge in Livermore

In Livermore, a suburban city 45 miles east of San Francisco, officials conduct a yearly purge of old records from all of the city’s departments.

“We typically destroy at least once a year, at the end of the year,” City Clerk Sarah Bunting said. “We routinely destroy records that have met or exceeded their retention period.”

The city’s records destruction policy typically includes purging police internal affairs files. As a result, Livermore already had few files of police misconduct investigations or use of force incidents dating back more than half a decade that would be subject to disclosure under SB 1421.

However, Livermore is in the process of destroying files for 27 complaints made to the police department’s internal affairs unit during 2012, according to documents obtained through a public records request. A list of files doesn’t reveal the allegations in these cases, whether they were sustained, or whether any officers were disciplined.

Also on Livermore’s list of records to destroy are hundreds of use of force reports spanning 2008 to 2012, and six reviews of officer-involved shootings that occurred in 2009, 2011, and 2012.

Under California law, police departments can destroy records of use of force incidents and civilian complaints alleging misconduct after five years. Cities can choose to adopt their own policy of maintaining these records for longer periods, but many choose not to.

The Livermore Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment about whether the purge of records from 2008 to 2012, including shootings, was in any way related to the passage of SB 1421.

Misconduct records withheld

State Senator Nancy Skinner, the author of SB 1421, said she intended for the law to apply to older police misconduct records. In January, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued an information bulletin instructing law enforcement agencies to preserve older records that may be subject to disclosure.

However, Becerra is withholding Department of Justice files regarding police misconduct and shootings. His office argues that there has been significant legal controversy about whether the law should be retroactively applied. Becerra’s position drew a rebuke from Skinner during a Senate budget committee hearing last week.

“Your decision not to release the records has resulted in the state being sued,” Skinner told Becerra. “So we are now being sued because we did not uphold our own law.”

Skinner was referring to a lawsuit brought by a coalition of media groups seeking to compel his office to to disclose records. But other lawsuits have been brought by police unions seeking to prevent the law from applying to records created before January 1, 2019. So far, police unions have lost in multiple trial courts and the state’s 1st and 2nd Appellate District Courts. But the lawsuits have created a delay during which other cities have moved ahead with plans to destroy older police misconduct files.

Meanwhile, more local governments are moving ahead with destroying older police misconduct files. On April 2, Yuba City’s police chief requested permission from the City Council to shred internal affairs investigation files before Jan. 1, 2014, and use of force reviews before Jan. 1, 2016.


This story was originally published on The Appeal, a nonprofit criminal justice news site.

Image by Mike Haw, Flickr.


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15 Comments

  • Really, Darwin? You think that a suicidal man, high on meth who has ALREADY stabbed himself, cut his wrist, told his friend that he wanted to die, yelled at the cop to shoot him and then LUNGED at him, could have been talked down? Really?

    All of the examples you cite are marginal at worst.

    I fully agree with the shredding and think ALL agencies should do it. The law is obviously unclear as to whether it applies to records retroactively (as evidenced by lawsuits on both sides). Should police departments just wait for this (latest) attack on them to take place?

    As I’ve said many times, there’s a war on police and naive people like Mr. BondGraham are on the forward edge of the battle area.

  • Everyone should read Heather MacDonald’s, “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe”

  • LASD Apostle:

    “I fully agree with the shredding, and think ALL agencies should do it.”

    Even though it means that the shredded reports “…Can never be reviewed by the public?” (Paragraph #5).

    Personally I think Abraham Lincoln had it right: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

    In other words, the public can be trusted to make a fair and equitable judgement about what it reads.

    No more shredding; the public can be trusted.

  • LASD Apostle, please. There is no war on cops. Lest you forget, you are on the taxpayer dime, feeding off the government trough, sucking the government teat, whatever you want to call it. We should be able to find out which officers shoot people in the back, which ones diddle little cadets, which lie on the reports, which ones are giving or receiving fellatio in parking lots or while in uniform, which ones have kiddie porn, which ones are double dipping claiming to be disabled while surfing in Cabo, which ones perjure themselves, and so on. By the way, all of these have happened. The jig is up, and the people will not take your arrogant nonsense anymore, the brothers certainly wont, and its about time you realize you are an employee. The solution, which every working man or woman knows, is you quit if you don’t like your job.

  • Cf,
    Yes there is a war on Cops and it is unfortunate. To those LEO’s in the trenches and “holding the line”, stay alert and stay alive.

    As for the bad genes in the law enforcement ranks that you mentioned, I despise them double fold as they are no different from those who commit the same crimes.

    Most of the hate towards LEO’s is because of the spotlight on the minute idiots who were never weeded out and the bad examples that overshadow the honest working cops.

    Law enforcement is a noble profession and for those that cross the line, I say to Hell with them.

  • Setting aside cf’s usual cop hating fever dreams (she somehow forgot to mention Walmart for whatever reason) I will agree on one point. There really isn’t a war on cops. As far as I know of, there isn’t a single state or local government that shows any interest whatsoever in doing away with their law enforcement agencies , or even talking about reducing their numbers. The only exception would during budget shortfalls and even then they are extremely reluctant to let go of their cops.

    Of course politicians have to sometimes pretend to hate their own cops, usually by scapegoating and conducting show trials. This usually leads to a couple of riots, a few burned out buildings (in the crappy part of town) then back to business as usual. Nobody gives a damn about the people shot or the law suits mentioned in this story. (Espically the politicians) This is pretty much just welfare for lawyers, I say destroy the records and let the lawyers work for their money.

  • Maj Kong:

    “There really isn’t a war on cops.”

    The war is on bad cops, the ones who will:

    1. Plant evidence to secure a brown-nosing felony arrest.
    2. Use excessive force (whacking hand-cuffed arrestees, etc.).
    3. Put falsified facts–lies–into police reports to justify #s 1 & 2.

    “I say destroy the records” will cover all that up, never to be discovered by the public.

    Max Conrad had it right: the police corruption is institutional.

  • What’s institutional is a dislike for weak people who blame “bad cops” for their own failures. Easier to believe in a conspiracy of evil cops than admit your disappointing career was due to your own failings.

  • @ Cognistator – Great analysis.
    I might add that many good cops suffer the public damage because of Asshole Cops.

  • So, since you feel the police are the “filth of humanity,” I assume you would never ever consider calling the police for help if you’ve been attached and robbed…

  • police misconduct can manifest in many ways which are hard to identify or prove as well. in livermore from my experience the ratio of good to bad cops runs at about 50-60% bad cops to 40% good cops. check out “police score card” website to see livermore or any city in ca. (livermore has a grade of D) my experience with officer david morris was from a call to someone breaking into my house. by the time he arrived the suspects were gone. he had a bad attitude and because i’m not white he assumed i did something wrong. (at my own home!) i was cuffed for 45 minutes in 80* heat while he interrogated me! they wanted to search my house but i wouldn’t let them as i had done nothing wrong and there was no reason to. to get me out of the way he 5150’d me. i was forcibly strapped to a gurney by 4 cops and 2 paramedics then drugged and taken away. once i was out of the way he searched my house illegally then went to get a warrant!

    at the hospital the doctor spoke with me and immediately released me because he knew nothing was wrong with me. morris claimed to find something illegal and immediately arrested me at my release from the hospital while making snarky remarks about an item he found which was 100% legal. at santa rita he spoke with the intake officer (to let them know how bad i was and to deny me my rights) and they conveniently lost my property at release. even worse they gave me a number (inmate id?) which is used for phone calls. consequently, i was unable to make phone calls for the entire 2 weeks i was there and unable to secure an attorney for myself.

    when i get to my home which was trashed and my wife and animals traumatized they arrive again at night after my wife and i were sleeping. pounding on my front door i go out to a cop pointing a rifle at my chest along with several other “cops” to serve a GRVO. looking at the police report it’s lies about not only charges but how my wife fears for her life from the interview taken by officer rodriguez? my wife who had to find a lawyer, who bailed me out, who was sleeping with me when they show up at my door pointing a rifle at my chest!!! my wife verifies the lies in the report as well. the court won’t hear it though and i’m treated like a murderer, rapist, or child molester. my victimless crimes are that bad and all the time and taxpayer funds are worth spending on me rather then people who are seriously harmed or killed by hardened criminals.

    the lies on the police report, the civil rights violation of no phone call, loss of my property, false charges, against someone who has lived in livermore for 30+ years, who’s served on 2 juries, who has a spotless record and has worked in town for 26 years, who’s been background checked so many times he’s lost count, who is on great terms with the neighbors, who lost his job because he was unable to make phone calls. i’ve been a firearms collector for over 40 years and my collection was rare family inheritances and over $350k in rare irreplaceable items that were stolen by the “police.” these items were to eventually fund my 2 nieces college education as they were investments. now that’s gone and i can no longer help my brother who is a single dad taking care of his 2 daughters. so thanks officer david morris for ruining the future of 2 little girls.

    that thin blue line runs not only through the jails but right on up through the da and the judges who believe everything in the police report. livermore police are not supportive of firearm rights in any way and on the front door of the police department is instructions on how to surrender firearms. protecting your family with a firearm is frowned upon and for them its better if harm comes to your family as you can always call them afterwards. further my experience of over 40 years with firearms, my understanding of safety, mechanical operation and repair of multiple action types, years of safely sport shooting and target practice has opened my eyes to how poorly trained many of these “officers” are. quick to engage with a firearm even for a traffic stop. i’ve had firearms pointed at me 2 times in my life and both times it was a livermore police officer. both times it was absolutely unnecessarily as i was obviously unarmed.

    it’s also nearly impossible to easily make complaints against officers in livermore, and up until sb 1421 police misconduct as you read were destroyed effectively eliminating accountability. today when police can 5150 anyone they want, intravenously drug you, lock you up with no ability to get legal representation, and illegally search anywhere they please, freedom is lost. livermore is no longer a safe place to live if ‘police’ are the ones you need to fear. when it gets to the point of communist china, ww2 japanese internment, the former soviet union, cambodia, or ww2 germany there is a serious problem. as a long term resident of livermore i’m informing other residents and anyone else to not call the police unless it’s absolutely necessary and to do so anonymously to ensure your own safety from the cartel of “law enforcement” your life and the lives of your family could be utterly ruined if one of the 50-60% of bad cops shows up. Especially watch out if david morris or officer rodriguez shows up as they will file false reports. yelp also has reports of lies filed by the livermore police department officers. and when dealing with livermore police be aware they will lie to do and get what they want in verbal exchanges. my wife learned this and also now has a negative view of livermore “officers”

    there is no “war on cops” but the cops have been waging war on good patriots and citizens for many years. its obvious in their training and how they look down on citizens and are trained how to control the “subjects.” it’s obvious in their acquisition of military equipment as they disarm those with civilian firearms and support the politicians terms like “assault weapon”which in truth are civilian firearms not military firearms. you will not encounter any military force using what the politicians call assault weapons as they would be at an extreme disadvantage. i still believe there are good officers and i support you, but when the bad starts to outweigh the good something needs to be fixed. its a direct reflection of the protests and dissatisfaction in the nation today. it would not exist if there was not a problem.

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