Latest news with #RighttoRemainSecret
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bill banning deals that hide police misconduct, prompted by Chronicle investigation, clears hurdle
A bill that would bar California law enforcement agencies from using secret deals to bury officer misconduct, a widespread and longtime practice exposed in an investigation published last year by the Chronicle, cleared a legislative hurdle Tuesday, passing out of the state Assembly's Public Safety Committee. 'Throughout California, dangerous and dishonest officers are skirting accountability through this practice,' the bill's author, Assembly Member Isaac Bryan, D-Culver City (Los Angeles County), told the committee. The Chronicle investigation 'Right to Remain Secret,' produced with UC Berkeley's Investigative Reporting Program, revealed that at least 163 departments had signed 'clean-record agreements' that concealed allegations of corruption and criminality against nearly 300 officers, helping at least 108 of them to land subsequent jobs in law enforcement or as security guards. The conduct hidden by these agreements included many accusations of serious misconduct, including sexual assault, falsifying police reports and excessive force. In many cases, the departments that agreed to bury the alleged misconduct in secret files did so despite an unwavering belief that the conduct had occurred. As written, the bill would prohibit California law enforcement agencies from agreeing to destroy, remove, halt, modify, or conceal findings of any misconduct and void any of these promises retroactively. Additionally, the bill would make all such agreements disclosable. Currently, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, or PORAC, the state's most powerful law enforcement lobbying organization, is the only group publicly opposing the bill. The California Police Chiefs Association and the California State Sheriffs' Association have not taken a formal position. Testifying in opposition, PORAC's legislative advocate, Randy Perry, told the committee the bill is redundant, saying police accountability bills passed in California within the past decade have addressed this issue. 'Officers that they're using as examples would never be able to be peace officers now. They couldn't go to another department and be hired by somebody else,' Perry told the committee, referencing Senate Bill 2, which permits the state to revoke the licenses of officers accused of serious misconduct. Bryan said that was a 'ridiculous argument,' saying, 'We just have not seen those numbers from the police certification board.' According to a website maintained by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training's website, the agency with the power to revoke licenses, only one officer identified in the Chronicle's investigation has lost his license. As for the provision to make clean-record agreements disclosable, Perry said that the newspaper investigation, by getting access to more than 300 agreements, proved that this part of the bill is also unnecessary. He cited Senate Bill 1421 and Senate Bill 16, laws that for the first time gave the public access to specific police misconduct records. 'This bill is trying to help the press go back and get very old cases,' Perry said. Bryan countered that 'the idea that this information is readily available is false,' noting that one-third of the agencies contacted by the Chronicle and the Investigative Reporting Program refused to disclose all or some of these secret deals, including the 10 largest agencies in the state. In fact, the passage of SB1421 and SB16 were only part of why reporters received many of these agreements. Much of the underlying conduct covered up by the agreements does not fall in the categories of records disclosable under those transparency laws. PORAC has offered an alternative to Bryan's bill — a clarification that any police separation agreements that conceal misconduct described in SB1421 and SB16 are disclosable. It does not propose a prohibition of these agreements. Bryan said the amendment was not sufficient. 'These agreements shouldn't exist. They are against the public interest. They are against public safety. They allow for the worst of the worst to cover that misconduct,' he said. PORAC has advocated for the use of clean-record agreements for years, records show. Almost every agreement obtained by reporters was executed by a small group of attorneys funded by PORAC, which is financed by police unions. Additionally, PORAC's website highlights dozens of examples of these lawyers' success in securing agreements that give officers a 'clean slate.' The bill passed through committee with bipartisan support, with both Republicans on the committee — Juan Alanis of Modesto and Tom Lackey of Palmdale (Los Angeles County) — voting yes. The sole dissenting vote was James Ramos, D-San Bernardino. A spokesperson for the Assembly member did not explain the reason for the no vote but said Ramos is 'seriously reconsidering his vote before the bill comes to the full Assembly floor.' 'These protect the self-described bad apples of the department from whom they would like to separate,' he said. 'We need to end this practice.'
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Chronicle named Pulitzer Prize finalist for a pair of investigations
The San Francisco Chronicle was named a finalist Monday for two Pulitzer Prizes for investigations it published into different aspects of law enforcement. The 160-year old publication has garnered five finalists over the past four years, the best performances by a newsroom its size in the country. Journalism's most prestigious awards honored the Chronicle in 2025 for its reporting on the deadly toll of high-speed police pursuits and for uncovering the secret deals that allow police officers with records of misconduct to be rehired in law enforcement. Reporters Jennifer Gollan and Susie Neilson were recognized in the National Reporting category for ' Fast and Fatal,' a series of stories that revealed the devastating consequences of police chases. The pursuits often begin with low-level offenses or traffic infractions and end with horrifying crashes that have killed thousands of people in recent years, many of them bystanders or passengers and a disproportionate number Black and Latino. The toll of high-speed chases has continued to rise, even as officials and agencies promise to curtail it. The Chronicle was also honored as a finalist in the Local/State Reporting category for ' Right to Remain Secret ' by reporters Katey Rusch and Casey Smith. Published in collaboration with UC Berkeley's Investigative Reporting Program, the project exposed a system of hidden legal settlements that enables police officers with documented histories of misconduct to be rehired by new law enforcement agencies that have no knowledge of their past misdeeds. Rusch and Smith found that at least 163 California police agencies had used 'clean-record agreements' over a decade to bury misconduct allegations against 297 officers and deputies, 52 of whom went on to find new jobs in law enforcement. 'Our goal is to prove our value to subscribers every day by producing journalism that covers our community better than anyone,' said Editor in Chief Emilio Garcia-Ruiz. 'These awards show that we are among the very best in achieving that goal while competing against newsrooms much bigger than us.' The Pulitzer Prize honors the best reporting, photography, commentary and criticism each year and is among the most revered awards given in journalism annually. The Chronicle was a finalist in 2023 for investigative reporting for its examination of the dire conditions and concentration of overdose deaths inside city-funded SROs and for feature photography for its coverage of the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco. The Chronicle was also a finalist in feature photography in 2022. Reporters Gollan and Neilson worked on 'Fast and Fatal' for more than a year, compiling statistics from numerous sources into a first-of-its-kind national database that revealed the vast toll of police pursuits. They discovered 3,336 deaths from chases from 2017 through 2022, including 15 police officers and at least 551 bystanders. Thousands more people were injured by the pursuits, and the officers involved rarely faced consequences. Following the report's publication, lawmakers and experts have called for better tracking of pursuit data and new national standards for chases. A large team across the newsroom helped bring the story to fruition. Gollan and Neilson worked closely with Guy Wathen, who analyzed and edited hours of disturbing police video for the project, and with editors Jesse Marx, Dan Kopf, Bulwa and Lisa Gartner. For 'Right to Remain Secret,' Rusch and Smith embarked on an immense public records effort. Under the California Public Records Act, they filed requests to 501 police agencies across the state, teasing out the existence and prevalence of the long-hidden 'clean-records agreements' over the course of five years. The deals not only often reversed an officer's firing and hid their misconduct from future employers, some officers with histories of brutality or dishonesty were also given cash payments or lifetime disability pensions. The reporters uncovered 49 officers receiving disability pensions as part of the agreements who had collectively received nearly $24 million in payments. 'Right to Remain Secret' was co-edited by IRP's David Barstow and Bulwa with data editing by Kopf. Visuals were by Chris Kaufman and Laura McDermott and visuals editing by Ramin Rahimian and Frugé. Blanchard contributed illustrations with collages by D'Amato and graphics, design and development by Jenny Kwon. Graphics, design and development editing were by Erin Caughey, Fong and Alex Tatusian. 'Fast and Fatal' was copy edited by Michael Mayer. Visuals were by Stephen Lam, Jon Cherry and Liz Sanders. Chronicle Deputy Director of Visuals Emily Jan commissioned photographers across the country, and Visual Director Nicole Frugé edited the visuals, with video production and annotations by Daymond Gascon and icons by John Blanchard. Alex K. Fong and Sophie D'Amato provided design and development, with additional development from Hearst DevHub's Danielle Rindler and Janie Haseman. Danielle Mollette-Parks, the Chronicle's former creative director who passed away in December 2023, contributed to the project's design. The San Francisco Chronicle ( is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast. Acquired by Hearst in 2000, the San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael de Young and has been awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. Follow us on Twitter at @SFChronicle.
