Tuesday was a day of mixed emotions for the ACLU of Northern California.<\/p>\n
The organization finally saw its lawsuit force Vallejo city officials to make public a third-party investigation of the city\u2019s scandal-plagued badge-bending controversy.<\/p>\n
Still, it wasn\u2019t the result the organization was looking for.<\/p>\n
The long-awaited report concluded that the act of bending badges to mark shootings \u201cwas not done to commemorate fatal officer-involved shootings,\u201d but did \u201cviolate departmental policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allegations surfaced nearly six years ago that a group of officers secretly \u201ccommemorated fatal shootings with beers, backyard barbecues, and by bending the points of their badges\u201d each time someone was killed in the line of duty. Officers reportedly called a badge modified in this way a \u201cBadge of Honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said that although reports on the findings in 202 were \u201cnot substantiated by the evidence, the evidence nonetheless supports findings of misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emil Young, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, wrote the Times-Herald on Wednesday morning, saying that \u201cby sitting on this information for years, the city missed any opportunity to hold any officer accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder California\u2019s Police Officers\u2019 Bill of Rights, agencies have one year from when they become aware of misconduct to initiate discipline,\u201d writes Young. \u201cWhether the department intended to shield the officers or merely avoid a public scandal, its dereliction of duty ensured impunity for those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Giordano\u2019s summary of the investigation, \u201cThe badge is a symbol of public trust and the authority vested in law enforcement officers. It is to be used only for official purposes. Modifying the badge to mark an officer\u2019s engagement and survival in a critical shooting incident is not an authorized use of the badge. Such an act can be misinterpreted or send the wrong message about Vallejo PD officers\u2019 approach to use of force and the sanctity of human life, as it has here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giordano said the city and its police \u201csuffered a media firestorm and damage to their collective reputation as a result of these instances of badge misuse and how they have been interpreted. The persons who intentionally bent badge tips, their own or others\u2019, have engaged in unauthorized use of the badge and conduct unbecoming of a law enforcement officer.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to Giordano\u2019s report, Young wrote that Vallejo residents have long demanded transparency and accountability, but they would not get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiordano did not conduct a serious investigation,\u201d Young writes. \u201cHe accepted most officers\u2019 self-serving accounts at face value, characterized some officers with bent badges as \u201cvictims\u201d of the practice, identified a small number of \u2018bad apples\u2019 as scapegoats, and ultimately shielded department leadership and the broader culture from accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report maintains that badge bending was intended as peer recognition for officers who \u2018survived a dangerous encounter,’\u201d Young wrote. \u201cBut the report, and the department, avert their eyes from what is plain: the Vallejo Police Department has a serious \u2018us-versus-them\u2019 problem, a mentality that has poisoned its relationship with the community for decades. And this is reinforced by a culture wherein officers from patrol through command understand their first duty is to stay quiet about the problems amongst their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young complained that officers identified in the report as chiefly responsible for badge-bending and the effort to hide it had retired before Giordano\u2019s report was completed. Meanwhile, other officers Giordano characterized as badge-benders or enablers of the cover-up remain active on the force. Some have even been promoted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe release of the Giordano Report should prompt a long overdue reckoning \u2014 for the badge-bending scandal, and the rotten culture that created it,\u201d Young wrote. \u201cVallejo residents should demand that the city and VPD officials answer to the public for this scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday was a day of mixed emotions for the ACLU of Northern California. The organization finally saw its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,181,23,100,180,993,266,143,145,144,2720,3627],"class_list":["post-373713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-solano-county","tag-vallejo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}