The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California is seeking records on police misconduct from law enforcement agencies all over the Bay Area whose officers have been involved in eight fatal shootings throughout the Bay Area under the state's new Right to Know Act.
California state law has traditionally barred access to internal police records, but since Senate Bill 1421 went into effect Jan. 1, media outlets and other organizations have been working to obtain documents related to "serious uses of force, sexual assault, and dishonesty related to investigations."
Ongoing investigations and records pertaining to other forms of misconduct may still be kept secret, however, according to the ACLU.
They've filed public record requests on behalf of the friends and families of men who were fatally shot by police over the last decade: Oscar Grant in 2009; Derrick Gaines in 2012; Richard Pedro "Pedie" Perez in 2014; Richard Hester Perkins in 2015; and Terry Amons and Augustin Gonsalez, who both died in 2018.
The Bay Area police departments named in a statement released Wednesday by the ACLU include San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, Pittsburg and Hayward as well as the BART Police Department. Similar requests have also been filed with law enforcement agencies in Sacramento and Stockton.
The ACLU says other members of the public can make similar requests, and they've published a tutorial as well as templates for sample letters on their website.
