Nearly a third of all San Jose police officers had a complaint lodged against them in 2021, according to a new report from the city’s independent police auditor.
The report shows the number of complaints against officers last year increased 24% compared to 2020. But, police say only a few of those complaints were sustained, meaning determined to be actionable and valid.
The exact number of complaints was 333, with some officers facing multiple of them, including a thousand allegations that officers violated procedure or the law -- a significant jump from the previous year.
Rosie Chavez, with community advocacy group Silicon Valley Debug, said she’s not surprised.
“I think it's been going on for a long time but before George Floyd people were not speaking out. After Floyd, the community started calling and making complaints when they needed,” she said.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, San Jose Police Chief Anthonty Mata tried to put the complaints into perspective, pointing out officers responded to nearly 310,000 calls for service in 2021.
“Less than one in a thousand calls for service resulted in a complaint,” said Mata. “Our officers, while we can improve. our officers are doing great work out there maintaining community safety.”
He also said the report found that actual use of force complaints were down last year compared to the previous year.
San Jose's independent police auditor, Shivaun Nurre, said most of the complaints against officers were not sustained but she said in some cases, her office found the police department's internal affairs complaint investigations were not thorough enough.
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“There's a case in which an officer said he thought a man was hiding a weapon on his person, but he had no clothes on so we didn't think the officer's rationale , this officer's opinion was not examined critically,” said Nurre.
Her report also reveals concerns about police retaliation.
“Yes, in fact I made a recommendation that that conduct be discouraged and there are consequences,” said Nurre.
Chavez, whose nephew was killed by a San Jose police officer, said she hopes the report and recommendations will lead to real change.
“These officers with complaints, they need to change the way they are policing our communities,” she said.
The city is also looking into the possibility of moving officer-conduct investigations out of the police department all together and give them to an independent agency instead.
