Use of Force

A Southern California sheriff’s deputy is under criminal investigation after he was recorded on video kicking a pursuit suspect in the head while the man appeared to be surrendering.

Criminal charges have been refiled against two sheriff’s deputies over the 2015 beating of a surrendering suspect. But charges won’t be filed against police who shot a knife-wielding man in a killing that sparked public protests, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office announced Thursday.

Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, delivered damning testimony in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd, saying, “No reasonable officer would have believed that that was an appropriate, acceptable or reasonable use of force.”

Sgt. Jody Stiger of the Los Angeles Police Department, an expert witness for the prosecution in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, testified Tuesday that the use of force on George Floyd was excessive. Once Floyd was on the ground, “at that point, the officers… should have slowed down or stopped their force as well.”

Lawsuits and other public records reveal that a small group of Vallejo police officers are connected to most use of force incidents.

Lawsuits and other public records reveal that a small group of Vallejo police officers are connected to most use of force incidents. Senior investigative reporter Stephen Stock reports.

Julio Arevalo said he just wanted to get his son a donut when he left his home at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park late one night last July. He never came home with that donut. In the morning, Arevalo says he woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed with a fractured bone in his face and a brace around…

One Palo Alto officer has been named in a third civil rights lawsuit, raising questions and increasing concerns about the department’s transparency and use of force. Stephen Stock reports.