American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California v. Vallejo Police Department (Police misconduct)

In November 2022, the ACLU of Northern California filed a lawsuit to compel the city of Vallejo to release public records that contain information about officers in the Vallejo Police Department who bent their badges after on-duty shootings, allegedly as a badge of honor. The ACLU's petition details Vallejo PD's long history of shooting and killing people, a disproportionate number of whom are People of Color. 

The ACLU is seeking a 150-page report produced by former Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano who was hired to conduct an independent investigation after the badge bending practice became public in 2020.

Although the report was completed in 2021, the city of Vallejo has refused to release it. City officials claim that the report is a police personnel record and therefore exempt from California public records laws. 

The ACLU lawsuit argues that the report is not a personnel record. And if it were, it would still have to be made available to the public because it relates to the investigations of use of deadly force by police officers, and is therefore public under Senate Bill 1421. 

The ACLU's original petition was filed in Solano Superior Court in November 2022. In October 2024, the Court granted in part the ACLU's petition, ordering that documents previously considered confidential -- including a partially redacted version of the report prepared by Rob Giordano -- be made public. The Court denied the ACLU's request for release of the investigation records in their entirety under S.B. 1421.

The City of Vallejo appealed the Superior Court's decision ordering public release of some records, and the ACLU cross-appealed the partial denial of release. The parties are litigating the matter in the Court of Appeal, with the lower court's order being stayed pending the appellate court's decision.  

Learn more

ACLU sues Valleo for Badge-Bending Records, Nov. 23, 2022