Sacramento leaders push law enforcement agencies to release records following Bee report

Following a Sacramento Bee investigation, an elected official is criticizing the Sheriff’s Office for failing to release records for roughly 50 incidents in which deputies severely injured residents in the last five years.

“In order for our communities to have faith in law enforcement, agencies need to act as transparently and openly as possible,” Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy told The Bee Thursday. “At the very least, we should expect law enforcement agencies, like all government agencies, to follow the law — which should serve as a floor, not a ceiling.”

The Sacramento Police Department has also not released internal affairs records for up to 50 incidents in which residents were shot or severely injured by officers since 2019, the Bee found. Councilwoman Lisa Kaplan said she is willing to look into the issue on the city’s side.

“If there are ways to increase transparency between the police and public with appropriate release of documents, I am always willing to look at our current process and see what is or is not working to increase transparency and compliance with the law,” Kaplan, who represents North Natomas, said Thursday. “This is something the council directed when we passed the action to increase the number of personnel in the police department and hope that any changes to increase transparency will be brought forth to implement.”

In 2019, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1421, which required law enforcement agencies to release documents regarding officer-involved shootings and other uses of force that caused so-called “great bodily injury.” Since the bill’s 2019 passage, both Sacramento law enforcement agencies have routinely withheld internal affairs records for dozens of cases, leaving the public in the dark on whether the officers and deputies were ever disciplined or fired for their actions.

The law allows agencies to withhold internal affairs documents up to six months after the incident occurs. But both Sacramento agencies have withheld records for cases well past the six month mark with seemingly no consequences.

Sacramento’s City Council in September voted to add four employees to the police department, and two in the City Attorney’s Office, partly to help the city comply with the 2019 law. The scope of the law was expanded last year with the passage of SB 16, but the sections on records regarding shootings and uses of force remain the same.

“Responding to the public must be a top priority, which is why my colleagues and I on the Sacramento City Council recently approved (the positions), to address the new and more demanding requirements in state law,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. “The public needs and deserves to have this information.”

Steinberg’s spokesman Andrew Kehoe was unable to say Thursday whether the six new employees have started working yet.

The comments from the elected officials were prompted by a Bee investigation that found both Sacramento law enforcement agencies are in apparent violation of a state law by withholding internal affairs records for up to 100 incidents since 2019 in which deputies and officers shot or severely injured residents.

Kennedy said he plans to ask questions to Deputy County Executive Eric Jones, and then possibly take the issue to the Community Review Commission — the independent entity that oversees the Sheriff’s Office.

“I’ll be asking the right questions,” Kennedy said. “I want to take a look and see what our current practices are. If we are deficient in any way and we’re not following law, we need to have a serious conversation about rectifying that. Transparency should be the cornerstone of what every government agency does, particularly law enforcement. We need our community to trust and have faith in law enforcement.”

Police agencies deny California Public Records Act requests

Earlier this year when the Bee filed California Public Records Act requests with the Sheriff’s Office for all disciplinary records regarding the incidents that occurred in 2021 and 2022 that fell under SB 1421, the office denied the request. The office directed the reporter instead to a web page. On it are roughly 50 instances since 2019, all older than six months, in which deputies shot or severely injured people but have not released internal affairs records.

Sacramento Police Department has similarly withheld internal affairs records regarding police uses of force and shootings.

There have been roughly 50 instances since 2019 in which officers have shot or severely injured residents, within the last six months, in which the department has not released internal affairs records. Unlike the Sheriffs’ Office, internal affairs records do not exist for all incidents in which police officers shoot or severely injure people, however, spokesman Tim Swanson said.

Withholding internal affairs records that do exist for incidents covered by SB 1421 is a violation of state law, said David Loy, attorney with the First Amendment Coalition.

“If it relates to shooting at a person or a use of force causing great bodily injury, my view of the statute is those records have to all be disclosed whether there was any disciplinary action, or there are any appeals pending,” Loy said. “They’ve got 180 days to hold on to it but after that they’ve got to release it.”

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi said the Sheriff’s Office is complying with the law.

“The Sheriff’s Office will continue to remain compliant with the law,” Gandhi said in an email Thursday. “Should Supervisor Kennedy ever have questions, we are always open to him. These types of releases are made on a regular basis, publicly available on www.sacsheriff.com.”