ACLU demands California strip badges from nine Vallejo officers

Community advocates and family members impacted by Vallejo police violence will gather in West Sacramento Thursday to call on the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to decertify nine current and former Vallejo officers with histories of lethal violence.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a complaint Friday based on the Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021 — also known as Senate Bill 2 — which requires POST to investigate allegations of serious misconduct and begin decertifying officers who abuse their authority.

Individuals must be certified by POST to work at a state or local California law enforcement agency.

The ACLU and people impacted by police violence in Vallejo are expected to speak during public comment Thursday morning at a meeting of POST’s Accountability Advisory Board.

According to the complaint, years of alleged misconduct by Vallejo police warrant “an urgent and mandatory decertification investigation” into nine current and former Vallejo officers.

Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis declined to comment for this article.

The ACLU seeks the decertification of five officers who are currently employed by the Vallejo Police Department: Colin Eaton, Jordon Patzer, Bryan Glick, and Mark Thompson, all of whom participated in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Willie McCoy in 2019; and Det. Jarrett Tonn, who fatally shot 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa in 2020.

The complaint also requests investigations into former Vallejo officers Anthony Romero-Cano and Ryan McMahon, both of whom participated in the McCoy shooting. McMahon, who also shot 33-year-old Ronell Foster in 2018, was fired in 2020 for endangering Glick during the McCoy shooting. Romero-Cano retired from the Vallejo Police Department in May.

Also listed in the complaint are former officers Sean Kenney and Dustin Joseph, who shot and killed Mario Romero in 2012. That same year, Kenney shot and killed Anton Barrett Sr. and Jeremiah Moore. In 2013, Joseph participated in the fatal killing of William Heinze; he retired from the Fairfield Police Department in 2021.

Subscribe to our free newsletterGet our award-winning journalism delivered straight to your inbox.

“If POST does not use its authority to review and investigate these allegations, the Vallejo community will continue to suffer brutality at the hands of a police department that lacks accountability,” Marshal Arnwine, Jr., a legal policy advocate at the ACLU of Northern California, said in a statement Wednesday.

According to the ACLU complaint, most instances of serious misconduct by Vallejo police occurred before SB 2 became law on Jan. 1, 2022. The legislation requires law enforcement agencies to report allegations of serious misconduct relating to incidents that occurred Jan. 1, 2020 or later; POST also has discretion to review older incidents. The ACLU is asking POST to review incidents involving the nine officers, regardless of the date they occurred, so that “family members and community members who have been harmed by alleged serious misconduct before SB 2 took effect can receive justice.”

In 2023, Vallejo submitted 83 reports to POST under Senate Bill 2, 65 of which the state agency closed without taking action, according to a 2023 audit of the Vallejo Police Department’s Professional Standards Division. Eighteen reports remained open as of the publication of that report.

The ACLU requested in its complaint that POST make any findings from previous investigations into the nine officers public.

The Northern California chapter of the ACLU has recently focused resources on Vallejo to monitor the implementation of law enforcement accountability measures and advocate for alternative emergency response programs, according to a fact sheet compiled by the organization.

Vallejo police killed at least 20 people between 2010 and 2022, making the department one of the deadliest law enforcement agencies per capita in the country, Open Vallejo research shows.

The city has paid out millions to settle civil rights lawsuits in recent years, including more than $13 million in settlements relating to officers named by the ACLU in its complaint.In 2022, the ACLU also sued Vallejo police to obtain an unreleased investigative report regarding the department’s alleged practice of bending badges to commemorate shootings, a ritual first reported by Open Vallejo in 2020.

Earlier this month, Solano County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gizzi blocked the report’s full release, but allowed the disclosure of some documents related to the investigation over the city’s objections. A state appeals court temporarily blocked the limited release of records on Oct. 9.

We depend on your support. A generous gift in any amount helps us continue to bring you this service.

Vanessa Arredondo is an investigative reporter at Open Vallejo.