ACLU Calls on Vallejo City Council to Authorize Independent Investigation of City Attorney’s Office in Wake of Serious Misconduct Allegations

VALLEJO — The ACLU Foundation of Northern California today sent a letter to the Vallejo City Council calling for an independent investigation into the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office over credible allegations of serious, sustained misconduct.

The letter argues that leaving these grave allegations unaddressed would undermine confidence in city government and worsen an existing public safety crisis in Vallejo. The letter notes that the city attorney’s office has a conflict of interest in investigating these allegations, and that the city council is empowered to act directly and must do so immediately. The council is scheduled to meet on July 29.

Residents, advocacy groups, and city employees allege that Vallejo City Attorney Veronica Nebb and her staff have engaged in a disturbing pattern of misconduct including:

• Destroying records from multiple police shootings, encompassing hundreds of pieces of evidence.

• Supporting the Vallejo Police Department’s suppression of extensive records of misconduct from public disclosure.

• Failing to investigate allegations of misconduct within the police department in the face of complaints from current and former officers and retaliating against officers who speak up.

• Assisting in cover-ups for the police department’s hiring of officers with disqualifying histories.

• Obstructing the Civilian Police Oversight and Accountability Commission, a body created through a city ordinance in 2022 to enable community oversight of the police department, and delaying the hiring of an Independent Police Auditor.

From April 2001 to June 2020, Vallejo police officers shot 56 civilians, killing 30, and a study by Campaign Zero determined that the department’s officers used more force per individual arrest than any other law enforcement agency in California.

The Vallejo community has suffered through a long history of police violence with neither accountability nor transparency,” said Allyssa Victory, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.

“Reports that the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office has conspired to conceal, allow, and enable such police misconduct have undermined public trust. To preserve the integrity of the city government and its ongoing attempts to reform the Vallejo Police Department, city leaders must immediately authorize an independent investigation of these grave allegations.”

The letter is available here.