CA changed how it investigates police shootings. Now, families wait years

From CalMatters justice reporter Nigel Duara:

Do you remember the late spring of 2020? 

It started with lockdowns, doomscrolling and Zoom birthdays. Then, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Protests erupted across the state and the country. Protesters wanted changes: To how they were policed, to disparities in enforcement and to how police officers were prosecuted when they killed someone. 

Spurred by that social momentum, a legislator whose faltering police accountability bill — offered up and failed multiple times — found new allies willing to put pressure on law enforcement. The bill would take investigations of fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians out of the hands of local prosecutors and put the California Department of Justice in charge. 

The bill passed. The program opened its first investigation in July 2021. And right away, investigators knew they were overwhelmed. 

We first reported on the police shooting program four years ago. We found that shooting investigations were dragging on for longer than a year while families waited for some kind of closure. 

We came back to take another look. Here’s what we found: 

• Police shooting investigations are taking longer, with the average case taking close to two years and five months to resolve. Some take more than three years. That’s important because a statute of limitations expires at the date, preventing officers from being decertified and barring prosecutors from bringing almost all possible criminal charges against someone.
• Through 41 completed investigations, the Justice Department has never recommended criminal charges against any officer who shot and killed an unarmed person. 

The Justice Department says they’re doing the best they can with what they have. They asked for $26 million each year for the program; they got $13 million. 

Jeanelle Couch, whose son David was killed by a California Highway Patrol officer in Redding, said the three-year investigation into her son’s death brought daily reminders of the shooting. 

“We can’t put it to rest,” she said, adding that the family still has active lawsuits against the state, county and officer involved. “But this is my life now. I don’t care how long it takes.”

Far from the hopes and tumult of that protest summer in 2020, this is the sobering reality of police accountability. It’s rarely about dramatic scenes in courtrooms or city council meetings. Instead, the most important decisions now happen behind closed doors at the Justice Department as the cases pile up and up. 

Read more.

Have a tip on police shootings in California or another justice story? Email me at nigel@calmatters.org.

Republican Steve Hilton secured his spot in the general election to face Democrat Xavier Becerra in the race to be California’s governor, reports CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang.

The British American and former Fox News host held onto his lead over Democrat Tom Steyer, garnering roughly 25% of the vote. By advancing, Hilton will offer California voters in November a traditional partisan matchup rather than the showdown among members of the Democratic Party that Steyer supporters wanted to see.

• Hilton, in a statement: “What an incredible honor to be chosen by Californians to lead the movement for change in the greatest state in the greatest nation on earth. … We will draw a powerful contrast with Xavier Becerra, who represents more of the same cost, incompetence, and corruption.”

The race for insurance commissioner is also set. Democrats Jane Kim, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, will face state Sen. Ben Allen for a role that has huge implications for the cost of living in our fire-prone state. 

On the local level, it appears to be a mixed bag for counties proposing sales tax measures to make up for federal health care cuts under the Trump administration. In Los Angeles County, voters are poised to approve Measure ER, a half-cent sales tax that would raise an estimated $1 billion annually for public health services, Planned Parenthood services and emergency preparedness. 

But voters in Contra Costa County rejected a similar measure, known as Measure B.

Votes are still being counted. Check out CalMatters’ live election results.

A facility’s leaking tank containing a toxic chemical led to a near-disaster in Garden Grove last month. But while the immediate danger has passed, the incident underscores how other facilities in the state, in the absence of stronger oversight, could face the same risk.

As CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde explains, Garden Grove’s GKN Aerospace facility stores between 100,000 and one million pounds of methyl methacrylate — a chemical that when exposed to could lead to respiratory issues, nosebleeds and nausea. The substance can also become highly flammable and explosive when exposed to heat.

A CalMatters review of federal data found 14 California facilities that also store methyl methacrylate. One facility in Torrance stores similar amounts as GKN Aerospace, but three facilities in Hayward, Commerce and Compton store far greater amounts — as much as 10 million pounds each.

Federal and state law does not require these facilities to have a response plan if methyl methacrylate is released into the environment or triggers an explosion risk. After the GKN Aerospace incident, community advocates say residents near these facilities aren’t safe until stronger regulations and public emergency plans are put in place.

• Cynthia Babich, executive director of the Del Amo Action Committee: “It just underlines all the fears that our community has — that people are not prepared and we’re not being protected, and they have really dangerous chemicals in our community.”

Read more.

General Motors last month agreed to pay $12.75 million for selling driving data of hundreds of thousands of California motorists to data brokers, allegedly without their consent. The civil penalty is the largest ever for violations of a 2018 state law requiring companies to tell consumers about how their data is shared. CalMatters’ Khari Johnson and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on the settlement as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. Fridays on PBS SoCal.