Posted by Mercury News Editorial
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/08/22/editorial-sjpds-independent-auditor-needs-better-access-to-provide-real-oversight-matt-mahan-sanjose/
https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12162852
The San Jose City Council needs to decide: Does it really want independent oversight of its Police Department — or just the appearance of it?
Lately, it’s looking like the latter.
In June, the council unanimously rejected two critical tools that the city’s independent police auditor requested: increased access to the sites and records of police shootings; and expanded authority to review all use-of-force incidents.
The changes auditor Eddie Aubrey sought were in keeping with the promise made to city voters in 2020 when they approved a ballot measure to beef up police oversight. In fact, watchdogs in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and Sacramento already have similar access.
The council’s denial of Aubrey’s requests was troubling, but then things got weird.
On July 13, San Jose police oversight took a dramatic step backward, when — just hours after the second fatal police shooting in a week — the chief announced that his own Internal Affairs investigators would no longer have access to sites of police shootings. Considering that the external police auditor’s investigators have relied on the department’s internal investigators for on-scene police shooting briefings, the department’s policy would reduce both internal and external oversight.
Fortunately — but also confusingly and inexplicably — the chief 10 days later reversed his decision blocking Internal Affairs investigators from police shooting scenes. But Aubrey’s independent investigators still lack that access.
Troubled past, present
San Jose police history provides plenty of reasons to warrant robust oversight.
This news organization’s 2023 investigation found that nearly three-quarters of those seriously injured by San Jose officers between 2014-21 were either mentally ill or intoxicated, as were the 80% of people killed by officers. In about a quarter of the 108 cases where individuals were seriously hurt or killed, officers initiated contact with the subjects, often over minor infractions that spiraled out of control.
The good news is that the total number of people who have suffered great bodily injury at the hands of San Jose police has decreased consistently since 2021. However, there has been an uptick in police shootings. And over the last five years, the number of community members accusing San Jose police officers of misconduct has risen by 38%.
Meanwhile, the city’s independent police oversight has evolved slowly. In 2020, 78% of city voters approved Measure G, which expanded the auditor’s powers.
Backers of the measure, including then-Mayor Sam Liccardo, touted in ballot arguments that it also enabled the City Council to expand the duties and authority of the independent police auditor “to address the changing landscape of police accountability in the future.”
The auditor’s requests
In April 2024, the council hired Aubrey, an experienced police auditor, former cop and former prosecutor, to lead the city’s independent oversight of law enforcement.
The question now is whether they’ll give him the tools to perform his job — ensuring the department’s internal investigations are unbiased, thorough and complete; and recommending new departmental policies.
In June, the council granted smaller requests from Aubrey, all of which will marginally help. But Police Chief Paul Joseph has objected to Aubrey’s two most important requests. And the council has sided with the chief.
More than any other issue, police oversight pivots on this question: Are officers justified in using force? It’s the role of Internal Affairs to answer that question. It’s the role of Aubrey’s office to ensure that question is being answered fairly. To do their jobs, both offices need access to crime scenes and complete information from internal reports.
Which is why Aubrey is, first, seeking the same access to police shooting scenes and to investigatory records as San Jose’s Internal Affairs unit.
Currently, Aubrey’s investigators are relegated to the outer perimeter of police-shooting scenes, where they can glean little understanding of the complete context in which an officer pulled the trigger. (Was the sun shining in the officer’s eyes and blocking their vision? Was the victim really a threat holding a knife from behind the kitchen counter?)
The police chief argues that the presence of non-sworn law enforcement personnel on the sites of police shootings would hurt the integrity of investigations; and that the police auditor already gets access, by law, to “relevant reports, evidence and recordings as quickly as possible.”
But the chief doesn’t explain how the integrity of investigations would be harmed, especially given that Aubrey and his assistant are both highly trained investigators with extensive police oversight experience. Indeed, comprehensive independent police auditing would help ensure, not harm, the rectitude of police investigations.
As for the chief’s claims about access to police-shooting records, the independent auditor currently receives neither post-incident briefings from the Police Department nor timely access to body-worn camera footage and officer interviews. It can take up to three months before Aubrey’s office receives useful investigatory records, which are often highly curated by the department and the district attorney’s office. For investigators, that extra time means memories fade and evidence degrades.
Second, Aubrey is seeking access to records on officer use-of-force incidents.
Today, Aubrey’s office can see only records about incidents involving death or great bodily injury, which comprise a fraction of police officers’ violent encounters. The auditors get some high-level summaries of the department’s use-of-force incidents, but they do not receive enough access to find important patterns.
For example, if one officer uses force much more often than the department average or if the narcotics unit uses force against, say, Black people twice as often as Asians, the auditor wouldn’t know about it. More-granular data gives auditors greater insight into how well officers are trained and allows them to discern biases in use of force.
The police chief argues that current city law doesn’t explicitly give the independent auditor a right to that information. But Measure G gave the council flexibility to expand the scope of its independent police auditor as circumstances warrant.
Joseph also argues that providing the independent auditor access to use-of-force records would be costly, though he provided no estimates. If the chief’s reluctance to share use-of-force records sounds familiar, that’s because this Police Department used the same cost rationale to resist complying with state law mandating public disclosure of dozens of files on officer misconduct. It took the Bay Area News Group filing suit in 2020 to compel San Jose police to follow the law.
It comes down to this: The independent auditor cannot provide recommendations to make the department better without access to fundamental information about officers’ patterns of using force.
It’s time for the council to give Aubrey the tools to effectively do his job and to help build San Jose’s trust in its police.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/08/22/editorial-sjpds-independent-auditor-needs-better-access-to-provide-real-oversight-matt-mahan-sanjose/
https://www.mercurynews.com/?p=12162852
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