Nonprofit news organization Open Vallejo has covered police shootings in Vallejo, California, extensively, including in a joint report earlier this year with ProPublica, supported by the Fund. In a new story supported with one of the Fund’s follow-up grants for continued coverage after initial investigations are published, the team found that reforms that leaders pledged to implement in 2020 have lagged – and only two of the 45 reforms have been fully implemented. The police department has missed more than a dozen deadlines to make reforms. The reporters obtained email records showing that the firm hired by the state to help make reforms raised concerns that the top leadership in the police department was failing to engage, hampering reform efforts. Within weeks, the police chief resigned.
Follow-up reporting by grantee shows that Vallejo police have implemented just two of 45 reforms; police chief resigns
