California
Entries where the acting authority was California (CA), whatever state or country the events took place in.
Jurisdiction is who acted, not where it happened. Federal conduct inside California is filed under Federal, not here.
2026 Events (9)
DOJ found California's CDCR failed to protect women prisoners from staff sexual abuse at two facilities
On August 13, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division concluded a CRIPA investigation finding that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to protect female prisoners at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino from a longstanding pattern of staff sexual misconduct. DOJ cited broken confidential-reporting systems, deficient investigations, and insufficient accountability, and gave California 49 days to remedy the violations before facing possible litigation.
LA Public Press investigation revealed LA County women's jail had years of brown water, mold, and broken plumbing despite health citations
An LA Public Press investigation published August 5, 2026 reported that LA County's Sybil Brand Commission, the county's independent jail oversight body, found in a report submitted to the Board of Supervisors in June 2026 that Century Regional Detention Facility, the county's only women's jail in Lynwood, has had brown, foul-smelling drinking water, mold, broken plumbing, and recurring bug infestations documented since at least 2022, calling it "an ongoing and unresolved public health crisis." The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has cited the LA County Sheriff's Department, which operates the jail, for related environmental-health violations every year since 2022, and about half of the roughly 1,700-capacity facility's current population is pretrial and has not been convicted of a crime.
Audit found Elk Grove PD shared license-plate data with 3,600+ outside agencies in 8.3 million searches
A public-records audit released August 3, 2026 by the privacy advocacy group DeFlock Elk Grove found that between 2021 and March 2026, the Elk Grove Police Department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader network was searched roughly 8.3 million times by more than 3,600 outside organizations -- 97% of all searches on the system, versus about 3% by Elk Grove PD itself. More than 1.3 million of those searches came from over 3,200 federal and out-of-state organizations, and about 4.3 million came from 290 California agencies with no data-sharing agreement on file, both categories California law generally restricts from receiving the data.
Chico, California police department shared license-plate data with ICE and Border Patrol for two years in violation of state law
ChicoSol News reported on July 25, 2026 that the Chico, California Police Department had been sharing automated license-plate-reader data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol, and more than 80 out-of-state law enforcement agencies since February 28, 2024, in violation of California's SB 34 and SB 54 data-sharing restrictions. The department halted the sharing in early July 2026 after a public-records request exposed it and said the arrangement was an oversight.
LAPD inspector general audit found officers wrongly stopped 161 innocent people flagged by faulty license-plate-reader hot list
A Los Angeles Police Department Office of the Inspector General audit, released July 11, 2026, found that during a two-month review period officers acknowledged 161 automated license-plate-reader "hot list" alerts as accurate stolen-vehicle matches that were in fact wrong, generally because outdated data was never cleared after a vehicle was recovered. Although LAPD policy requires officers to verify an alert's accuracy before stopping a vehicle, the audit found this frequently did not happen, and the false hits routinely triggered "high-risk" stops against people who had done nothing wrong. The findings led LAPD to let its data-sharing contract with Flock Safety expire.
Shasta County voters approved Measure B, eliminating most mail voting and requiring photo ID, in conflict with state law
On June 2, 2026, a majority of Shasta County, California voters approved Measure B, a county charter amendment that eliminates most vote-by-mail, requires photo identification to vote, and replaces machine tabulation with full hand-counting of ballots. Unofficial results showed it passing with about 56%, pending the official canvass and certification — the point at which the amendment legally takes effect as county law. Civil-rights groups including the ACLU of Northern California say the measure violates state law, which reserves voter-ID rules to the state under SB 1174, and that ending most mail voting will disenfranchise county voters; litigation is expected.
Costa Mesa, Calif. officer Robert Josett pleaded guilty to misusing police databases to track mistress, wife, and rivals
On April 14, 2026, former Costa Mesa, California police officer Robert Jay Josett, 35, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unauthorized computer access and fraud, annoying and repeated phone calls, and contempt of court, after using the state CLETS database and the Costa Mesa Police Department's Flock license-plate-reader system between June 2023 and June 2024 to track his mistress, her romantic partners, and his own wife. He was sentenced to three years informal probation and a 52-week domestic-violence program, wore a court-ordered GPS monitor for nine months, and his POST certification review remains pending.
Riverside County Sheriff Bianco seized 650,000 election ballots and launched unauthorized fraud probe, defying AG's halt order
On February 26, 2026, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco—a Republican candidate for California governor—seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election and opened an unauthorized criminal investigation into alleged election fraud, relying entirely on disputed claims from a local activist group that county election officials had already publicly rejected. After California Attorney General Rob Bonta ordered him to halt the probe, Bianco defied the directive and seized an additional 426 boxes of ballots. On April 8, 2026, the California Supreme Court ordered Bianco to pause the investigation and preserve all seized materials while legal challenges to the seizure proceed.
Former San Leandro councilmember Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from the Duong family for housing-company votes
On February 11, 2026, former San Leandro City Council member Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to federal investigators, admitting he accepted a paid 2023 Vietnam trip and set up an LLC in his wife's name to receive kickbacks from David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong in exchange for advocating city contracts and purchases for their company, Evolutionary Homes. Azevedo, who resigned from the council the day before his plea, is cooperating with prosecutors in the related federal bribery case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, in which the Duongs are also charged.
2025 Events (2)
Brentwood, California police restrained 72-year-old Yolanda Ramirez during arrest; she died days later, independent autopsy ruled homicide
On September 26, 2025, Brentwood, California police officers responding to a family-dispute call handcuffed and restrained 72-year-old Yolanda Ramirez, allegedly slamming her head against a patrol vehicle and leaving her unattended in the back of the car for about ten minutes without telling arriving paramedics she had struck her head; she died October 3, 2025, of a brain bleed. The Contra Costa County Coroner attributed her death primarily to natural causes and found no significant trauma contribution, but an independent autopsy commissioned by her family found the cause of death was multiple blunt-force trauma and asphyxiation from police restraint and ruled the manner of death homicide.
Federal grand jury indicted former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao on bribery and corruption charges
On January 9, 2025, a federal grand jury indicted then-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and recycling-company executives David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong on eight counts including bribery, conspiracy, and honest-services fraud. The indictment, unsealed January 17, 2025, alleges Thao promised official mayoral actions in exchange for a $75,000 negative-mailer campaign against her opponents and $95,000 in no-show-job payments to Jones.
2024 Events (3)
San Diego County sheriff's deputies ignored Bobby Ray Patton's pleas for help during Vista jail safety checks; he died hours later
Bobby Ray Patton, 46, died December 28, 2024, at the Vista Detention Facility in Vista, California, after two San Diego County sheriff's deputies conducted routine safety checks but failed to respond as he audibly pleaded for medical help. Body-worn camera footage showed Deputy 3 turning away and switching off his camera after Patton said "I can't breathe" and "please help me"; Deputy 1 passed his cell less than an hour later while Patton was audibly moaning and also did not intervene. Patton died at 8:45 a.m. after a third deputy finally summoned medical staff around 7:51 a.m., too late to save him.
San Diego County sheriff's deputy Jeremiah Flores fractured a handcuffed detainee's spine, then falsified his report
On August 29, 2024, San Diego County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jeremiah Flores shoved a handcuffed, non-resisting pretrial detainee headfirst into the wall of a courthouse holding cell, fracturing the man's spine and causing a head injury that required surgery. Flores rendered no aid, left the injured man on the cell floor for more than two hours, and wrote in his incident report that no force had been used. He was later convicted of federal civil-rights and records-falsification charges and sentenced to 57 months in prison.
SFPD officer smashed driver's car window, pepper-sprayed him during 2024 stop based on license-plate error
On July 4, 2024, San Francisco police officers Vinesh Govindbhai and Jonathan Zepeda stopped driver Matthew Ludwig at a red light on O'Farrell Street after entering a Toyota's license plate number instead of his Honda Accord's and wrongly concluding his car was stolen; Govindbhai smashed Ludwig's window with a baton, the officers pulled him to the pavement, and pepper-sprayed him in the face at a distance violating department policy, then cited him for reckless driving and resisting arrest even after realizing their mistake. In March 2026, the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability sustained findings that the officers used unnecessary force and issued the citation without cause; the Public Defender's Office made the findings public on August 10, 2026, after Ludwig died in September 2025.