By the numbers: San Jose police auditor’s 2024 report

San Jose s independent police auditor Eddie Aubrey in recent months published his office s annual police audit account covering RELATED San Jose spurns watchdog s plea for more access to police shootings force cases The nuts and bolts of the annual IPA overview show that formal police conduct complaints were filed in San Jose a slight increase from the complaints received in which itself was a small rise from the recorded in There were complaints received in and an outlier total of complaints were tallied in largely generated by outrage over violent police tactics used against George Floyd protesters that summer In of complaint claims submitted which may include more than one allegation within a single complaint were fully vetted by year s end and deemed sustained or validated by the IPA s office Those mostly involved procedure and conduct violations and varying degrees of discrimination indicates The review located that of sustained complaints involved newer officers who had between two and four years with the police department Aubrey s document also highlighted instances where his office s oversight changed the outcome of a complaint Officers who were initially exonerated for using inappropriate language and tactics or failing to properly activate their body-worn cameras ended up with sustained statements after the IPA staff s intervention The account pointed out a complaint about officers arresting the wrong person after a domestic violence call which initially was closed with no violation detected that after an IPA challenge ended with multiple misconduct findings that included failing to interview a direct witness Another highlighted circumstance involved an officer who during a training session made a joke about a Black role participant using a knife to cut watermelon to the discomfort of other attendees A department finding that there was insufficient evidence of a guidelines violation was revisited again at the IPA s behest and changed to a supervisory referral acknowledging the need for corrective guidance the audit assessment states