According to the Professional Conduct Bureau of Statistics, as of Dec. 31, 2024, 31,723 Agency Misconduct reports received about law enforcement officers have been approved. The top three areas of concern are physical abuse (37%), demonstrating bias (27%) and abuse of power (14%).

LOS ANGELES—A new advisory board designed to review serious misconduct cases involving peace officers in California has recommended the decertification of five officers. That could mean ineligibility to become a peace officer, permanent revocation of their duties and powers, and forfeiture of all rights and privileges. 

Participants gathered January 16 in Sacramento, California, to review serious misconduct cases involving police officers. Police violence is an epidemic. Black people and civil liberties advocates say an accountability advisory board “with teeth” is needed now more than ever. 

“We’re making history as this process goes forward because it has never been done before,” stated Cephus Johnson, also known as “Uncle Bobby.” His nephew, Oscar Grant, was killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, on New Year’s Day 2009. 

Since 2023, 30,000 officers have faced decertification, with 16,000 choosing to resign rather than face the process, said Mr. Johnson, who was appointed to the board in 2023 by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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“We’ve never had so many officers that just went with the negative records, that voluntarily have to go. Before, they will fight to the end and it was nothing to really decertify them, and even if they lost at the end, they go to New York for a job,” Mr. Johnson told The Final Call.

The officers recommended for decertification in January are:

•        Tommy Thompson, a former Los Angeles Police Department detective, arrested on March 14, 2023, for driving under the influence (DUI) and Hit and Run by the California Highway Patrol. Three days later, on March 17, 2023, he was involved in a single-vehicle accident and was arrested for DUI by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

•        Gabriel Gaxiola, a former LAPD officer, was arrested off duty for a DUI on May 13, 2022, and had been previously arrested for a DUI on July 10, 2016, a case for which he received a misdemeanor conviction and three years’ informal probation.

•        Joshua Satterfield, last employed by the Torrance Police Department, was discharged after allegedly sending or replying to racist, homophobic text messages demonstrating bias on three separate occasions, between Aug. 2018 and February 2022.

•        Blake Williams, a former Torrance Police Officer, was discharged for sending or replying to bias text messages on six separate occasions, according to Division investigators.

•        Braulio Robledo, a former L.A. County Sheriff, was discharged for lying to supervisors about a traffic stop in front of the Commerce Casino on Aug. 2, 2024.

Decertification requires a unanimous board decision, which can be challenged at the commission and administrative judge levels. Next steps for these officers are a full review by the commission’s division review team, and if approved, then they go before an administrative law judge. But what about those officers who already have voluntarily accepted decertification or have been decertified?

“Once they have that (administrative law judge) hearing, that’s going to tell us a lot on what the success rate is now starting to look like through the whole process,” Mr. Johnson said.

The 9-member Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board consists of two prior leading command officers, two impacted family members, two from academia, two from nonprofit organizations, and an attorney, he said. 

A decertification recommendation could be reversed at the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) level or the administrative Judge level, except if a felony was committed, Mr. Johnson noted.

“What we say is not the final word, but it’s in the process of possibly being the final word,” he said.

Any decertified officers may bring their case before an administrative judge, but if that judge agrees, decertification is enacted. The officer is then placed on a national decertification index, accessible by law enforcement agencies nationwide. By law, they are required to check the index before hiring officers, Mr. Johnson said.

Through the Kenneth Ross, Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021 (SB 2), which became California law in 2022, and was staffed in 2023, a division of POST investigates and determines whether there are reasonable grounds for the decertification.

If yes, it sends the matter to the advisory board, which must issue a unanimous recommendation for decertification. Then it is sent back to POST for a full commission review and decision. If POST agrees, it is sent to a neutral administrative law judge for a formal hearing on whether decertification is warranted. 

“And that’s problematic, because if you are being looked up for decertification, you are a cop that has either committed murder, rape, or some sort of other violent offense against our community members, so what is with the two extra steps, other than to interrupt the will of the people? And the will of the people is that police officers become decertified,” said Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project in Oakland.

“Cops just make lateral moves,” she said, citing former Oakland police officer Miguel Masso as an example. He killed 18-year-old Alan Blueford, on May 6, 2012. 

According to The Oaklandside, a non-profit newsgroup, Mr. Masso was hired by Oakland in 2008 after he spent about one year as a police officer in the small city of Morgan Hill, South of San Jose. Before that, he was an officer in New York City, where, over a span of just two years, he faced 14 misconduct complaints and one federal civil rights lawsuit for excessive force.

“The community had no idea that this violent beast had come into our community; murders 18-year-old unarmed Alan Blueford, and then we pushed him out of here,” Ms. Brooks said. “But then, he just moved further North to the Gilroy area.”

Mr. Johnson emphasized the board’s role in holding officers accountable and the potential for rehabilitation programs, saying he is more optimistic about the State’s efforts toward police accountability because a process is in place.

“Look at the statistics,” he said, citing the more than 30,000 officers who have faced the decertification process. Out of those, approximately 16,000 chose to resign and not even go through the process, he said.

In that respect, it forces officers to look at the egregiousness of their conduct, he said. However, that doesn’t mean they escape the decertification process, he continued.

“Decertification is to seal it, because if they resign and they never go through the decertification process, then they’re not held in the national decertification index data center and thereby can get hired somewhere else without anyone knowing about the history of that officer,” Mr. Johnson said.

According to the Professional Conduct Bureau of Statistics, as of Dec. 31, 2024, 31,723 Agency Misconduct reports received have been approved. The top three areas of concern are physical abuse (37%), demonstrating bias (27%) and abuse of power (14%).

Thus far, 39 notice of intent to revoke letters have been issued. Fifteen have appealed, 22 were default revocations, one a 1029 revocation (regarding a felony conviction), and one voluntary surrender. In addition, other certification actions include 71 voluntary suspensions and 85 revocations.

“I can’t say that it doesn’t have teeth, because they just got five cops decertified and so it’s not pointless. It’s not toothless. It’s just still embroiled into the system, which, that’s the best we’re going to get for a while as we continue to march down the road to liberation,” Ms. Brooks said.