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POST says 13,000 complaints open with agency; 9,000 flagged as closed by agencies but awaiting review
Summary
At a March 4, 2025 advisory committee meeting, POST staff described a large backlog of complaints downstream from local investigations, outlined a triage approach and abbreviated review process, and flagged staffing shortfalls that limit investigations and follow-up monitoring.
Post Executive Office and Professional Conduct bureau leaders told the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training advisory committee on March 4 that the agency is handling a large inventory of public complaints and agency reports and is shifting to a triage model to focus investigators on cases that allege serious misconduct.
The move comes after POST mapped caseloads and found that “13,312” cases were open with POST as of the agenda cutoff and that roughly “9,000” of those were finalized by local agencies with findings of not-sustained, exonerated or unfounded, Bureau Chief Robert Guyton said. Guyton told the committee those 9,000 cases had been moved out of a queue of unassigned reports and assigned to staff so they could be closed after an abbreviated review of agency findings and supporting evidence.
Why it matters: POST is the state agency charged with oversight of peace-officer certification. Its workload and how it prioritizes cases affect how quickly allegations of serious misconduct are examined and whether officers face immediate certification actions.
What POST reported - POST has received a rapid increase in complaints since it opened public complaint intake; Guyton said public complaints are “up about 3 times” since intake began and that some complainants submit cases to POST after they are unhappy with agency outcomes. - Of cases open with POST, a large share are agency-completed internal affairs investigations that local agencies found not sustained, exonerated or unfounded. POST estimates roughly 9,000 such finalized reports are currently in its system and are being handled through a shortened review rather than full POST investigations. - POST said it will do an “abbreviated review” of agency findings for those closed cases: staff examine the agency’s investigation and the evidence the agency used (for example, body-worn camera) and then close the POST file if the agency’s process appears sufficient. The goal is to free resources for sustained, high-priority investigations.
Immediate temporary suspensions and priority cases - POST reported issuing 67 immediate temporary suspensions (ITS) in 2024 and removing 37 of them for reasons such as prosecutorial declination or documentary withdrawals. Through Feb. 10, 2025, POST had issued 12 ITS and removed five. - POST said there are roughly 1,000–1,200 “priority 1” cases—allegations with sustained agency findings or other indicators of serious misconduct—that are assigned for full POST investigation. Those take substantially longer (POST estimated a typical range of 120–160 days for a complete POST investigation of a sustained matter).
Staffing and resource limits - POST reported it is operating with vacancies in its investigative corps. The agency said law enforcement consultants (LECs) often carry caseloads of 30–100 cases and that permanent LEC staffing is well below authorized levels; staff are using retired annuitants to fill gaps but those hires come with hour limits. - Committee members and POST staff acknowledged the trade-off: closing the 9,000 agency-finalized files by abbreviated review creates workload but allows investigators to focus on cases where allegations were sustained and where POST sees a higher risk of serious misconduct.
Public complaints and anonymity - Committee members pressed POST on anonymous public complaints and the quality of information received. POST staff said intake attempts to contact complainants and explain that anonymity can limit POST’s ability to investigate; if POST cannot contact a complainant it may close the intake.
Oversight, audits and safeguards - POST said it will audit a sample of agency findings classified as not sustained, exonerated or unfounded and that LECs have discretion to pull cases for full investigation if staff see evidence that an agency’s findings do not align with the evidence. Guyton said in the preceding two years POST has not found a finalized agency case where a full POST investigation produced a substantially different finding, but he and others described safeguards for outlier cases.
Discussion and direction - Committee members pressed for clearer metrics and asked how many of the 13,000 cases were “inactive” or not being actively investigated; staff answered that the majority of the 9,000 were closed by the agency and are now in POST’s abbreviated-review queue. - POST said it will continue to refine triage, increase audits of agency Closed IA files where the allegation involves use of force, and prioritize assignments for sustained-allegation cases.
Sources and direct attributions: many of the comments above were made by Robert Guyton, Bureau Chief, Professional Conduct Division, and by other POST staff during the March 4, 2025 advisory committee meeting. Representative excerpts from the transcript are included in provenance.
