POST staff present data showing surge, backlog and new abbreviated review process for serious-misconduct reports

Staff for the Peace Officer Standards and Accountability Division (POST) presented a statistical report July 16 to the advisory board showing a large retroactive surge of serious-misconduct reports tied to Senate Bill 2, and described new intake, prioritization and abbreviated-review procedures intended to clear a backlog while protecting higher‑risk cases for fuller review.

In a roughly 90‑minute presentation, analyst Chelsea Wajaya and bureau chiefs Sarah Wallace and Rob Guyton told the board that the division had processed more than 37,000 agency misconduct reports as of June 30, 2025 and recorded about 42,000 allegations affecting roughly 21,000 unique peace officers statewide. After a peak quarter that included more than 6,800 retroactive reports before the July 1, 2023 SB 2 deadline, the division said intake has since plateaued at about 2,500 reports per quarter.

The division outlined delays between agency reporting and agency findings: staff said agency supplemental reports that carry final dispositions typically arrive an average of 241 days after an initial open report (median ~240 days). POST staff told the board this timeline reflects existing investigative timelines at agencies (including the Peace Officer Bill of Rights limit of 365 days for internal investigations), and said those delays extend the time before POST can complete its own review.

Why this matters: POST staff said the volume and age of retroactive reports created a clearance problem. To address that while focusing limited resources on…