Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Oversight And Accountability topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
POST presents certification and misconduct statistics as public complaints rise; advisory committee urges deeper review
Summary
POST staff gave updated certification and professional‑conduct statistics showing a rise in public complaints, a large backlog of cases and changes in temporary suspensions and voluntary surrenders; the advisory committee urged scrutiny of reporting gaps at small agencies.
POST staff presented a certification update and the Professional Conduct Bureau statistics for 2024 and early 2025, telling commissioners that public complaints and caseloads have increased substantially and that the agency is changing intake and audit processes to triage workload.
Key figures presented by certification bureau chief Michelle Weiler and Professional Conduct bureau staff: - POST staff reported roughly 82,102 current full‑time peace officers used in their tabulations and granular year‑by‑year outputs for 2023–2024. - 2024 numbers included 67 temporary suspensions and 37 removals of temporary suspensions; voluntary surrenders increased (61 reported, with additional informal surrenders not counted in the stated total). - Through Feb. 10, 2025, staff processed 692 background or lateral requests and explained those are included in appointment tallies. - Professional Conduct reported 1,712 public complaints recorded (noted as tripled since tracking began) and approximately 21,802 open cases in the POST system after triage changes. More than 90% of open cases were “priority 3” (findings of unfounded/exonerated/not sustained) and POST has begun an abbreviated review plus targeted audits on some P3 files to accelerate closure and free investigators for priority work.
Nut graf: The figures underline a heavy investigative workload and rising public complaints; commissioners and the advisory committee discussed reporting gaps (some smaller agencies report zero complaints) and stressed the need to audit jurisdictions with low reporting rates.
Other points and commissioner questions: - Advisory committee chair Chief Jason Salazar said the committee reviewed the numbers and focused on triage of open cases, resource needs for investigations, and the growth in complaints. - Commissioners asked whether POST can break out how many officers are leaving the profession entirely (staff said they will try to deliver that figure in June) and asked for education‑level correlation data (staff said the dataset is messy and under cleanup before presentation). - Commissioners asked about agencies that report zero misconduct; staff said about 46–47 agencies have zero reporting (down about 100 from last year) and that most of those agencies are very small (under 50 officers) though some in the 50+ range exist and are being contacted.
Ending: Staff said they will return in June with requested clarifications on separations, education correlations and will continue the abbreviated review/audit approach to handle the large volume of P3 cases while preserving deeper review for priority matters.
