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Department of Police Accountability reports Q2 backlog, rising 'unfounded' findings as body cameras clarify incidents
Summary
The Department of Police Accountability told the Sheriff's Department Oversight Board it opened many investigations in recent years, has faced backlogs tied to internal affairs capacity and is seeing more 'unfounded' findings as surveillance and body-worn camera footage provides clarity.
Marshall Kine, chief attorney for the Department of Police Accountability (DPA), reported July 11 that DPA investigative caseloads reached high levels in recent months and that evidence availability—particularly surveillance and body-worn camera footage—is changing how some complaints are resolved.
Kine said DPA opened an elevated number of new cases in 2024 and early 2025, which strained investigative capacity and pushed some case completion times toward 270 days. The DPA has, at times, returned cases to the sheriff’s internal affairs unit to manage workloads; Kine said the internal affairs unit had recently added staff—an investigator, a sergeant and a paralegal—which improved evidence collection and supported DPA investigations.
Kine described a shift in investigative findings: while “exonerated” remains common (the act occurred but was lawful and justified), DPA has recorded a notable increase in “unfounded” determinations when video or audio evidence shows an alleged act did not occur. He said that as deputies are equipped with body-worn cameras and more surveillance video is available, investigators can often confirm or refute allegations with objective footage.
The DPA presented recent jail-population metrics drawn from the sheriff’s Power BI dashboard. As of July 10, 2025, Kine reported the jail population at 1,244; the department’s six-month range was 1,121 to 1,328. He said the average length of stay is 342 days and the median stay is 108 days. The DPA also noted the jail population’s demographics: the 26-to-45 age range is the largest cohort; the female population is small relative to males; and Black or African American residents represented roughly 40% of the jail population while Hispanic or Latino residents represented about 27%.
Kine described several DPA projects: migrating records to a cloud file system; digitizing older paper files; implementing an electronic use-of-force tracking system (BlueTeam) to replace paper logs; and a planned digital survey for incarcerated people that would run on jail tablets (vendor: Nucleos). The DPA said the digital survey will be anonymous but set up so each incarcerated person can only submit one response; the department is considering incentives such as commissary credit but noted such incentives require funding and coordination with jail staff.
Kine said DPA is prepared to launch public-facing dashboards showing investigative metrics once final data reconciliation is complete and reiterated that the DPA operates under agreements with the sheriff’s office that are more limited than the statutory authority the future Office of the Sheriff’s Inspector General will hold under the city Charter.
Board members asked about the prevalence of complaints later found to be untrue; Kine said he is seeing such outcomes more often but had not yet quantified the trend. Members also asked whether the DPA can obtain background or household information on inmates to support program design; Kine offered to explore survey options and other data sources to help the board and sheriff’s office design interventions.
Kine closed by saying the DPA had increased case closures in Q2 and is working to reduce pending cases while coordinating with the sheriff’s office on evidence production and case assignments.
