A new report from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s oversight office said the county is lagging on internal affairs investigations into deputy misconduct.
Over the course of 2024, the Sheriff’s Office of deputy misconduct investigations were routinely completed just days or weeks before the one-year statute of limitations had expired, according to the June 17 annual report from the Office of Correction and Law Enforcement Monitoring. Still, the report offers hope that a recent restructuring of the Sheriff’s Internal Affairs Office — and expanded staffing — will lead to more timely inquiries. Roughly 60 internal affairs cases are pending at the sheriff’s office, according to the oversight monitors.
The oversight office – composed of the county-contracted police reform consultant OIR Group – attributed the problem to chronic understaffing that spread investigators thin with large caseloads. This caused delays in opening investigations, time lags in assigning investigators and frequent turnover in the internal affairs unit.
Such time pressures can hamstring internal affairs probes relying on the fresh memories of involved parties and timely follow-up interviews, Michael Gennaco, the head of OIR Group and the county’s oversight office, said.
“If you are still conducting active investigations and interviews in the 10th or 11th month, witnesses or subject officers may have trouble recollecting what happened. If the case is open for almost a year, it doesn’t give complaining witnesses a lot of confidence that they’re complaint is being taken seriously,” Gennaco told San José Spotlight. “And if there’s a need for discipline and the investigation lags — a deputy may end up getting into trouble repeatedly if remediation hasn’t occurred.”
Sheriff Bob Jonsen said things are turning around.
“We agree that timely Internal Affairs investigations are essential to public trust and agency accountability. In 2024, we faced challenges stemming from staffing shortages and structural issues, but we’ve taken meaningful steps to address them,” Jonsen told San José Spotlight. “We added personnel, restructured leadership under the newly formed Professional Standards and Compliance Division, and have already seen progress, with investigations being completed more efficiently than in prior years.”
The oversight report said it was not uncommon for sheriff’s office to open an internal affairs investigation but not assign it to an investigator for months, or to reassign it one or more times as investigators moved in or out of the unit. This approach significantly backlogged cases and forced investigators to focus only on those with the most pressing statute of limitations deadlines.
NAACP of San Jose/Silicon Valley President Sean Allen, a former correctional officer, said he has witnessed the problem firsthand.
“There are people who have not been disciplined because their case exceeded that one year,” Allen told San José Spotlight.
Allen, who has criticized the sheriff oversight office as being too deferential, remains doubtful of the report’s optimistic turns. He’s continuing to demand answers as to lack of deputy supervision around the widely reported February torture and murder of 22-year-old Oscar Umulxicay by three other inmates, while incarcerated at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas.
The oversight office said it became aware of Umulxicay’s death as it was finishing the annual report and will review the circumstances that led to it. Allen previously raised concerns about the lack of deputy intervention and supervision when the incident occurred.
“Welfare checks were past due,” Allen said. “If you don’t have people properly checking on people in the jails in a timely fashion, the death rate is going to go up.”
Improvements to the system
Oversight monitors praised the thoroughness of the internal affairs investigations themselves. The oversight monitors praised Sheriff Bob Jonsen’s office for continuing to probe cases even after a deputy left the agency while criminal charges were still pending.
Examples of misconduct cases that fell under internal affairs last year included inappropriate use of deputy leave, inappropriate use of internal confidential databases and failure to conduct timely or robust welfare checks in the jails. It also included showing inappropriate photos to other employees while on duty and failure to report a romantic relationship with a subordinate.
The internal affairs unit also restructured itself and added additional staff last year. The unit now falls under the command of a captain at the newly-formed Professional Standards and Compliance Division, according to Gennaco’s office. Oversight monitors said they saw “at least some progress” toward the end of 2024, with cases being concluded closer to the 10-month mark rather than right up against the one-year deadline.
Internal affairs investigations, when completed, are sent to the Internal Affairs Review Board – a panel of command staff chaired by an assistant sheriff, which reviews the facts of the case. The oversight office said there was greater willingness last year for the board to disagree with investigators’ recommended findings. This dynamic, according to Gennaco’s office, shifted investigators’ approach to cases.
For example, Gennaco’s office said this led to more regular interviews between internal affairs investigators and incarcerated people where deputies used force. It also shifted investigators’ understanding of the office’s standards for deputy strikes to people’s heads and necks.
The oversight office also explored last year’s 10 jail deaths. This news outlet first reported the 20-year high in Santa Clara County’s jails. Five of the deaths were attributed to natural causes —cancer and cardiovascular disease — three were ruled suicides and two were the result of drug overdoses, according to Gennaco’s report.
The breakdown in causes made it hard to pinpoint the uptick to a systemic issue, Gennaco said.
“Whenever there’s an uptick, it’s obviously something worthy of concern,” he told San José Spotlight. “The numbers are not as nearly high this year, so far. Knock on wood.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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