Several top Santa Clara County officials are running for reelection unchallenged this year — but two incumbents will have to fight for their county-level seats. District Attorney Jeff Rosen and District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas — whose district covers Morgan Hill, Gilroy, unincorporated San Martin and portions of South San Jose — will have to...
Out-of-state police access Silicon Valley license plate readers
The company behind a network of automated license plate reading cameras is losing its public safety contracts across Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is the most recent slate of officials to join Los Altos Hills and Mountain View in severing ties with Flock Safety over concerns the company has enabled unlawful...
Cupertino’s sheriff contract hike upends budget
Cupertino is looking at a problematic increase in its contract with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, its public safety arm. The situation could force the city to consider a tax increase or budget cuts. Rather than maintain its own police force, Cupertino has always contracted with the sheriff’s office to provide law enforcement. The...
Santa Clara County sheriff won’t release Taser body-cam footage
Santa Clara County leaders promised full transparency when they approved the deployment of Tasers in the jails. Now sheriff’s deputies are using them — and county leaders don’t want the public to see the videos. The county has repeatedly denied California Public Records Act requests by civil rights advocates seeking the body-worn camera footage of...
Silicon Valley civil rights leader sues over sexual harassment claims
Years of sexual harassment allegations have swirled around a correctional officer-turned-leader of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest civil rights groups. He’s suing the Santa Clara County officials who found them credible. A county personnel board last August unanimously found NAACP of San Jose/Silicon Valley President Sean Allen engaged in a pattern of sexually harassing, intimidating and...
Santa Clara County sheriff touts minimal Taser use but wants more
Deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office are reporting minimal Taser usage in jails — arguing they’ve helped curb violent incidents. But watchdogs aren’t convinced amid a push to arm the whole custody bureau. Deputies used Tasers just nine times out of 252 incidents where correctional officers needed to use weapons or brute force...
Santa Clara County sheriff advisor hired to oversee jail conditions
A record high in jail deaths, lagging deputy misconduct probes and in-custody violence have tested federal monitors’ patience with Santa Clara County’s slow progress improving jail conditions. This is where the work begins for police oversight specialist Alexa Daniels-Shpall. Shpall started as the Santa Clara County Sheriff Office’s first-ever policy and compliance advisor on July...
Santa Clara County sheriff’s office struggles to probe misconduct
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...