San Jose’s independent police auditor wants to review every use-of-force case — a level of oversight the county sheriff already accepts. But city officials unanimously rejected the idea at Police Chief Paul Joseph’s request. Out of 400 total incidents where San Jose police used their weapons or hands on people in 2024, 13 resulted in...
City officials are paying out more than half-a-million dollars after officers injured protesters rallying against police brutality in summer 2020. The $620,000 settlement comes in response to a civil rights lawsuit filed five years ago by the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley, San Jose Peace and Justice Center and community organizers such as Derrick Sanderlin —...
Santa Clara County’s largest water agency can’t cite or arrest homeless people creating pollution or trespassing on its property — but the police unit it contracts with can. It’s part of Valley Water’s Stream Stewardship Law Enforcement program, where San Jose Police Department officers from the street crimes unit go out to homeless encampments along...
Union leaders representing hundreds of San Jose police officers, firefighters and other workers said they shouldn’t be dealing with service and staffing cuts when the city has millions in reserve funds. Leaders with the San Jose Police Officers’ Association and San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230 are arguing the city has the necessary funding to...
San Jose police continue to issue handwritten tickets to homeless people even after the department switched to electronic citations — a practice that is raising questions. Four homeless residents encamped near Cherry Avenue along the Guadalupe River said police regularly patrol the area and give out tickets for trespassing and littering. The behavior has those...
Less than a week after Mayor Matt Mahan announced a bold push to arrest homeless people who refuse help, disturbing videos show San Jose police officers beating and verbally taunting an elderly homeless man — leading to a complaint from the local NAACP chapter. At least six police surrounded a homeless man on Fruitdale Avenue...
An appellate court last year found San Jose leaders violated a person’s First Amendment rights with a rare restraining order that hindered him from filming police officers in public. The city is fighting to keep it in place anyway. Nicholas Robinson had two convictions overturned in November for violating an unusual restraining order that barred him...
The San Jose Police Department is hoping to generate new leads in sexual assault cold cases by resubmitting hundreds of rape kits for testing. The department has approximately 900 partially-tested rape kits from victims used to obtain DNA evidence to identity suspects. These kits have been previously tested under an outdated system. To get more...
San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph stopped in South San Jose for his first 2025 community town hall, taking questions and giving updates on the uphill battle facing the city’s police department. Joseph told Almaden Valley Community Association members earlier this month the challenges facing the San Jose Police Department stem from the continued decline...
More than 1,000 officers with San Jose’s police union will no longer have limited hours of parental leave to spend with family. City officials have expanded the existing 40 hours of paid leave for workers to 320 hours, with all of San Jose’s major unions becoming eligible as of Oct. 22 — including officers with...
