Final Report: Use of Force Assessment of the San José Police Department

By Daniel S. Lawrence, Tom Christoff, Zoë Thorkildsen

Recognizing the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and legitimacy, the Mayor and City Council of San José, California directed staff to obtain an assessment of the San José Police Department’s (SJPD) use of force. CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation was chosen through a competitive bid process coordinated by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA). This work coincided with an assessment of the SJPD’s efforts to bring the department in line with the recommended best practices promoted in the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing report and was completed by members of the same team. The use of force assessment focused on four key areas:

• A review of the SJPD’s use of force policies, procedures, training, and events.

• An examination into the characteristics of use of force events, including disparity across racial and ethnic groupings.

• The impact COVID-19 and social justice movements for policing reform had on calls for service and use of force.

• Disparity in use of force behaviors and sustained injuries across racial and ethnic groupings.

In this executive summary, we present a summary of the findings of our assessment and a summary of the key recommendations offered to SJPD and the city. We encourage interested individuals to read the details in the body of this report, where they will find detailed the supporting evidence associated with our 39 findings and 51 recommendations. See Appendix B for the full list of findings and recommendations.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2022. 110p.