Few California Officers Fired for Biased Conduct From 2014 to 2024

CalMatters reported that only about 12 percent of 148 California law enforcement officers who engaged in explicitly biased conduct between 2014 and 2024 were fired. More than 40 percent of those officers still work in California law enforcement, excluding corrections officers.

In April 2023 the FBI discovered that Delano Police Department officer Rafael Silva had posted violent threats against transgender people on TikTok under a pseudonym.

One comment read, “You ain’t safe. We finna change your pronouns soon. ” Silva left the Delano Police Department in 2023 and later worked for departments in Avenal and Wasco. The California Newsroom and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program reviewed thousands of pages of internal affairs investigations, disciplinary records and court filings from nearly 500 agencies.

In 2022 Orange County District Attorney’s Office investigator Eric Franke called a security guard an “angry Black lady” and remarked that Mexican people drink excessively. He received a letter of reprimand and remains employed. In 2015 Los Angeles Police Officer Armando Magana ridiculed people for not speaking English and received a letter of reprimand.

In 2018 San Diego Police Officer Alan Dyemartin made similar remarks and also received a letter of reprimand. Both kept their jobs. The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training determines whether to decertify officers.

Responsibility to investigate misconduct and impose discipline generally falls to individual agencies and local oversight boards.