SAN DIEGO, CA – In May of 2020, 23-year-old Amaurie Johnson was grabbed by his shirt by Officer Matthew Dages after he questioned him in front of an apartment building in La Mesa just two days after George Floyd’s murder, reported KPBS.
Footage captured on the officer’s body camera revealed Johnson said, “Stop touching me, bro” as the officer proceeded to push Johnson onto a concrete bench multiple times before arresting him, added KPBS. In the aftermath, KPBS notes, protests occurred in La Mesa.
KPBS details how Dages “was fired after an administrative investigation found he made false statements in a police report.”
But, prior to 2021, Dages might’ve been able to leave La Mesa to find another job, but that scenario was prevented by a state law that was passed, causing Dages to lose his certification, states KPBS.
“In the last two years, the state has decertified nearly 300 officers for excessive use of force, dishonesty, sexual assault and other violations. That includes 20 officers in San Diego County who lost their badges,” according to KPBS.
Johnson, in an interview with KPBS, stated, “Knowing my experience with him, he was just going to go ahead and do the same thing to somebody else.”
KPBS adds the decision to revoke an officer’s badge rests with the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), which, KPBS notes, struggles to hire investigators to contend with the “thousands of officer misconduct reports since 2023.”
POST has three years to take action before the statute of limitations runs out, adds KPBS, which it states is alarming for police accountability advocates.
KPBS quoted Mitchelle Woodson, legal director for San Diego-based Pillars of the Community, who stated, “I think any step towards holding those bad actors accountable is progress and a success. But I do know that there is so much more that needs to be done.”
Earlier this decade California lawmakers vowed to strengthen police accountability in various ways, such as in 2021 when they passed Senate Bill 2, the law that revokes an officer’s certification for serious misconduct, according to KPBS. The misconduct includes dishonesty, abuse of power, sexual assault, and more.
KPBS includes insight from Steven Bradford, the former state senator who authored the legislation, who stated, “We have to accept the fact that there are bad police officers.”
Gov. Gavin Newson marked the bill as a step toward racial justice, stating, “Too many lives have been lost due to racial profiling and excessive use of force. We cannot change what is past, but we can build accountability,” writes KPBS.
KPBS adds, Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, and his group have scrutinized the legislation and Marvel stated that it needs “significantly more thought and consideration.”
Lawmakers gave POST a year to set up the state’s decertification system, playing catch-up from the start, reports KPBS.
Under SB 2, some decertification would apply retroactively, including officers who committed felonies, qualifying misdemeanors, and certain kinds of misconduct, added KPBS.
KPBS notes POST has received more than 35,000 cases for review, half involving incidents before 2023 and involving nearly 20,000 current officers.
So far, according to KPBS, POST has completed just over 13,000 investigations resulting in nearly 300 decertifications and 140 certification suspensions.
Time is running out for POST to clear its backlog and keep up with staff shortages, according to KPBS.
Annemarie Del Mugnaio, assistant executive director for POST’s Standards and Accountability Division, said the vacancies have “a tremendous impact” on the commission’s ability to review cases, writes KPBS.
KPBS added Mugnaio claims the staffing shortage didn’t impact high-priority cases, only slowing down low-priority cases.
More than 9,000 open cases have not yet been assigned to an investigator, reports KPBS, adding 3,400 cases are more than a year old, and 275 cases are more than two years old, according to POST.
