Santa Cruz County law enforcement officers have been involved in at least 21 shootings, instances of excessive use of force and cases of misconduct since 2013, according to a new database of police misconduct cases across California released Monday.
The database created by UC Berkeley and Stanford University — published by the Los Angeles Times, KQED, CalMatters and the San Francisco Chronicle — has collected nearly 1.5 million pages of investigation reports into use of force and misconduct from about 700 law enforcement agencies across California. Records found in the database also show how each department disciplines officers if they were found liable for misconduct.
The 21 cases found in the database involve four Santa Cruz County law enforcement agencies — the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and the police departments of the cities of Santa Cruz, Capitola and Watsonville. The earliest dates back to 2013, and the most recent occurred in 2023…