The San Jose Spotlight reportsthe number of complaints increased nearly 25 percent over 2020, when San Jose saw significant upheaval in response to the police killing of George Floyd. This included police violence against protesters and calls for an overhaul of policing in the city.
The city's annual report from the Independent Police Auditor, released last week – shows 348 officers, or about 31 percent of the force – were named in at least one complaint in 2021, either from the public or internally from another officer or employee.
The report said a thousand individual allegations were made. About 16 percent of the complaints about police officers contained allegations about use of force – down from roughly 23 percent in 2020.
Most officers were named in only one complaint, but some had more than one, including eight officers with four complaints each in 2021.
Raj Jayadev, the founder of the two decade-old community organizing group Silicon Valley De-Bug, told San Jose Spotlight the increase in complaints indicates the police department is "inherently problematic and harmful to the community" at large.
A spokesperson for the San Jose Police Officers' Association, said the number of complaints needs to be taken with a large grain of salt.
