Commission on Human Rights Statement on Law Enforcement Oversight and Accountability

The Sonoma County Human Rights Commission (CHR) believes that trust between law enforcement and the community is foundational to a healthy, safe, and free society. Our county’s law enforcement agencies (LEA) publicly declare commitments to professionalism, fairness, compassion, integrity, and respect. These are values we strongly support. Yet the lived experiences of many residents, and the structural challenges faced by our local oversight systems, show that these commitments are not consistently upheld.

In Sonoma County, we have faced extensive law enforcement violence, from the murders of Kuanchung Kao (1997), Paul Rodrigues (1998), Andy Lopez (2013), Branch Wroth (2017), David Ward (2019) and David Peláez Chavez (2022) to life-altering violence against Jason Anglero-Wyrick (2020), Marqus 'Red Bear' Martinez (2020) and Charles Wyatt (2022). Since the year 2000, there have been at least 91 community members who have been killed in an incident involving local law enforcement, averaging almost 5 deaths per year. In 2020, the CHR reported an increase of community reports about human rights violations from local LEA. Since then, the CHR developed a Visibility Survey, which tracks human rights violations in our county. Law enforcement, patrol stops and the Adult Detention facility account for 30% of the human rights violations reported between 2019-2025. These types of instances have heightened fears for many community members and sustained a call for law enforcement accountability in our county.

Independent oversight is a central pillar of protecting human rights. The Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO), created by the County and strengthened by voters through Measure P, is designed to ensure transparency, accountability, and community trust in our Sheriff’s Office. IOLERO is also able to investigate and provide accountability in the case someone is killed by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies. Local ordinance requires that the Sheriff “cooperate fully” with IOLERO. However, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office has repeatedly limited that cooperation. The Sheriff has refused to comply with IOLERO subpoenas, restricted the office’s access to records through negotiated agreements, and challenged oversight authority in ways that diminish IOLERO’s ability to conduct impartial review.

These refusals prompted IOLERO’s Community Advisory Council in 2025 to issue a formal censure of the Sheriff for lack of cooperation. Such resistance weakens public trust and undermines the very accountability mechanisms needed to safeguard civil and human rights. In addition to a lack of law enforcement accountability and transparency, there have been increasing concerns about surveillance and rising enforcement measures in our county. In March of 2024, the Santa Rosa Police Department presented their plan to implement an “overarching city-wide surveillance policy, automated license plate reader policy, public surveillance camera policy” to develop a Real Time Crime Center. Moreover, “Flock Safety” license plate reader cameras have been implemented in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Windsor and Healdsburg. These cameras have advanced tracking systems to report vehicle movement, license plate data and unique vehicle characteristics. The use of “Flock Safety” cameras have been disputed across the nation, with growing concerns around increased LEA surveillance, privacy breaches and 4th amendment violations. Besides “Flock Safety” cameras, our county utilizes drones to surveil private properties without consent. On June 4th 2025, the ACLU sued Sonoma County over use of drone surveillance for code enforcement.

These concerns take on greater urgency in light of the April 28, 2025 Executive Order, “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens.” The Executive Order mischaracterizes diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts as criminal; portrays local leaders as hostile to law enforcement; and calls for more aggressive policing and expanded prison capacity. This politicized language risks destabilizing community relationships and raises the possibility that state power could be used to target individuals or groups based on ideology rather than law.

In a context where the Sheriff’s Office has already resisted independent oversight, such language and policy direction pose a real danger to human rights. Furthermore, the Santa Rosa-Sonoma County NAACP criminal justice committee affirmed that drone surveillance and policing methods are harmful to underrepresented groups and must be legally safeguarded, provide robust transparency, oversight and accountability. Oversight exists to prevent abuses of power, protect the most vulnerable, and ensure that law enforcement actions are grounded in fairness and legality—not ideology or political pressure.

The Sonoma County Human Rights Commission therefore:

1. Reaffirms the necessity of full cooperation with IOLERO by the Sheriff’s Office as required by local ordinance and expected by Sonoma County residents.
2. Rejects narratives that stigmatize equity work, criminalize diversity initiatives, or cast local leaders as enemies of public safety.
3. Opposes increased unwarranted surveillance, militarization, expanded prison capacity, and aggressive policing as strategies for community safety.
4. Calls for investment in community-centered, transparent, rights-respecting law enforcement practices that build reciprocal respect and genuine trust.
5. Affirms that public safety is inseparable from human rights, and that accountability systems must remain strong, independent, and fully empowered.

Sonoma County residents deserve law enforcement agencies whose practices match their stated values—and oversight systems that are respected, not resisted. We remain committed to safeguarding the rights, dignity, and safety of all who live, work, and play in Sonoma County.

In committed solidarity,

Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights

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Media contact:
Katrina Phillips
(213) 254-8870