Open Vallejo is an award-winning independent newsroom serving the public interest.
Vallejo, Calfornia
Joined February 2019
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For a generation, a secretive clique within @VallejoPD has commemorated fatal shootings with beers, backyard barbecues, and by bending the points of their badges each time they kill in the line of duty, a monthslong investigation by Open Vallejo has found. openvallejo.org/2020/07/28/v…
Open Vallejo has identified the officers in Vallejo’s first fatal police shooting in more than six years as Sgt. Matthew Komoda and Officer Himanshu Saini. openvallejo.org/2026/07/30/v…
Ordered disclosed after a years-long legal fight, the report is the city’s own investigation into a tradition in which Vallejo police bent their badges to mark the civilians they killed — six years after Open Vallejo first exposed the macabre ritual.
openvallejo.org/2026/06/23/v…
Solano County prosecutors have filed dozens of charges against a former Kaiser employee accused of secretly recording more than 30 people over a period of years. openvallejo.org/2026/04/23/f…
EXCLUSIVE: After Open Vallejo revealed that Vallejo officers bent their badges to mark fatal shootings, Fairfield police pledged to investigate “immediately.” The agency failed to investigate one known participant for more than a year — then cleared him. openvallejo.org/2026/04/14/f…
Ofc. Dustin Joseph described badge-bending to investigators as recognition for something “you’re proud of, but you can’t be outwardly proud of. That you’re alive and it’s, it’s a weird, you know, part of being in chaos or you’re alive and somebody else, somebody else is not.”
ALT A page from a transcript of Dustin Joseph's internal affairs interview with Sgt. Divine. Joseph describes badge-bending as something that was not openly discussed and says Kent Tribble "decided he was ultimately in charge of badge bending." Joseph says Tribble bent his badge as a symbol of recognition.
ALT A continuation of Joseph's interview transcript in which he describes badge-bending as recognition for something "you're proud of but you can't be outwardly proud of," adding, "you're alive and somebody else is not."
The announcement comes just one day after Andrew Murray’s latest performance review in a closed session of the Vallejo City Council.
openvallejo.org/2026/04/08/v…
A UC Berkeley grad vanished for two years after leaving his life behind to join a cult-like group now allegedly linked to six deaths nationwide. His parents believed he had been brainwashed.
He posted $15,000 and left a Maryland jail on Friday.
openvallejo.org/2025/02/17/b…
EXCLUSIVE: The California State Bar has opened a confidential inquiry into the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office, adding a new front in the mounting scrutiny of the office. City Attorney Veronica Nebb says her office is unaware of any investigation.
openvallejo.org/2026/01/30/s…
When officials rush to comment on police shootings before the facts are in, they risk corrupting investigations and eroding public confidence in law enforcement, according to experts.
openvallejo.org/2025/09/29/v…
How should courts evaluate police shootings when someone tries to drive away? A unanimous Supreme Court ruled last May that courts must consider the totality of the circumstances — not just the moment before an officer pulls the trigger.
#Minneapolis
openvallejo.org/2025/05/16/u…
The policy change came days after a Vallejo officer fired into a car that struck him during an early morning burglary call. openvallejo.org/2023/06/27/v…
Officer Brad Kim had run toward the front of the vehicle as the driver, Jamazea Kittell, tried to leave. Kim landed on the hood, shot Kittell in the face, then fired more rounds as the car drove off and crashed.
Both men survived.
openvallejo.org/2023/07/13/v…
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Our small team produces sophisticated, weighty investigations that rival reporting from outlets many times our size. Here's some of what we accomplished in 2025. 🧵
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The case expands access to public records statewide. openvallejo.org/2025/07/01/a…
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