This story was updated Thursday afternoon to include additional comments.
Contra Costa County’s Civil Grand Jury released a report last month finding that the Richmond Police Department has been understaffed since the city in 2021 reallocated $3 million from the department to fund policing alternatives.
The independent oversight body of citizens typically investigates and reports on local government operations within Contra Costa County and has the authority to probe county agencies, city governments, and special and school districts. While it doesn’t have enforcement powers, its findings can push such entities to make changes.
The report, which was released April 26, stated that violent crime in Richmond has increased 22.6% since 2021, which is when the Richmond City Council, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, established the 21-member Reimagining Public Safety Task force.
The task force recommended a Reimagining Public Safety plan with the goal of moving away from traditional policing to more community-based solutions. The four programs founded to do this were YouthWORKS, the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), Community Crisis Response Program (CCRP), now named Reach Out with Compassion and Kindness (ROCK) and Safe Organized Spaces (SOS) Richmond.
YouthWORKS helps teens and young adults connect with employment opportunities and training; ONS focuses on gun violence prevention using street-level outreach and intervention with high-risk community members; SOS helps unhoused residents access housing and harm-reduction services; and ROCK is to provide a non-police alternative to mental health crises and non-violent emergencies.
Since then, staffing at the Richmond Police Department has fallen from 200 to 113 officers, leaving 23 vacancies out of the current 146 approved positions, the report found.
City criticized for not responding to two studies recommending that officers be hired
Additionally, the report criticized the council for not publicly hearing recommendations from two expert studies that called for increasing the number of police officers.
The 2023 Matrix report, which was commissioned by the city council, addresses police staffing while the 2024 Raftelis report looked at all city staffing. The Raftelis report was mandated by the state following a report from the California State Auditor in 2022.
Both studies recommended increasing the number of sworn Richmond officers, with the Raftelis report recommending hiring 27 additional officers and the Matrix report recommending 30 additional patrol officers.
Even if all positions were filled, the grand jury said, the police department would still be short staffed, adding that per “national benchmarks” Richmond should have 1.6 police officers for every 1,000 residents, which would be about 179.
Police Chief Bisa French told a city council member in December that despite hiring 42 officers in the past two years, the department can’t reach full staffing levels because it can’t keep pace with the high number of burned-out officers leaving. She criticized the 2021 “defunding” and proposed that the city adopt an officer recruitment incentive program, but the council postponed discussing it and it hasn’t since been revisited.
Instead, at the next council meeting, Mayor Eduardo Martinez gave a state of the city address during which he commended the city’s approach to public safety, saying the city is dedicated to reducing crime and violence through “various public safety initiatives.”
“We focus not just on holding people accountable but also on addressing root causes of crime,” Martinez said. “Our goal is to prevent violence through community-centered programs to create a greater community for everyone.”
According to the Raftelis report, the department averaged 50 vacancies at any given time from 2022 to 2023 — nearly 25% of authorized positions, a situation that has led to increasing overtime.
“Patrol officers worked an average of 300 overtime hours in 2021. In 2022, the average rose to 358 hours. At the time of the (Raftelis) report, the overtime hours in 2023 were projected to be 420 hours,” the grand jury wrote, citing Raftelis data.
This overtime equates to officers working an additional eight hours per week, or roughly a six-day work week, the report added, noting that levels of fatigue can impact decision-making, reaction time, and overall effectiveness of officers.
The grand jury also documented increases since 2021 in sexual assault (20.9%), robbery (37.4%) and aggravated assault (19.8%) since 2021, despite a 38.8% decrease in homicides. Specialized investigative units that focus on various categories of violent crimes in the department have been downsized or eliminated to maintain minimum patrol staffing.
Grand jury addresses delays in launching crisis intervention program
The report also touched on delays in launching the ROCK crisis intervention program.
Due to a dispute between the Richmond Police Officers Association (RPOA) and the city over which labor union would represent the not-yet-hired ROCK intervention specialists, the city hasn’t deployed the program. With this now resolved, the positions can now be filled, though RPOA President and police Sgt. Ben Therriault told Richmondside then that the union plans to file an unfair labor practice complaint against the city with the California Public Employees Relations Board (PERB).
The report described the relationship between ROCK and the police department as “evolving.”
“Originally, the City Council directed the CCRP (now ROCK) to work independently of the RPD. However, the RPD has expressed concern that independent operation could result in CCRP being dispatched to a mental health call that results in an encounter with an armed and dangerous individual,” the report said. “Therefore, there have been discussions between the CCRP and the RPD to be more collaborative to determine how to respond to calls.”
Ultimately, the grand jury recommended the council address seven recommendations by Jan. 1, 2026: Review the expert staffing reports by Matrix and Raftelis and consider following their recommendation to hire officers; establish a timeline for implementing ROCK; improve dispatcher training; develop a plan to add field training officers; reduce mandatory overtime; and consider allocating some of the $550 million Chevron settlement to hire and retain more police officers.
In an emailed statement to Richmondside on Thursday, Reimagine Richmond, a public safety reform group that was formed in the aftermath of Floyd’s murder, said it opposes the civil grand jury’s recommendations to hire police officers as outlined in the Matrix and Raftelis reports.
“These reports do not fully reflect the nuanced realities of our community’s needs, budget constraints, or broader goals for public safety reform,” the statement reads. “Simply increasing the number of officers or field training personnel without a comprehensive analysis of current operational efficiencies, community priorities, and evolving models of public safety could lead to resource misallocation and missed opportunities for community-based solutions, such as the investment in the Community Crisis Response Program (ROCK),” the statement says.
The group also wrote that it believes reducing mandatory overtime and expanding field training are complex goals that require collaborative labor negotiations, long-term budget planning, and community input, and that rushing implementation under rigid deadlines risks “undermining these important processes.”
“We urge the City Council to pursue a more balanced, inclusive, and locally driven approach to public safety that reflects our unique context, community, and care model rather than relying solely on recommendations from outside consultants,” the statement concluded.
Richmond Police Officers Association president and police Sgt. Ben Therriault on Thursday told Richmondside the grand jury’s findings are an “I told you so” moment that confirms what the union has been saying since 2021.
“The civil grand jury report really just highlights what we have been saying for a long time,” Therriault said. “It highlights there are other issues that are concerning and probably underreported because of our inability to provide the top level of services that we should be providing to the residents of Richmond.”
Citing a lack of council support, Therriault said that today’s police department is a far cry from the nationally-lauded department of the 2010s.
“My hope is that they finally start paying attention to what people who are outside of the city infrastructure say,” he said. “Also, quite frankly, I hope the residents, you know, pay attention and hold elected officials accountable to what has clearly been highlighted by taxpayer-paid studies, but also resident-created citizen bodies that are saying there’s a problem and you should address it.”
The report also encouraged the city to continue to invest in alternative policing methods such as ROCK and ONS.
“These groups, working together with the RPD, will help the community at large feel more supported, safer, and benefit from a better overall quality of life in the City,” the report reads.
The Richmond City Council must formally respond to the report, according to the Contra Costa County Civil Grand Jury, though it is unclear by when.
Richmondside reached out to Richmond City Attorney Dave Aleshire and other city officials for comment, including District 6 council member Claudia Jimenez, who has championed Richmond’s reimagining public safety efforts, but they did not respond as of publication time.
Since the grand jury faults the council for its unwillingness to support the police department. Let’s point out conflict of interest, government corruption (undisclosed financial ties) and intentional collusion with city attorney to minimize public knowledge or stifle public speaking. “ In 2024, both CPRC Chair Carmen Martinez and Commissioner Marisol Cantu were paid between $10K to $100K (exact amount currently unknown) by Reimagine Richmond as consultants via their fiscal sponsor, the Richmond Community Foundation (RCF).
They have not filed their Form 700’s correctly as they have led the public to believe RCF is the source of their income when they are not; RCF is merely the fiscal sponsor while Reimagine Richmond is the true source of their income.
This is unethical and a violation of the legal and transparent intent of Form 700 filings.
Carmen was also paid $13,118 in 2024 by the RPA to manage Claudia Jimenez’s ($4,451.33), Melvin Willis’ ($4,333.34) and Sue Wilson’s ($4,333.33) election campaigns.
Per the City’s iMS database, neither Carmen nor Marisol appear to have a business license in the City of Richmond in 2024 and 2025.
Sue Wilson and her husband, Dan Lawson – also a CPRC Commissioner, paid Claudia Jimenez’s campaign $2,500 in 2024.
While these folks were paying each other significant money, they allegedly committed serious ethical violations in closed session on September 4, 2024 – prompting former Investigator Jerry Threet to resign – and very likely again on November 3, 2024.
Not surprisingly, Carmen, Marisol and Dan sponsored at least 11 of the 13 amendments to the CPRC ordinance that were submitted to the City Council for review, while Claudia simultaneously served as City Council liaison to the CPRC. You should all be aware of this and everything else unethical that is happening on the now delegitimized CPRC.
I wonder if the Grand Jury report discusses how the lack of sufficient police staffing impacts the ability to respond to disaster? In these discussions RPA seems to ignore that the police, by state mandate, are responsible for evacuations. Richmond has very high risk for catastrophic disasters—earthquake, industrial accident, wildfire/urban conflagration, or potentially all at one time (a major quake is likely to cause industrial spills AND fires, while bursting gas mains and breaking up water infrastructure and roads). How can the police help evacuate and save lives with such a reduced force?
I imagine a special tax could be put on the ballot to increase the number of police on the beat. We will probably see savings by having some of the work load not requiring uniformed police placed on ROCK. That money could be allocated for more public safety. In addition, I suppose that ROCK could be used in a catastrophe.
Well it looks like I’m going to be busy. The invective against our council members to persuade our gullible neighbors is here in plain view. In one of the comments some very serious allegations of criminality were made. Absolutely no proof of any kind was proffered. Innuendo, highly dubious “facts” of the sort of our present national administration uses , but proof ? None. All was unadulterated calumny. However professionally presented, it was not shown that anything untoward occurred. Conflicts of interests? It is not against the law to work on one’s spouses campaign or donate to other candidates campaigns. Claudia J. is probably the most qualified to educate the other members on the council and was probably therefore selected for that reason. Any of the members could submit amendments. So what? We just don’t know why Jerry Threet resigned. The CPRC is not “deligitimized”. They are trying to do a difficult job to hold rogue cops accountable. The cops want self oversight. The assertion that there has been a conspiracy to “stifle public speaking “is obviously false, as anyone who has attended meetings knows. If anything, the council should tighten up what is allowed during public comment. One card carrying crank and mayoral candidate has been allowed to repeatedly attack members of the city council (engaging in personalities per Robert’s rules of Order). If something illegal has happened, have the authorities investigate and bring charges. To do otherwise is just unseemly.