Open Vallejo

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Open Vallejo is an award-winning, independent, nonpartisan newsroom serving the public interest. The only nonprofit news organization serving Vallejo, we produce nationally recognized, deeply researched investigative and explanatory reporting that drives real-world change. 

Our inaugural 2020 investigation, Vallejo police bend badges to mark fatal shootings, won the prestigious Selden Ring Special Citation for Investigative Reporting. In the 20 years prior, Vallejo police shot someone roughly every four months, often fatally. The last of those killings, that of unarmed 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa, came less than two months before that investigation was published; the department then went six years without another fatal shooting. The story also had statewide impact: when California passed a landmark 2021 law banning law enforcement gangs, analyses in both houses of the state legislature cited our badge-bending revelations.

That reporting led directly to what came next. Three days after our story, the city announced its own investigation, then fought for years to keep the findings secret. The ACLU of Northern California sued for the records, and we supported the case with two friend-of-the-court briefs. In 2025, a unanimous state appeals court ordered the records released, in a decision that expands public access to police records across California. In 2026, the city finally released the report, along with nearly 3,000 pages of investigative documents and 23 hours of audio.

We also settled our own years-long public records lawsuit against the city, putting tens of thousands of pages of previously secret documents and roughly 10 days of audio and video into the public domain for the first time in a generation. That lawsuit uncovered that the city had illegally destroyed evidence from multiple police shootings linked to badge-bending; in 2023, we revealed that a senior city attorney authorized the purge. In 2025, we reported that Vallejo police maintained a secret filing system that concealed officer misconduct records from courts, among other alleged misconduct. In January 2026, we revealed that the California State Bar had opened an inquiry into the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office.

Our other investigations have revealed a mayoral candidate's history of domestic violence; a man's death in custody that the city kept hidden for nearly a decade; and a group of bright, AI-obsessed young people with ties to Vallejo who authorities have linked to half a dozen homicides across the country. The death-in-custody investigation won the June 2025 Sidney Award, a major national journalism honor, and the 2025 Golden State Journalism Award for Social Justice and Equity Reporting. Our explanatory reporting has helped elucidate everything from how the Vallejo Police Department's staffing challenges affect response times to how people can access free groceries in times of need. We also provide other community resources, including a free obituary service for Solano County residents.

Open Vallejo is a project of the Informed California Foundation, a periodical publication, wire service and press association that produces and supports impactful, responsive, local accountability journalism in communities across the state. Open Vallejo will remain a permanent investigative and explanatory newsroom. We will soon launch a series of tools, trainings, resources, and technologies to support other communities and newsrooms nationwide. The first, which monitors police radio so reporters don’t have to, is now in testing with newsrooms nationwide.

We are proud to be based in, and to come from, Vallejo. As the city’s only nonprofit newsroom, we answer to our readers, not advertisers or political interests. Our deep, accurate, ethical reporting keeps a close eye on Vallejo’s institutions, and the results are measurable: fewer people killed by police, more public records in public hands, and officials held to account. That work takes time, legal support, and sustained capacity. Help us raise $5,000 before midnight tonight with a tax-deductible gift.