A community advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Police Department, accusing it of misclassifying nearly 80% of all complaints against officers as “miscellaneous” to evade review by the independent Commission on Police Practices. The legal action, brought by Pillars of the Community and activist Tasha Williamson, argues that this practice violates Measure B, a voter-approved initiative from 2020 that established an independent civilian oversight board.
Measure B, approved by nearly three-quarters of San Diego voters, created a commission with its own staff, attorneys, subpoena power, and the authority to investigate police misconduct and recommend disciplinary actions. However, the commission's effectiveness has been hampered since its inception.
In June 2021, board members expressed frustration over the language used by then-City Attorney Mara Elliott to implement the ordinance and the city’s refusal to allow them to appoint new members to fill 23 vacancies. Commissioner Brandon Hilpert warned the city council that the board was losing members rapidly.
“The commission expresses concern that it may soon be unable to provide the civilian oversight the community expects and demands,” Hilpert wrote to Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera.
The following year, the city attorney's office proposed new ordinance language that most commissioners found acceptable, but the city and the police union argued that the ordinance required labor negotiations, causing further delays and additional resignations. Commissioner Patrick Anderson wrote in his July 2022 resignation letter, “A commission that does not have the full confidence of the community it represents cannot achieve the meaningful transformation in public safety that we all deserve.” The commission continued to weaken and eventually stopped reviewing police misconduct reports due to a growing backlog.
In 2025, remaining commissioners conducted an audit that identified flaws in the complaint portal, which prevented mobile device users and individuals with sensory or cognitive disabilities from filing complaints. The San Diego Police Department claims these issues have been fixed.
Now, with the new lawsuit, the city and police department face a more serious allegation: that the department is deliberately classifying almost 80% of complaints as miscellaneous to avoid review.
“We filed this lawsuit because San Diego voters passed Measure B to create meaningful, independent civilian oversight of the Police Department, and that oversight cannot function if the SDPD can unilaterally decide which complaints the Commission on Police Practices reviews,” said attorney Geneviéve Jones-Wright. “This case is about more than a single complaint.
It is about preserving a system of civilian oversight that community members fought for decades to achieve.” The lawsuit includes examples of alleged misclassification, including three complaints filed by activist Tasha Williamson in January 2026, in which she claimed officers used force and falsely detained a group of minors at the Dolores M. Magdaleno Recreation Center in Logan Heights.
The department refused to forward her complaints to the commission, according to the lawsuit. Pillars of the Community said it has “multiple” similar examples.
The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the department and city to comply with Measure B and to prohibit the police from withholding further complaints from the commission. The city declined to comment on the pending litigation.