California’s effort to make fatal police shooting investigations more independent has produced an unintended consequence: cases are taking so long that some accountability options may expire before the state reaches a decision.
The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd intensified national demands for police reform, shifted responsibility for certain fatal police shooting investigations away from local agencies and district attorneys. Instead, the California Department of Justice was required to investigate fatal shootings by law enforcement when the person killed was unarmed.
Supporters said the change would help avoid conflicts of interest that can arise when local prosecutors review cases involving police departments they work with regularly. They also argued the attorney general’s office would bring greater independence, credibility and resources to investigations that often draw intense public scrutiny.
But a CalMatters review found the program has fallen far behind the timeline promised by Attorney General Rob Bonta, who pledged after taking office in 2021 that investigations would be completed within 12 months. According to the review, the Department of Justice has not closed a single case within one year.
The average investigation has taken nearly two years and five months to complete. Of 41 closed cases, only eight were finished in less than two years. Thirteen use-of-force investigations have stretched beyond three years, a delay that can put some potential criminal charges out of reach because of statutes of limitations, except for the most serious allegations such as murder.
The delays also affect police certification. Once a case goes past three years, an officer generally cannot be decertified in connection with the incident, meaning the state cannot use that process to prevent the officer from working for another law enforcement agency.
So far, Bonta’s office has not prosecuted any officer under the program. It also has not referred any officer for decertification or discipline after completing a police shooting investigation.
The slow pace has frustrated families waiting for answers and officers waiting to be cleared or charged. It has also raised concerns among police leaders and former prosecutors who say a system intended to strengthen public trust may be undermining it instead.
“In my experience, three years is an awful long period of time, especially if you’re starting to come upon statutes of limitations,” said Anne Marie Schubert, the former Sacramento County district attorney who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2022.
Schubert said she was surprised that the most recent case closed by the program involved a shooting from 2023.
“Is it resources? Is it experience?” she said. “That’s a question I’d want to know.”
Bonta’s office has attributed the backlog largely to limited funding and the Legislature’s decision not to provide the full amount the Department of Justice requested when the program was created. The office also says local authorities are not barred from conducting their own parallel investigations.
In practice, however, local agencies often step back once the state takes over.
Capt. Brian Cole, who oversees the detective division at the Redding Police Department, said his agency does not conduct a separate criminal investigation when the Department of Justice accepts jurisdiction under the law.
“They have complete criminal jurisdiction of the matter,” Cole said.
One case that illustrates the delay began in Redding in February 2023, after a confrontation between California Highway Patrol Officer Ryan Cates and 31-year-old David Couch.
Couch had been jailed on Christmas Day 2022 and released on Feb. 8, 2023. His mother, Jeanelle Couch, said her son was experiencing a manic episode when he came home. In a lawsuit she later filed, she alleged he had been given the wrong medication for bipolar disorder during his jail stay and had spent much of that time in solitary confinement.
After his release, Couch returned to his mother’s home. She recalled that he seemed relieved to see family.
“He was happy to see us and he asked if we remembered him,” she said. The next morning, before she left for work, he spoke with her at length. “And then I didn’t see him again alive.”
That afternoon, Couch was sitting in his car in his mother’s driveway in a residential neighborhood. At 5:25 p.m., the California Highway Patrol received a report that a driver heading south on Interstate 5 had brandished a gun. The vehicle description and license plate matched Couch’s car.
Nine minutes later, Cates arrived at the home.
Dashboard camera footage showed Couch seated in a white Ford sedan with the driver’s door open. Cates ordered him to show his hands and put them up. Couch got out wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt, khaki pants, a gray baseball cap and a backpack. He held a cellphone with both hands.
According to the Department of Justice investigation, Couch also had knives strapped to his jacket, though he did not reach for them. The footage showed him walking toward Cates, who had his gun drawn.
Some of the exchange could not be heard clearly on the video. As the confrontation escalated, Couch told Cates to leave him alone, used profanity and said “shoot.” A struggle followed outside the camera’s view. The Department of Justice later reported that Couch gained control of Cates’ Taser.
Cates told investigators he believed Couch was trying to take his handgun. Moments later, after several audible clicks, Cates fired four shots. The encounter lasted about one minute.
Couch survived for nine days and died Feb. 17, 2023.
His sister, Lauren Metzger, wrote in an online fundraiser that the family could not understand why the shooting happened and said Couch did not have a gun on him when relatives and a friend found him in the street.
During the days Couch remained alive, a five-agency team led by the Redding Police Department began investigating the shooting. After Couch died, the Department of Justice took control of the case, and the local investigation ended.
More than three years later, the state completed its review. The Department of Justice investigation took 1,199 days and concluded there was insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution of Cates.
Cates returned to work, according to the California Highway Patrol. His attorney did not respond to messages from CalMatters.
Couch’s family has filed a federal lawsuit against the state, Shasta County and the officer. Shasta County and the state have denied responsibility. In its response, the county said Cates is entitled to qualified immunity, a legal protection that can limit civil liability for government officials, including police officers.
The statewide investigation program was born from Assembly Bill 1506, legislation pushed for years by former Assemblymember Kevin McCarty of Sacramento. The fatal shooting of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police in 2018 helped build support for outside review, especially after Schubert, then Sacramento County’s district attorney, declined to charge the officers involved.
Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 helped propel the bill through the Legislature and to Newsom’s desk. Police accountability advocates strongly supported the change, and Bonta, then an assemblymember, championed it.
But even before the law took effect, the Department of Justice warned that it did not have enough money to do the work as envisioned. The department asked for $26 million to create new investigative teams. State lawmakers approved about half that amount.
Then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra wrote to McCarty in January 2021 that the funding was “significantly lower” than the department’s estimates and not enough to create the professional teams needed for the new investigative and prosecutorial duties.
The original plan called for four regional investigative teams, based in Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles and Riverside — a structure that would have placed a dedicated team in the Inland Empire and another in Southern California’s largest metro area. Instead, the department received funding for two teams, one covering Northern California and one covering Southern California.
Within days of receiving its first case, the Department of Justice’s shooting investigation teams recognized they were short-staffed. In a 2022 budget request, the department said special agents could not complete dozens of tasks and assignments because staffing was limited.
One year into the program, investigations were already falling behind Bonta’s one-year goal. At the time, Bonta said the department would have to make do with the funding it had received.
“We got the funding that we got, and we’re going to make it work,” he said then. “We have no choice. We have to find a way.”
Since then, cases have continued to lengthen — first beyond one year, then beyond two. In 2025, one case passed the three-year mark.
The Department of Justice did not make anyone available for an interview with CalMatters about the backlog. In a written statement, a spokesperson said Bonta personally reviews every investigation and said the cases vary in complexity.
“All investigations are unique in their complexity, and some may take longer than others to investigate and reach a conclusion,” the statement said.
The office said it is working to improve speed and efficiency.
“We’re continuously identifying ways to tighten timelines and improve our processes,” the statement said. “It’s a balancing act — but it’s one we’re actively managing. Improvements are already taking hold. In the last two and a half years, we closed 9 times as many cases as were closed in the first two and a half years that the law was operational, and we remain committed to improving.”
Law enforcement leaders say the delays have become a serious problem.
Sean Thuilliez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said chiefs across the state have repeatedly pushed for faster reviews.
“When transparency is not accompanied by timeliness, the system risks falling short for everyone — eroding confidence, deepening mistrust, and prolonging uncertainty,” Thuilliez said.
Some prosecutors and advocates who support police accountability also have reservations about removing local officials entirely from the process. They argue that community pressure is often strongest at the local level, where families, activists and residents can confront elected district attorneys and law enforcement leaders directly.
Cristine Soto DeBerry, who helped create a police officer investigation unit while serving as chief of staff at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, said local prosecutors feel the weight of community concern in ways state officials may not. She now leads the Prosecutors Alliance, a progressive advocacy organization.
“Local concern, local protests, local interest is felt by local prosecutors,” DeBerry said. “The very real pain of family and community members that experience that absolutely has an impact on a prosecutor and their willingness to take this crime seriously.”
For Jeanelle Couch, the Department of Justice decision did not end her family’s search for accountability. She said she remains hopeful that the civil lawsuits will bring more answers about her son’s death.
“I want light on it,” she said. “That’s what I want. Just, justice.”
Asked what justice would look like now, she looked down.
“Now?” she said. “I don’t know.”
Original source: CalMatters
