Vallejo, CA

The Vallejo Police Department (VPD) has paid $20.85 million in documented police misconduct settlements from 2017 to 2026, making it one of the highest per-capita liability jurisdictions in California. The department has been under investigation by the California Department of Justice since 2021 for a pattern of excessive force.

The largest single settlement is the $8.5 million paid in 2026 to the family of Sean Monterrosa, a 22-year-old shot and killed by Detective Jarrett Tonn on June 2, 2020. Tonn fired through the rear windshield of an unmarked police vehicle, striking Monterrosa - who was kneeling with his hands raised - in the back of the head. Tonn was not criminally charged. The settlement, reached nearly six years after the shooting, is the largest in Vallejo history.

The second-largest settlement is the $5.7 million paid in 2020 to the family of Ronell Foster, an unarmed man shot and killed by Officer Ryan McMahon in 2018. McMahon was subsequently terminated but faced no criminal charges. A third settlement of $5 million was paid in 2024 to the family of Willie McCoy, a 20-year-old rapper shot 55 times by six officers while sleeping in his car at a Taco Bell drive-through in 2019.

The most institutionally significant case is the $900,000 whistleblower settlement paid in 2023 to former Police Captain John Whitney. Whitney reported a badge-bending ritual practiced by some VPD officers - the practice of bending badge tips to commemorate times they had fired weapons at civilians. Whitney was placed on administrative leave and fired within weeks of reporting the practice. His lawsuit alleged retaliatory termination; the city settled without admitting wrongdoing.

For insurance underwriters, the Vallejo dataset illustrates the actuarial risk of departments with entrenched cultural misconduct. The badge-bending ritual is not merely a symbolic concern - it represents an institutional normalization of use-of-force incidents that directly correlates with repeat liability exposure. The CA DOJ investigation has not yet resulted in a consent decree, meaning the department continues to operate without external oversight requirements.