Vallejo police vow to probe its union’s email to columnist
The Vallejo Police Department said it intends to investigate an email sent by the police officers’ union to Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr., who announced Monday that he is leaving the news organization for a job in Atlanta.
The email from the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association said: “Looks like 2021 will be a little bit better not having your biased and uniformed ( sic) articles printed in the newspaper that only inflame the public...... you have never looked for the truth in any of your writings.
“We will warn our Georgia colleagues of your impending arrival,” the email read, referring to law enforcement in Georgia, where Taylor will move to join the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s investigative team.
Chief Shawny Williams said in a statement Tuesday that he was “deeply disturbed” by the email to Taylor, and that the Police Department does not “condone any form of disrespect, discourteous behavior or act of intimidation toward our media partners.”
Taylor has extensively reported on the Vallejo Police Department in his role as a metro columnist covering the East Bay. He started reporting on Vallejo — focusing on abusive behavior by police against citizens — in 2017, a year after joining The Chronicle staff.
“It’s a thinlyveiled threat,” Taylor wrote on Twitter on Monday while sharing the VPOA email on social media. “The police in Vallejo have operated like this for decades. The police in Vallejo have an adversarial relationship with the truth.”
The union’s email arrived Monday as a reply to Taylor’s Sept. 16 request for an interview with a union official — a request that was never granted.
The Chronicle was unable to reach the VPOA on Tuesday for comment on the chief’s statement.
Taylor said the email is “indicative of the culture of the Vallejo Police Department, and that’s been a concern of mine and residents within that city for years. And the culture is that police officers can do whatever they want with little consequence.”
Williams said that if officials find that a Police Department policy has been violated, “appropriate corrective action will be taken.” Officials did not expand on what kind of action is possible.
Emilio Garcia Ruiz, The Chronicle’s editor in chief, said the email sent to Taylor “by the Vallejo POA is of deep concern to me.”
“Not only is it completely unprofessional, but the attempt to intimidate Otis is a misuse of the office of the POA and disrespects the importance of truth telling in our society,” Garcia Ruiz said. “We are heartened to hear that the chief of police is looking into the matter. Even as Otis departs for his new job, we will continue to hold the Vallejo police accountable as we would all public servants in the Bay Area.”
The police chief called journalism a “noble profession that is the cornerstone of a democracy — the only business entity given protections by the U. S. Constitution.” He went on to say, “We deeply regret Mr. Taylor’s unfortunate experience.”
“When journalists are attacked, so is our Constitution,” Williams said. “Since my arrival more than a year ago, the Vallejo Police Department has worked to strengthen our relationship with our news partners by being transparent with information, accessible, and responsive.”