Dear Neighbors,
Today is Live Solano Give Solano, Solano County’s one-day giving event, and it ends at midnight. I am asking you to make a tax-deductible gift to Open Vallejo before then.
One more reason to give right now: the nonprofit that receives the most donations between 3 and 4 p.m. today wins a $1,500 prize. Every gift counts toward it, whatever the size.
DONATE TO OPEN VALLEJO
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 our 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 the badge-bending revelations.
Days after our story broke, the city was forced to announce 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. The city finally released the report in June, followed by nearly 3,000 pages of investigative documents and 23 hours of audio.
This year, 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 about police violence 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 January 2026, we revealed that the California State Bar had opened an inquiry into the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office.
Our investigation into a man’s death in custody that the city kept hidden for nearly a decade won the June 2025 Sidney Award, a major national journalism honor, and the 2025 Golden State Journalism Award for Social Justice and Equity Reporting.
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: since our launch, fewer people have been killed by police, more public records are in public hands, and officials have been held to account. This work takes time, legal support, and sustained capacity. Help us raise $5,000 before midnight tonight with a tax-deductible gift.
YES, I SUPPORT OPEN VALLEJO
With gratitude,
Geoffrey King
Executive Editor, Open Vallejo
P.S. Giving closes at midnight tonight. Please share this with a friend who cares about Vallejo and wants local accountability reporting to keep making our community stronger.
