By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer

The inspector general of Sacramento’s Office of Public Safety Accountability resigned last month, saying the time was right to move on to new challenges.

Dwight White, who was hired in 2021 as OPSA’s first inspector general, has taken a position providing oversight for the San Jose Police Department.

The OPSA established an inspector general position in 2020 to independently review use-of-force incidents involving members of the Sacramento Police Department.

“I don’t think I ever felt like being the IG was going to be a forever role,” White told The OBSERVER. He said his goal was to build OPSA’s investigative aspect and believes he accomplished that.

White and OPSA Director LaTesha Watson released the city’s first audit of the police department in 2023. It found that police had handcuffed a 10-year-old Black girl who answered the door while officers were conducting a probation search, and it called attention to systemic Fourth Amendment violations against Black people related to traffic stops.

The Office of Public Safety Accountability was established in 1999 to monitor investigations into citizen complaints filed with Sac PD. Its scope was expanded in 2004 to include the fire department. Formerly under the supervision of the city manager, OPSA was moved under the City Council’s jurisdiction in 2017.

“I felt like with the audit, we did a lot of good work. I thought a lot of the policies, although not all of them, came to fruition. … I think they all will eventually,” White said.

White said the police department has been working to implement the audit’s recommendations regarding Fourth Amendment rights violations.

“That’s on someone’s desk, whether it be the chief’s desk or the executive team. So I would definitely be expecting it,” White said.

Watson, who hired White in 2021, said police oversight requires “thick skin and a lot of patience” and that turnover is high, so White’s departure came as no surprise. She said she is not actively looking to fill the IG role immediately because of the city’s budget crisis, but that Deputy Inspector General Lydia Devereux will take on some of White’s responsibilities in the interim.