What should police accountability in Sacramento look like? For more than a year, disputes between the Police Department and the Office of Public Safety Accountability (OPSA) over who controls department oversight have escalated.

While both sides made accusations, the city paid then-OPSA Director Dr. LaTesha Watson $270,709 to exit quietly, according to documents obtained by The OBSERVER.

Under the agreement, Watson resigned Oct. 13, and, according to the settlement terms, the city immediately ended an investigation against Watson. The settlement closed the matter without explaining the allegations under review.

The city ended the investigation while providing the six-figure settlement, which did not name the Sacramento Police Department, the chief of police or the city as parties.

Watson agreed not to divulge any “confidential information” relating to the city unless required by law. This includes OPSA or police-related personnel, medical and investigative information in Watson’s possession or any personal, confidential information regarding the city’s employees, information related to the city’s personnel, or police practices and related matters.

Watson was appointed OPSA director in 2020. In the weeks after her departure, several phone calls and text messages seeking clarification about her resignation went unanswered. City officials have declined to publicly explain the circumstances of her exit.

Watson’s resignation came as OPSA prepared for an expansive audit of Sacramento Police Department misconduct complaint cases related to traffic stops and pretextual policing, an audit Watson described as a continuation of the office’s landmark 2023 review. That audit was the first OPSA had produced in its 25 years.

The agreement was unusual in that it resolved an open investigation by terminating it rather than allowing it to reach a conclusion. City records did not describe the nature of the complaints against Watson, whether they were substantiated, or why the investigation was discontinued.

For Black Sacramento residents, disputes over police oversight are not abstract policy disagreements but matters with direct, lived consequences. Traffic stops have historically been a primary mechanism through which Black residents experience police contact, often escalating into searches, detentions, or arrests for minor infractions. When oversight of those encounters is delayed or weakened, the communities most frequently subjected to such policing bear the greatest risk of constitutional violations going unchecked.

Internal city emails obtained by The OBSERVER show Watson repeatedly asserted that SPD leadership resisted OPSA’s legal authority to independently monitor and audit police misconduct investigations, including officer-involved shootings and use-of-force cases.

In a series of emails between July and August this year, Watson wrote to Police Chief Kathy Lester, Interim City Manager Leyne Milstein, and senior city officials that SPD staff were disputing the authority of OPSA’s inspector general to participate in concurrent investigations and interviews — authority Watson said was clearly established in city code and a prior memorandum issued by the city attorney’s office.

“The issues are unresolved,” Watson wrote in one email after a July meeting between OPSA staff and SPD leadership. She requested intervention from the city attorney’s office to resolve what she characterized as an ongoing and systemic dispute over civilian oversight.

Lester, in a written response, described at least one meeting with OPSA as “productive” and offered to continue discussions. In follow-up emails, Watson told city leadership that the meeting failed to resolve core issues regarding OPSA’s authority. 

Audit Of Misconduct Cases Stalls

At the center of the conflict was OPSA’s planned audit of traffic-stop-related misconduct cases spanning January 2019 through December 2024.

OPSA personnel manually reviewed more than 2,200 completed misconduct complaint cases and identified 195 cases involving allegations connected to traffic stops, Watson said in a July 2025 email.

The audit was designed to examine allegations involving pretextual stops — traffic stops initiated for minor violations such as malfunctioning tail lights, but allegedly used to investigate unrelated criminal activity. City Council members had previously raised concerns that OPSA’s 2023 audit did not fully address these practices, prompting the expanded review.

The audit ideally would lead to changes on how the police conduct traffic enforcement.

But shortly after Watson informed the Police Department and city manager’s office of the upcoming audit, Milstein emailed Watson questioning OPSA’s independent audit process, demanding detailed methodological justifications and data explanations, effectively inserting herself between the oversight office and the police department.

Milstein’s actions appeared to be aimed at slowing or limiting the audit, shielding the police department from scrutiny that could lead to meaningful reforms.

Watson repeatedly attempted to convey that OPSA had the authority to conduct the audit, citing city code provisions that explicitly authorize the office to audit and monitor police misconduct investigations.

By mid August, just two months before her resignation, Watson expressed her frustrations in an email to Milstein. 

“The overall sentiment was that Chief Lester and [then-City Manager] Howard Chan did not want the audit [in 2023] to occur and that is a part of my job. It has been stated over and over again that SPD leadership welcomes oversight, but actions illustrate the opposite.”

Watson was hired by former Mayor Darrell Steinberg in 2020 to lead the OPSA after serving two years as Henderson, Nevada, police chief with nearly 30 years’ experience in law enforcement.

“It’s an overall cultural shift that we need,” Watson told The OBSERVER in 2023 of the way SPD had been conducting traffic stops and search and seizures, disproportionately affecting Black Sacramentans.

After Watson’s resignation in October, City Hall declined to provide details about why she left. In response to questions from The OBSERVER, the city manager’s office said OPSA reports directly to the City Council while SPD reports to the city manager.

When asked whether the city manager ever directed SPD to comply with OPSA oversight after Watson reported noncooperation, the city manager’s office said it was working with police and OPSA leadership to develop an agreement outlining standard operating procedures to ensure timely communication and responsiveness in the future.

SPD declined to comment on Watson’s resignation or the emails documenting oversight authority disputes, referring questions to the city. Mayor Kevin McCarty’s office also declined to comment.

McCarty’s silence is notable given his record as a state legislator. As an assemblymember, McCarty co-authored Assembly Bill 392, which raised the legal standard for police use of deadly force, and authored AB 1506, requiring the state attorney general to investigate police shootings of unarmed civilians. Both are considered major police accountability measures.

Prior Audit Raised Constitutional Concerns

The conflict over the pending audit followed OPSA’s first major audit, presented to the City Council in 2023 under Watson’s leadership.

That audit reviewed 109 completed SPD misconduct complaint cases between 2020 and 2022 and found that 38 involved sustained Fourth Amendment violations.

Among the evidence presented to councilmembers was video of Sacramento police officers handcuffing a crying 10-year-old girl during a probation check at a residence. OPSA included the footage to illustrate how policy failures and unconstitutional practices can manifest during routine encounters.

OPSA found that the largest proportion of sustained Fourth Amendment violations arose from improper searches and seizures involving cell phones, unlawful detention during traffic stops, illegal pat-downs, and warrantless residential searches. More than half of improper search and seizure complaints reviewed stemmed from traffic stops.

Despite those findings, OPSA reported that SPD does not have a clear department policy governing search and seizure practices.

Lester challenged the audit’s broader implications, arguing that highlighting 109 audited complaints did not support allegations of systemic misconduct when compared with the approximately 770,000 public encounters SPD officers had in a year.

Those concerns are supported by city-commissioned data. A study by the Center for Policing Equity at SPD’s request found that officers were more likely to commit acts of force against Black people than other residents. The study showed Black residents accounted for approximately 38% of police traffic stops despite constituting about 13% of the city’s population. For pedestrians, officers stopped Black residents 5.7 times more often than white residents and were 59.7% more likely to search Black people — even though searches of Black residents yielded illegal items less frequently than searches of white residents.

When oversight mechanisms are weakened or delayed, the consequences disproportionately affect communities that already experience heightened police scrutiny. Civilian oversight is intended to serve as a safeguard against constitutional violations and a tool for reform, not merely a bureaucratic process. The delays and disputes surrounding OPSA’s work raise concerns about whether those safeguards are functioning as intended for the residents most impacted by police practices.

Following Watson’s resignation, OPSA Acting Director Jody S. Johnson confirmed the audit would proceed. Johnson said OPSA is working with the city attorney’s office to provide additional clarity regarding the inspector general’s authority and that the audit timeline has been adjusted.

OPSA is now projected to complete the audit by July, subject to changes in data availability or legal guidance. Johnson confirmed that a prior memorandum from the city attorney establishing the inspector general’s authority remains in effect.