Torrance Police Department agrees to reforms with the California Department of Justice

The Torrance Police Department has entered a five-year agreement with the California Department of Justice to implement reforms, following a 2021 scandal that found more than a dozen police officers had been exchanging racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic text messages.

The reforms include:

• Revising the agency’s use-of-force training. 
• Creating an independent oversight body, like a civilian review board.
• Expanding data collection to help identify trends of racial bias.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the agreement aims to address systemic issues.

“ There are specific incidents that of course, were unacceptable and disgusting … but those were symptoms of a broader challenge and problem of culture,” Bonta said Thursday.

The discovery of racist text messages involving a group of officers was made during a criminal investigation against two officers who spray-painted a swastika inside a car they impounded. The messages, which went on for years, included jokes about using violence against suspects, variations of the “N-word,” and instructions about how to tie a noose, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The Torrance police chief at the time, Jay Hart, requested the Justice Department review his agency.

In a report released Thursday, the DOJ found Black residents were eight times more likely to be stopped by Torrance police than white residents, and Latino residents were four times as likely. Statewide, Black residents are stopped at more than twice the rate of white residents, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis.

The report also found the agency had no independent external oversight, like an auditor or civilian review board, like many other jurisdictions have.

Bonta lauded the Torrance Police Department on Thursday for working with his staff during the investigation.

“ It's rare for a police department to proactively seek out, review, and willingly work with us as partners to identify systemic issues and find solutions,” Bonta said.

He said the reform agreement is enforceable in court.

“ Today marks the culmination of the first phase of our efforts to bring in more accountability and transparency to the Torrance Police Department,” said Torrance interim Police Chief Robert Dunn.