SAN DIEGO— The U.S. Justice Department issued a scathing review Wednesday of a small town’s police practices in a big drug and immigrant smuggling corridor on California’s border with Mexico, finding a lack of basic controls and oversight of criminal investigations, unstable leadership and other red flags.
The 133-page report was released less than a week after the ousted police chief of Calexico filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit describing missing guns, money and other evidence, and allegations that city workers engaged in drug trafficking, overtime abuse and theft.
The Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services unit limited its review to broad systemic flaws and steered clear of specific allegations of wrongdoing and misconduct, but its unusually blunt language portrays a police department that is failing on many fronts. It recommends a sweeping overhaul.
“It shows a pretty significant level of deficiencies in the core operations of a department,” Ronald Davis, director of the unit, said in an interview. “The consequences of not implementing the 169 recommendations would be that you would sustain a dysfunctional department.”
Reggie Gomez, Calexico’s interim police chief, said at a news conference that the city has already taken some measures to rebuild.
