Thanks to a $1.6 million state law enforcement grant, the San Jose Police Department will be able to upgrade aging equipment.

To step in line with unprecedented state mandates limiting water use, city of San Jose officials will consider a long list of local restrictions on lawn-watering, car-washing and serving water at restaurants.

LaDoris Cordell will retire from her post as San Jose’s independent police auditor this summer, the city announced Wednesday. During her five-year term the former judge brought unprecedented accountability to the San Jose Police Department.

The San Jose Police Department received praise last week for 12 officers volunteering to wear body cameras as part of a pilot program. What several reports failed to mention, however, is that internal politics has temporarily derailed the program.

The San Jose Police Department faces another internal investigation after it was found that Chief Larry Esquivel accepted a prohibited gift from the San Francisco 49ers. That investigation could be complicated.

Deadly encounters between police and citizens have increased in recent years. And while officer-involved shootings are nearly always ruled justified, mistakes are costly—both in lives and in the millions that the public pays to victims and their heirs.

Independent Police Auditor LaDoris Cordell is raising money for her teen leadership council by selling a calendar of her original art work.

An annual audit of the city of San Jose’s procurement cards (P-cards) unearthed a litany of violations—alcohol purchases, personal car rentals and way too much money spent on food.

Given the overwhelming focus on crime statistics and dearth of sworn officers, a San Jose councilman wants the city to take a deeper look at the state of the San Jose Police Department.

A mayoral contender agrees with an audit that says police who lie to investigators should be fired.

A recent report from Independent Police Auditor LaDoris Cordell highlighted two incidents involving San Jose police officers having sex on the job. But Cordell was far less critical of the salacious activity and more concerned with the fact that officers lied to investigators about it.

Two San Jose cops had sex while on duty, lied about it and still kept their jobs, according to an audit out this week.

A video campaign launched by the San Jose Police Department and the Office of the Independent Police Auditor aims to solicit tips from the public to solve homicide cases that have gone cold. “Make the Call, San Jose” airs on CreaTV and is funded by the SJPD.

In the wake of high-profile hate crime allegations on campus, San Jose State University has enlisted a retired judge to conduct an independent review of what happened. LaDoris Cordell, San Jose’s independent police auditor, will oversee the investigation, which will look at how the university failed to prevent four white students from racially terrorizing a black roommate.

Last year it was utility bills. This year, the San Jose Independent Police Auditor’s office has placed signs on more than 100 buses in San Jose, asking residents to reach out if they think a police officer has has broken the law or acted inappropriately. Judge LaDoris Cordell, who oversees the IPA, says the buses on which the ads are displayed—in English, Spanish and Vietnamese—come out of the Chaboya garage line and criss-cross East San Jose and downtown.

Despite an uptick in crime and a top brass changing of the guard, fewer people logged complaints against the San Jose Police Department in 2012 compared to previous years. There was a 7-percent drop in citizen complaints last year, according to an annual report by the Independent Police Auditor’s office, which is on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Other items on the agenda include additional expenses for the Environmental Innovation Center project.