A culture war is being waged between some San Jose police officers and Independent Police Auditor LaDoris Cordell. Judge Cordell has taken issue with a T-shirt that was designed for officers in an elite tactical unit that is equipped with assault rifles. Cordell, who called the shirt’s design “a thug logo,” features the acronym SJPD, a human skull with two assault rifles crossed in the background and the motto “Usus Ferocitas,” which in Latin can translate to several meanings.

In closed session Tuesday morning, the City Council will discuss the work of Judge LaDoris Cordell, San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor since April 2010. The discussion between the mayor and 10-member council will focus on whether or not to grant Cordell a 4-year term.

A slap shot from HP Pavilion, through Guadalupe Park and into the neighboring creek bed, a rooster makes its home. He lives among shopping carts, deflated tire tubes and toilet paper rolls, empty beer cans and coolers, a Negro Modelo sign lodged in the fresh mud and a half-dozen people who spend their nights sleeping in tents. Karen Ellfson is one of these people. She lives here with her husband. At 30 years old, a month shy of her next birthday, the Morgan Hill native knows that in two weeks she’ll need to find a new home. She’s one of several dozen homeless people with targets on their backs.

The office of the Independent Police Auditor, led by retired judge LaDoris Cordell, conducted “unprecedented outreach” in 2011, according to its annual report released this week. As a result, the office received a 26 percent increase in the amount of complaints filed against the San Jose Police Department compared to a year prior. The IPA provided 30 recommendations, some of which were as small as prohibiting tobacco chewing to as large as overhauling Internal Affairs.

Sgt. Bobby Lopez, the former San Jose police union president, ignited a firestorm last month when reports surfaced that he boasted of having a spy in the Independent Police Auditor’s (IPA) Office. Now he has hired an attorney and won’t talk.

Two weeks ago, the usually loquacious Lopez announced that he would run for his old job as president of the San José Police Officers Association (POA). Lopez said he believes George Beattie, his media-shy predecessor, is a weak leader.

LaDoris Cordell, San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor, says a study has concluded that there is no spy inside her office.

“I am greatly relieved that the investigation has determined that there are no leaks of confidential information by any member of my staff,” Cordell said at a press conference outside her downtown office this afternoon.

Cordell announced her conclusions in response to a June 9, 2010 article in the San Jose Mercury News. The newspaper claimed that confidential information from inside the IPA’s office had been leaked to SJPD Sgt. Bobby Lopez, the former president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, during his tenure.

Fresh off the heels of Spy-PA Gate 2010, Bobby Lopez is throwing his hat in for another run at San Jose Police Officers’ Association president next fall.

Apparently, there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the cop union’s current leadership—and Police Sgt. Lopez’s media-shy predecessor, George Beattie, in particular. There’s been a sense among the POA’s rank and file for awhile now that everything has gone to pot since the never-afraid-to-speak-his-mind Lopez stepped down.

The Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee, which I sit on, had a special meeting last Wednesday night. Usually, this committee meets during the day. This special meeting was being sponsored by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) and the City Council stemming from the alleged racial profiling arrests Downtown for pubic intoxication. This is one of two meetings to be held at night to elicit public opinion about our police force. The next one will be spring 2010