CA POST Decertification List: Grounds, Search, and Scope

The California POST decertification list is a public database of peace officers whose state certifications have been suspended or revoked for serious misconduct. It’s maintained by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training and posted at post.ca.gov/Peace-Officer-Certification-Actions, where you can search by an officer’s name, employing agency, or the type of misconduct involved.¹

How to Search the List

The list lives on a single page on the POST website. It displays a searchable table you can filter by keyword, so a name, an agency, or a misconduct term will pull up matching entries. Each row shows the officer’s first and last name, the certification action taken (revocation or suspension), the effective date of that action, the agency that employed the officer at the time, and the stated basis for the action.¹

Each entry also links to the underlying pleadings and orders. If you want to know exactly what an officer was found to have done, open the documents attached to their record rather than relying on the short basis field.

POST is required by law to publish the name of any peace officer whose certification is suspended or revoked, together with the basis for the action.² Investigative files are retained for 30 years after the Commission concludes the investigation.³

Revocation, Suspension, and Voluntary Surrender

Two labels appear in the “action” column, and the practical difference between them is significant.

A revocation is permanent. The officer can never work in law enforcement in California again unless a later factual finding exonerates them, which is a narrow path. A suspension is temporary, with an outer limit of three years set by POST. During a suspension the officer cannot serve as a sworn peace officer, though the employing agency can decide whether to keep the person in some other role.³

You will also see records marked as voluntary surrenders. An officer can voluntarily give up their certification permanently at any point during a POSAD case. The practical effect matches a revocation: no more sworn peace officer work in California, and the surrendered certificate cannot be reactivated. The distinction is that a voluntary surrender doesn’t come with a formal Commission finding that the officer committed serious misconduct.⁴ POST still reports surrenders to the National Decertification Index and includes them in its annual report.⁵

What Puts an Officer on the List

POST can only act on conduct that fits the statutory definition of “serious misconduct.” The categories come from Penal Code section 13510.8 and POST Commission Regulation 1205:⁶

Dishonesty related to the reporting, investigation, or prosecution of a crime or an officer misconduct investigation. This includes false reports, evidence tampering, perjury, and manipulating body-camera footage.
Abuse of power, such as intimidating witnesses, knowingly obtaining a false confession, or knowingly making a false arrest.
Physical abuse, including any excessive or unreasonable use of force. Serious bodily injury is not required.
Sexual assault as described in Penal Code section 832.7(b), including acts between members of the same agency.
Demonstrating bias based on race, national origin, religion, gender identity or expression, housing status, sexual orientation, or disability. Racial profiling qualifies.
Egregious or repeated violations of the law severe or frequent enough to be incompatible with the duty to uphold it.
Participation in a law enforcement gang, meaning a group of officers within an agency who identify by a name or symbol and engage in a pattern of intentionally violating the law or professional standards.
Failure to intervene when another officer uses force clearly beyond what is necessary.
Failure to cooperate with an investigation into potential police misconduct.

For dishonesty and abuse of power, the regulations tell the Commission to weigh whether the conduct was willful and whether it involved material facts. A careless error in a report is not treated the same as deliberately fabricating evidence.⁶

When a Name Actually Appears

An officer’s name is added to the public list only after the Commission has issued a final decision and any opportunity for judicial appeal has passed or been waived. A pending investigation, a filed complaint, or an early POSAD determination will not show up in the searchable table. If you are looking for someone you know has been accused of misconduct and don’t find them, the case may still be moving through the process, or it may have ended in a way that didn’t produce a revocation or suspension.

The list also has a limited reach backward in time. SB 2 took effect on January 1, 2022, and for misconduct that happened before that date, POST can only act if the case involves dishonesty, sexual assault, use of deadly force resulting in death or serious bodily injury, or situations where the employing agency issued its final determination after January 1, 2022.³ Misconduct on or after January 1, 2022, is covered across all categories.

What that means in practice: an officer who used excessive force in 2020 without causing death or serious injury likely falls outside POST’s retroactive reach and won’t appear on the list for that incident. An officer who fabricated evidence during the same period can be pursued.

Where the List Fits and Where It Doesn’t

The POST list is not a Brady list. A Brady list (sometimes called a Giglio list) is kept by a district attorney’s office and flags officers whose credibility issues must be disclosed to defendants under Brady v. Maryland. It affects testimony, not employment, and a Brady-listed officer can keep working. The POST list carries the opposite kind of consequence: a revoked officer cannot be hired as a peace officer anywhere in California, because state law now requires every law enforcement agency to employ only individuals holding a current, valid POST certification.⁷ An officer can appear on one list without appearing on the other.

Decertification also is not the same as losing a pension. California law forces a CalPERS member to forfeit accrued retirement benefits, retroactive to the date the crime was first committed, only when the member is convicted by a state or federal court of a felony committed in connection with their official duties. The forfeited member gets back their own contributions without interest and nothing more, and cannot return to CalPERS-covered employment.⁸ An officer decertified for excessive force who is never criminally convicted keeps their pension. One convicted of evidence tampering and decertified loses both.

POST itself does not run criminal investigations or the internal affairs process that leads to agency discipline. Criminal matters get referred to the local district attorney or the California Department of Justice, and agency discipline stays with the agency.² The decertification list answers one question and one question only: does this person still hold the credential California requires to work as a sworn peace officer?

1
State of California POST Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Peace Officer Certification Actions
2
State of California POST Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Decertification
3
State of California POST Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Senate Bill No. 2 – Frequently Asked Questions
4
California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). Guide to Peace Officer Decertification Proceedings and Officer Rights to Contest and Appeal
5
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 11 Section 1210 – Voluntary Surrender
6
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 11 Section 1205 – Serious Misconduct
7
LegiScan. Bill Text: CA SB2 2021-2022 Regular Session Chaptered
8
CalPERS. Forfeiture of Benefits Fact Sheet