Eddie Aubrey, San Jose's independent police auditor since April 2024, has been placed on administrative leave, the city confirmed. Assistant Independent Police Auditor Dwight White is temporarily running the office, which serves as San Jose's chief civilian watchdog over police conduct. The city has not said why Aubrey was sidelined.
The San Jose Mayor's Office confirmed Aubrey's leave to The Press Democrat, which first reported the news today and described the situation as a developing story. Aubrey, 67, was appointed independent police auditor in April 2024, arriving with a résumé that spans law enforcement, prosecution and the bench.
A Career in Policing and Oversight Before the Watchdog Post
Aubrey previously worked as a police officer in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, later serving as a pro tem judge and heading the public safety department at a community college, the same report notes. He also worked as a criminal and city prosecutor in Seattle before moving into police oversight work full-time.
In 2009, he led the establishment of a police oversight body in Fresno, according to the same account. Aubrey relocated to the Bay Area in 2016 and that same year founded the Richmond Police Department's Office of Professional Accountability, laying the groundwork for the civilian oversight career that eventually brought him to San Jose.
Assistant Auditor Dwight White Steps In
Running the office in Aubrey's absence is Dwight White, the assistant independent police auditor, who joined San Jose's office in 2025. White previously served as Sacramento's first inspector general in 2021, where he led independent investigations into police shootings, in-custody deaths, excessive force cases and misconduct complaints, according to KQED.
White holds a law degree from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law and previously investigated white-collar misconduct for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in Chicago, according to the same report.
Access Battles Marked Aubrey's Tenure
Aubrey had spent much of the past year pressing to widen his office's authority. In June 2025, he submitted an annual audit report recommending that his office review all 400 use-of-force incidents from 2024, rather than only the 13 cases involving great bodily injury, according to San José Spotlight. The San Jose City Council unanimously rejected the proposal, citing cost and workload concerns, the outlet reported.
Weeks later, on July 6, 2025, the San Jose Police Department temporarily barred both the auditor's office and its own Internal Affairs investigators from routine crime-scene access and briefings during a fatal police shooting, according to the Reddit. The department reversed that policy later the same month amid public scrutiny, the paper reported.
An Office Built on a Voter Mandate but Limited Power
The access clash highlighted long-standing limits on the auditor's authority. San Jose voters overwhelmingly expanded that authority once before: in November 2020, they approved Measure G with 77.25% of the vote, amending the City Charter to let the auditor review department-initiated internal investigations and access unredacted records from fatal or major use-of-force cases, according to Ballotpedia. Hoodline covered the measure's passage at the time.
San Jose created the office by city ordinance in 1993, and even today it functions only as an advisory body with no means to enforce reforms or recommendations beyond public and political pressure, the same report notes. It is a charter officer that reports directly to the City Council, which holds exclusive authority to appoint, supervise or remove the auditor, according to the City of San José.
City officials have also explored moving internal police investigations out of the department entirely and into the auditor's office, per the same account. Hoodline has previously chronicled a case the office once monitored, when investigators tracked an in-custody death at a Santa Clara hospital in 2023.
A History of Turnover in San Jose's Watchdog Office
Aubrey's leave adds to a pattern of upheaval in the office. Former auditor Aaron Zisser stepped down in August 2018 after less than a year on the job, citing intense political pressure and personal attacks from the San Jose Police Officers' Association during debates over expanding oversight, according to San Jose Inside.
His successor, Shivaun Nurre, retired in June 2023 following a workplace complaint over a heated, drunken altercation with an off-duty police officer at a local festival, San José Spotlight reported. That September, Assistant Independent Police Auditor Eva Roa resigned and issued a scathing letter accusing city officials of ignoring the watchdog office and criticizing the police department for failing to foster genuine accountability, the outlet also reported.
The Scope of What the Office Oversees
The stakes of that turnover are significant given the size of San Jose's police force. The department received 367 conduct complaints in 2023, with roughly 27% of all sworn officers — 285 officers — named in at least one complaint that year, according to annual reporting from the auditor's office cited by KQED.
