Wednesday, July 13th, marks one year since the Kern County District Attorney's office implemented a new policy to investigate all officer involved shootings in the county.
Before the policy was put into place, the District Attorney's office would only investigate smaller agencies.
Now, the Bakersfield Police Department, Kern County Sheriff's Office and California Highway Patrol are subject to independent investigations by the District Attorney's office.
10 officer involved shootings occurred in the past year, and the District Attorney's office investigated each one.
The Bakersfield Police Department said they welcome these independent investigations, and for the six BPD officer involved shootings that have occurred since the new policy was implemented, both BPD and the District Attorney's office have reached the same conclusions after their separate investigations.
