By Topic

Top 60 topics across all California civil grand jury reports

As of 2026-05-28. Across 58 counties, 12,792 reports, 78,749 findings, 61,700 recommendations.

What is this?

Topics are derived from a hybrid pipeline: bottom-up clustering of all findings and recommendations, a hand-curated taxonomy of 56 topics grouped under 10 parent themes, and an automated classifier that tags each finding and recommendation against the taxonomy. Counts below are derived from these classifications. This is a one-shot snapshot, regenerated manually.

1. Governance & transparency

Reports Findings Recs Juries
1. Policy & procedure manuals 2,207 2,387 2,378 702
2. Procurement & contracts 1,461 2,223 1,920 528
3. Ethics & conflict of interest 1,195 1,894 1,403 472
4. Strategic planning & implementation backlog 1,161 991 1,053 487
5. Brown Act compliance 1,151 1,327 1,365 458
6. Meeting minutes & agendas 1,056 1,001 1,058 423

2. Law enforcement & corrections

Reports Findings Recs Juries
7. Jail conditions & inmate medical care 1,794 5,335 3,757 619
8. City police departments 1,378 2,902 2,456 439
9. Sheriff deputy training & staffing 1,022 1,268 965 440
10. Juvenile detention & probation 904 2,441 1,452 412
11. Coroner / medical examiner 256 440 542 132
12. Parking enforcement & disabled placards 86 149 114 49
13. Vehicle towing & impound 29 55 87 15

3. Finance & accountability

Reports Findings Recs Juries
14. Audit & financial controls 2,705 4,967 4,776 741
15. Revenue, fees & taxes 970 1,241 968 423
16. Special-district budgeting & rate-setting 562 726 563 274
17. Pension & retiree-health (OPEB) funding 552 1,643 1,304 165
18. Cash handling & petty cash 282 347 214 145

4. Infrastructure & utilities

Reports Findings Recs Juries
19. Facility deferred maintenance 1,829 2,944 2,237 663
20. Water supply & drought 851 2,327 1,864 303
21. Wastewater & water quality 419 865 426 195
22. Public surveillance & camera systems 407 333 384 199
23. Solid waste, recycling & landfills 262 1,476 586 120
24. Roads & pavement maintenance 218 479 372 138
25. Airports 187 513 373 111
26. Traffic signals & intersection safety 174 320 305 83
27. Public libraries 164 613 387 92
28. Ports & harbors 78 299 167 38

5. Health & human services

Reports Findings Recs Juries
29. Mental & behavioral health services 1,384 2,667 2,391 430
30. Homelessness & encampments 731 2,216 1,786 248
31. Foster care & child welfare 514 1,695 1,197 239
32. Substance-use treatment 493 1,556 665 184
33. Animal services & shelters 381 1,381 1,052 184
34. Ambulance & emergency medical services 239 498 275 109
35. Public guardian & conservatorship 187 517 425 96
36. Restaurant & food-truck inspections 164 481 411 87

6. Workforce & personnel

Reports Findings Recs Juries
37. Hiring & recruitment 1,498 1,724 1,645 561
38. Salary, benefits & compensation 956 1,293 1,084 353
39. Workplace harassment & discrimination 694 901 754 295
40. Employee performance evaluations 408 444 428 218

7. Emergency services & information technology

Reports Findings Recs Juries
41. Emergency preparedness & evacuation 887 5,022 1,562 310
42. Fire protection & wildfire 869 2,499 1,832 360
43. IT modernization & legacy systems 784 1,092 882 357
44. 911 dispatch & radio communications 523 859 553 213
45. Cybersecurity 223 631 617 102

8. Education

Reports Findings Recs Juries
46. School-district governance & boards 811 1,340 1,398 309
47. School safety & threat assessment 779 2,238 1,903 234
48. School finance & charter oversight 361 569 459 162
49. Truancy & attendance 144 420 263 49
50. Special education 135 322 327 73
51. Asbestos & hazardous school conditions 80 259 370 46

9. Housing, land use & regulation

Reports Findings Recs Juries
52. Code enforcement 665 1,445 1,035 288
53. Affordable housing & RHNA 641 1,752 1,721 177
54. Cannabis regulation 123 395 235 62

10. Elections & civic participation

Reports Findings Recs Juries
55. Elections administration 379 1,335 825 179
56. Polling places & voter registration 176 326 200 96