Riley Bandy, a former San Francisco police officer, surrendered his California law enforcement certification in November 2024 after leaving the department without participating in an internal investigation. The action bars him from working as a police officer in California, according to the investigative report described in the source.
The investigation began after a family questioned Bandy’s handling of a missing-person case involving their adult daughter, who had an intellectual disability. The family had contacted the San Francisco Police Department in November 2021.
Before the certification was surrendered, Bandy had begun working in Honolulu as an investigator for Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm. Special counsel Christine Denton said the office did not learn about the investigation or the misconduct finding until Civil Beat asked about it.
Denton said Bandy was asked during the hiring process whether anything would prevent him from fully performing law enforcement duties, and he answered that there was not. She said the office’s background review did not include his personnel records and instead relied on favorable references from three former supervisors, including two from San Francisco.
The source said the finding could affect Bandy’s credibility if he is called as a prosecution witness. Honolulu defense attorney Christian Enright said attorneys could question an investigator’s history in court and seek potentially favorable evidence about past conduct. Bandy did not respond to requests for comment, while the investigative report said he denied wrongdoing.
