Rohnert Park is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of San Francisco.

Originally home of the Coast Miwok native people,[8] the Mexican government granted Rancho Cotate to Captain Juan Castaneda in July 1844 for his military services in the region.

In 1929, a successful businessman, Waldo Emerson Rohnert (1869–1933), a native of Detroit, Michigan, purchased a large ranch in the area and minimized flooding in the fields with a crude drainage system.

In 1956 and 1957, with the U.S. Route 101 Freeway recently completed at the Cotati bypass, Rohnert Park began to be laid out and built as a planned city.

In a summer election in 1962, Rohnert Park was incorporated, comprising 1,325 acres (5.36 km2), housing an estimated 2,775 persons.

[9] Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park is a 200-acre (0.81 km2), solar-powered, zero-waste community currently under development.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Rohnert Park has a total area of 7.0 square miles (18 km2), 99.93% of it land and 0.07% of it water.

[12] K Section is also referred to as the "University District" and is the residential development of the city's University Specific Plan Area; W Section is also referred to as "Willowglen" and is the residential development of the city's Southeast Specific Plan Area.

[13] There is a small reservoir called Roberts Lake at the north end of the city and a number of creeks.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa contains bands of thick native riparian vegetation, including willow (Salix spp.)

[14] Sudden oak death fungus risks are present in the Rohnert Park area.

Rohnert Park is governed by a City Council of five members, who serve staggered four-year terms.

[21] Any registered voter who resides within Rohnert Park is eligible to run for City Council in the district in which they live.

Shields stated that he believed Kao was waving the stick in a martial arts fashion, and that he and Lynch had to respond by using deadly force.

Kao's family and attorney John Burris filed a lawsuit against the city of Rohnert Park, and received a settlement of $1 million in 2001.

[33] In August 2015, the city engaged an independent investigator,[34] who found that Rodriguez's actions were within the law and followed department policy.

[35] A civil rights claim filed on behalf of the resident asserted that Rodriguez was trying to intimidate him.

[36] On November 16, 2018, a civil rights lawsuit was filed[37] against Rohnert Park alleging that Rohnert Park police "conspired to expand the legitimate interdiction mission to one of personal financial gain, and over the years seized thousands of pounds of cannabis and hundreds of thousands of dollars of currency without issuing receipts for the seizures, without making arrests for any crimes, and without any official report of the forfeitures being made".

[38] KQED published an investigation[39] in June 2018, quoting complaints by other motorists saying they were "robbed" by the Rohnert Park police, including the officers named in the lawsuit.

[41] The Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District serves the city, which is also home to Sonoma State University.