(KRON) – After more than 20 years of federal oversight, U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick told the Oakland Police Department on Wednesday they still have some work to do.
After addressing issues of police oversight with OPD’s Internal Affairs (IA) department, an order filed on Wednesday stated an “ongoing failure” of OPD to “police itself.” The order credits a “failure of leadership” requiring “immediate correction.”
According to Judge Orrick’s order, OPD’s organizational chart needed to be restructured so that its internal affairs division is a “direct report” to OPD’s current police chief, Floyd Mitchell.
The judge recognized that the chief has “a myriad of other important responsibilities that this may interfere with,” but it said it “can no longer tolerate the lack of integrity, consistency, and transparency with which internal affairs has operated,” the order read in part.
Additionally, Orrick said, representatives from the mayor’s office, city administrator, city attorney’s office and the police chief must begin meeting with the monitoring team every two weeks to discuss the status of what they dub as “important investigations.”
OPD’s federal oversight has been in place for over 20 years.
In 2003, a settlement stemmed from a federal civil rights lawsuit known as the Riders case, where over 100 plaintiffs accused four OPD officers of misconduct in West Oakland. The city agreed to enact several reforms under federal supervision and a court-appointed monitor as part of the settlement.
John Burris, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys who filed the initial lawsuit over 20 years ago, says the Court’s order reflects its “dissatisfaction and frustration with the Department’s inability to police itself.”
“The new structure should hold the Chief accountable for all investigations and hopefully will change the culture of officers protecting each other when one of them is the subject of an investigation. The integrity of internal affairs investigations and the task involving consistency of discipline remains as the last two intractable problems. Hopefully, this new structure will assist the department in getting to compliance,” Burris said.
The city is required to file a status report “that explains how this order has been implemented” by Oct. 8. The next case management conference is set for Jan. 8, 2025, the order said.
(KRON) – After more than 20 years of federal oversight, U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick told the Oakland Police Department on Wednesday they still have some work to do. After addressing issues of police oversight with OPD’s Internal Affairs (IA) department, an order filed on Wednesday stated an “ongoing failure” of OPD to “police […]
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