ICYMI: Today, Oakland has arguably become the state’s most watched police department with both a federal monitor and strong civilian oversight. In this city of 435,000, civilians have the power to overrule the police department.
Oakland has become the state’s most watched police department with both a federal monitor and strong civilian oversight. It was June 27, 2000, and a group of rogue cops was at work in West Oakland. The Oakland police officers operated in one of the most dangerous beats in one of the most violent parts of the city. They called themselves the Riders.
The rookie police officer who witnessed the assault on Allen filed a complaint in July 2000. The resulting scandal upended the department and touched off a massive overhaul in how the department judges its own officers’ conduct. Complaints originate with residents, or from the department’s internal affairs unit. A sustained complaint means the department believed the person who complained, and could discipline the officers involved.
The Oakland police complaint process is now handled by both the department’s internal affairs division and a civilian panel that oversees the department.Today, officers are leaving the department in higher numbers, from an average of about four per month late last year to 10 or 15 a month since then, according to Armstrong.
“I’ve been doing some exit interviews with officers that are choosing to go to other departments, and what I tell them is the Oakland way is going to be the American way any minute now,” Schaaf told CalMatters.Before the Oakland rookie police officer blew the whistle on the Riders scandal, he was told that beating, kidnapping and planting drugs on people were simply how police work was done, he testified in court.
The original monitoring team and its successor, appointed in 2010, have both praised and condemned Oakland police for their conduct since 2003. But in the ensuing two decades, one fundamental change has made the biggest difference: Oakland residents have garnered a lot more power over their police department.
“They pay a lot more attention to police conduct in Oakland,” Lucia said. “There’s more eyes on people. There’s policies, software programs, there’s resources committed. It’s more than I’ve ever seen anywhere else in the state.” As a result, in 1998 the LAPD instituted a new policy: All complaints against an officer would trigger an investigation.
So the officers radically reduced their engagement with the public, according to Prendergast’s paper, which is named after the practice of nonengagement: “Drive and Wave.” That meant complaints could be dismissed moments after they were filed, and an officer’s superior was the one to judge their actions.
Complaints can be sustained, which means the investigation proved the allegation to be true by a preponderance of evidence. “ not lying. I may not be able to prove it, but something happened,” Burris said, and noted that unfounded complaints also disappear from officers’ personnel files.
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