Oakland police in compliance with all 51 reforms: federal monitor

OAKLAND, Calif. - For the first time in more than two decades, a federal monitor declared that the Oakland Police Department has achieved compliance with all 51 reforms that it was ordered to complete following what's now infamously known as the Riders scandal. 

‘Culminated in success’ 

What they're saying:

"While there is still work to be done, the mayor’s leadership and the department’s commitment to addressing these three tasks have culminated in success," federal monitor Robert Warshaw wrote in court documents on Friday.

Warshaw singled out Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s leadership and OPD’s commitment to addressing the last three items that remained incomplete on the reform list — maintaining a consistent and fair discipline policy for officers, ensuring that internal affairs investigations are completed in a timely manner and are complied with, and improving the protocols for handing citizen complaints about the department and its officers.

Longest oversight in U.S. 

Warshaw's findings mean that it's possible that the federal oversight over OPD – the longest in U.S. history – could come to an end. If all parties agree at a court hearing on Wednesday that OPD has indeed reached full compliance, U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick could grant its independence at the next court date in September.

"Most members of OPD showed that they're not doing this because they have to," civil rights attorney Jim Chanin told KTVU. "But because they want to. This is a tremendous change."

That means that the civilian-led Oakland Police Commission is poised to take over the job of oversight.

Chanin, who along with attorney John Burris, sued Oakland in 2000 over these police reforms, said there has been personal conflict and dysfunction on the commission in the past, and their future effectiveness remains to be seen.

At the same time, the commission has stated it wants to take over the role of IA and wrote to the court that it hopes to expand to a staff of 17. 

Rashidah Grinage, a founding member of the Coalition for Police Accountability who helped create the Oakland Police Commission, said the more appropriate question would be: Is the city committed to funding the commission, its investigative arm, and the Inspector General?

In terms of possible oversight ending, Grinage has one simple word: "Hallelujah." 

Constitutional policing unit

Dig deeper:

In a formal comment to the judge, attorney Brigid Martin, who is representing the city of Oakland, said that "today the city is on the threshold of delivering on its promise" of being firmly rooted in constitutional policing.

In fact, OPD created a "constitutional policing unit," and is actively recruiting someone to lead that team, Martin wrote. For now, Michelle Phillips, whom Lee recruited as assistant city administrator to end the oversight, is acting in this position. 

Coming into compliance is a "critical first step," Martin wrote, but "it is only the beginning."

Oakland must ensure it is "structurally equipped to maintain its momentum and continue to advance cultural change through transparency and accountability." 

Warshaw credited Lee for personally "immersing herself" in this process of ending the oversight as a key to success, and the city touted the current acting chief, James Beere, for making constitutional policing a longstanding commitment. 

For example, the city continues to hold its court-ordered, biweekly meetings to review significant internal investigations. The meetings are attended by the mayor’s office, city administration, police commission leadership, city attorney’s office, and department leadership. The city will keep using these tools to maintain a "fair disciplinary system and strive for continuous improvement."

The Riders scandal

The backstory:

The Riders scandal was a major police corruption and civil rights case from the 1990s nicknamed after four Oakland Police Department officers—who called themselves the Riders—were accused of systematically beating, kidnapping, and planting drugs on mostly Black residents, as well as falsifying police reports.

Instead of heading to trial, Burris and Chanin sued Oakland in 2000, where119 of their clients were paid $10.9 by the city, and the city agreed to adhering to police reforms. 

A federal judge and a federal monitor would oversee the reforms – 51 in all – and OPD could be free from this oversight once they were all completed. Some of those reforms included creating use of force policies, curbing racial profiling, improving internal affairs investigations, making officer discipline more consistent and being more transparent.  

Both lawyers, now 81 and 79 respectively, thought the settlement, known as the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, or NSA – enacted in 2003 – would last a few years, five at the most. 

But oversight is now in its 23rd year. 

OPD would often make gains, but then would get enmeshed in one scandal after another. The finish line kept getting delayed. 

This oversight cost Oakland roughly $1 million a year. 

OPD progress: payouts have plummeted

Despite the setbacks and the slow-going process, OPD has made great progress over the last 20 years. 

A KTVU investigation showed that civil rights lawsuits for excessive force and wrongful death, for example, have plummeted since 2003, saving the city millions of dollars. Oakland now has one of the lowest payout rates of any other Bay Area city, the KTVU investigation found. 

Millie Cleveland, another member of the Coalition for Police Accountability, said that what needs to happen now is for Oakland to have systems in place to continue the progress made, despite what she described as "certain city leaders" attacking the police commission's oversight abilities. 

Plus, Chanin said he's still a little worried about the disparity between Black and white officers in terms of being disciplined in the department, which has a causal relationship, he believes, to how people are treated on the street.

And Burris wrote to the court that he hopes OPD won't backslide, especially in the area of racial profiling, which was the root of the Riders scandal. 

"OPD’s racial bias was the original reason for the NSA," he wrote, "and the department and all other stakeholders must remain vigilant and proactive to ensure that the hard-fought gains that has brought OPD to the brink of NSA compliance are not squandered."