POLICING: OPD Still Failing to Comply with Mandated Police Reforms 16 Years Later

Oakland Police Department (OPD) has been under federal monitoring pursuant to a settlement agreement reached in the infamous Riders case in 2003.  The monitoring has proceeded for 16 years with OPD failing to meet the settlement agreement terms at each point of review.

To enforce the settlement, the federal court appointed a monitor.  Part of the monitor's duties is to issue quarterly compliance and review reports to the federal U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick on the matter.

The current monitor, Robert Warshaw, issued his first quarter report in March 2019 which concludes that the City is losing what progress it has made in complying with the settlement agreement.  In the month preceding the report's release, Warshaw condemned OPD's current Chief Anne Kirkpatrick for her poor leadership decisions including her handling of discipline in the killing of 31-year old mentally Joshua Palowik on March 11, 2018.  Warshaw detailed that OPD placed the four officers involved on administrative leave and investigated the circumstances of the shooting.  Warshaw reviewed public records and footage of the killing and observed that officers were under no threat from Palowik at the time before firing 22 shots.  OPD's Executive Review Board recommended discipline of involved offers at the highest level of excessive force violations.  However, Warshaw accused Kirkpatrick of ignoring the evidence and recommendations to instead impose the lowest possible discipline.  District Attorney Nancy O'Malley cleared officers of all wrongdoing.  Warshaw convicts that OPD refuses to discipline its supervisors regardless of the evidence of misconduct.

Warshaw's March 2019 quarterly report notes that the Court ordered review of area including: Use of Force Reporting Policy; Use of Force Investigation and Report Responsibilities); and Officer Involved Shooting Investigations after the OPD seemingly doctored its compliance reports between 2017 and 2019.  As to OPD's Executive Force Review Board which is to review all internal investigations of excessive use of force, Warshaw found that "OPD had achieved compliance with this Task during the nineteenth reporting period (April 1-June 30, 2014). We find the Department to no longer be in compliance with this Task." The report further confirms that the highest number of OPD traffic stops continue to be of African American motorists. The reports includes a scathing conclusion that:

"For the March 2018 officer-involved shooting, our Team observed all three days of EFRB deliberations, and reviewed the underlying investigations, including the follow-up investigation by IAD as directed by the board. The investigations were deficient in several ways – and yet the EFRB relied almost exclusively on these investigations to make their determinations. / The incident and its aftermath speak not just to relevant Departmental policy – but transcend a multitude of Tasks that are either currently active, have recently been reactivated by the Court, or are currently inactive. Accordingly, the developments brought about as a result of this matter have called into question the measure to which the Department fully understands its responsibilities pertaining to the relevant Tasks and the NSA [negotiated settlement agreement] in general.

Typically, when a party to a settlement agreement is non-compliant, the Court can issue various relief including reopening the litigation and ordering different compliance measures.  It seems a different solution is necessary given OPD's non-responsiveness to court-mandated directives, discord with the Monitor's review and recommendations, and findings that OPD has not been compliant with several directives since 2014.  This comes as further disappointment after OPD's handling of the sex trafficking scandal uncovered in 2016.  OPD Chief Kirkpatrick was appointed by Mayor Libby Schaaf and comes from Washington state.  Chief Kirkpatrick quickly promoted several OPD officers involved in the 2016 scandal.  In response to the due outrage and backlash, Kirkpatrick stated that she was unaware of the OPD Scandal and of the Negotiated Settlement Agreement.

Where OPD has eroded trust with the public for at least 16 years and failed to comply with its own agreements,as expressed by the federal monitor, the City deserves a competent Chief that is a local resident raised in our community, who represents the diversity and inclusion that OPD claims to strive for, and who is fully aware of her legal, public, official, and court-mandated responsibilities. Awareness may not be enough as the Warshaw reports suggests complete abdication of duty under the settlement agreement and attempts to cover up OPD's failures in reporting compliance. Oakland and its residents deserve better from the agency leading public safety.

--Victory for Oakland
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