Oakland oversight was longest such arrangement in US history
A federal judge has released the Oakland Police Department from 23 years of federal court-ordered oversight — the longest arrangement of its kind in U.S. history — ending a reform regime rooted in the early-2000s “riders” misconduct scandal.
The riders scandal triggered more than 100 civil lawsuits against OPD. In 2003, as part of a settlement of those cases, the department was placed on a federal court-ordered reform program and assigned more than 50 tasks, including collecting and analyzing data on racial profiling, handling complaints against officers more quickly, and updating community policing practices.
Despite those requirements, reform progress was uneven, and in 2012 the department’s compliance was placed under the direct supervision of a federal judge.
Even under that supervision, OPD continued to face major misconduct allegations. An investigation that began in 2015 found that several officers had sex-trafficked a teenage girl; OPD paid the victim a nearly $1 million settlement in 2017, and nearly a dozen officers were either fired or suspended in connection with the case.
Organizers against police misconduct and brutality said the end of federal oversight should not mean an end to outside scrutiny. “Police cannot police themselves. Oakland’s history has already taught us that lesson,” the Anti Police-Terror Project said in a statement following the judge’s decision. “The end of federal oversight does not mean the end of police misconduct. It does not erase the history that brought OPD under federal supervision. And it certainly does not mean Oakland should simply trust OPD to hold itself accountable.”