The Oakland Police Department is getting closer to closing a dark chapter for the force with 20 years of federal oversight about to be sharply reduced.
At a Wednesday hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said he plans to issue an order outlining the ways the department can prove that it will properly implement court-ordered reforms over the long-term during what he referred to as a one-year “sustainability period.”The federal monitoring stemmed from a scandal involving a group of rogue officers known as “The Riders.”
The four policemen were fired in 2002 after a class-action civil rights lawsuit claimed they beat and planted evidence against black men. The department agreed to 52 reforms to settle the lawsuit, including documentation of use-of-force incidents, investigations into complaints of officer misconduct and eliminating racial disparities within the force.Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said the one area that must still must improved was “discipline disparities” within the department.
Early Wednesday evening, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Armstrong spoke about the latest development. They said the department is on the right road, but admitted it hasn’t reached the end of it. “Today marks a milestone in a continual journey towards Oakland’s reforms,” said Schaaf. “The changes that have been acknowledged and recognized that OPD has accomplished are significant. And we have much more work to do.”“I am optimistic that we are proving to the public that we have reformed,” added Armstrong. “There’s more work to do. This is never over.
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