Judge
losing patience with Oakland Occupy probes
A federal judge criticized the Oakland Police
Department over the sluggish pace of investigations into officer conduct during
Occupy protests last year, and gave the city until Monday to submit a plan for
completing the probes.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said the
investigations - which Oakland has decided to farm out to a private contractor
- won't be finished within the 180-day deadline he imposed for such
disciplinary cases.
In fact, the outsourced investigations - which
primarily arose from street protests Oct. 25 and Nov. 2 - have not yet begun.
The owner of a private firm seeking to do the work told The Chronicle on
Wednesday that the city had not yet put the job out to bid.
Given the scope of the Occupy cases, Henderson
said, the department may render any potential discipline moot by failing to
complete the probes within a year, the statute of limitations under California
law.
"Such failures," Henderson wrote in an
order filed Tuesday, "would be further indication that, despite the
changed leadership at the city of Oakland and its Police Department, defendants
might still lack the will, capacity, or both to complete the reforms to which
they so long ago agreed."
Henderson is overseeing police reforms he
ordered a decade ago. City officials declined to comment on his latest order.
Normally, the police internal affairs division
handles disciplinary matters. But Oakland officials have said they lack the
resources to review the Occupy protests, which generated 1,039 misconduct
complaints through mid-February.
The department has an unusually low threshold
for complaints. Most of the Occupy-related ones came from people who learned of
alleged police actions through the media, according to a federal court monitor.
Officials have said they farmed out the cases
because internal affairs officers had conflicts of interest, having been
assigned to help out during the protests.
The city initially gave some of the cases to the
Frazier Group, a private firm in Baltimore. Officials said the plan was for
that firm to use a subcontractor licensed to handle police disciplinary
investigations.
At a City Council meeting Monday night, however,
City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city had decided to abandon the
arrangement and sign a contract directly with a licensed investigator.
Richard Ehle, the private investigator
originally tabbed by the Frazier Group to do the work, said the city
administrator's office told him Wednesday that the job would soon be put out to
bid.
Attorneys who have worked to reform Oakland's
police force said they were alarmed.
"It is disturbing to me that we're six
months down the line and this is happening," said John Burris, one of two
attorneys who brought a civil suit a decade ago that prompted the federal court
oversight. "This is another major area where they will not be in
compliance."
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.