OAKLAND
-- A court battle over whether to place the Oakland Police Department under
federal control looks increasingly likely after an independent monitor on
Monday found that the department is no closer to fully implementing reforms
spelled out in a nearly decade-old federal court order than it was six months
ago.
The
monitor, Robert Warshaw, praised new police Chief Howard Jordan for his effort
to bring the department into compliance with a 2003 agreement that settled the
Riders police misconduct case. But he also noted the slow pace of progress and
criticized the department's handling of last year's Occupy Oakland protests.
City
leaders said the report showed that Oakland finally had a team in place capable
of achieving compliance, while a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Riders case
said it cast further doubt on the department's ability to reform itself.
Warshaw's
report covered the last three months of 2011, which included many
Occupy-related protests. He faulted the department's planning and training for
the protests and found that one officer had violated the department's use of
force guidelines when he fired a beanbag at a protester videotaping a line of
riot police.
Although
Warshaw reserved judgment on other Occupy-related incidents until investigations
were completed, he warned that the department's at times "overwhelmingly
military-type response" could harm its ability to comply with the
settlement agreement.
"I
cannot overstate our concern that, although progress on ... compliance has been
slow, even those advancements may have been put in doubt in the face of these
events," he wrote.
Oakland
police have been struggling for nine years to fully implement the agreed upon
reforms that settled the Riders case, in which a rogue group of officers were
accused of beating up suspects and planting drugs on them.
The
department's window to satisfy federal U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson
appeared to be closing in January when Warshaw's last quarterly report also
found no significant progress. Henderson ordered Jordan to consult with Warshaw
before making major decisions and set a schedule to consider placing the
department in federal receivership.
Jim
Chanin, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the Riders case, said he was
planning to move forward with a receivership motion that would be heard by
Henderson in December.
"The
only way the motion wasn't going to happen was if we saw some dramatic
improvement in the monitor's report, and this isn't it," Chanin said. A
final decision on whether to seek receivership for the police department will
be made within four to six weeks, he added.
Chanin
was especially troubled by the police department's acknowledgment that it
lacked the capacity to complete internal affairs investigations, including
three major Occupy-related cases that have been outsourced to a private
consultant. "They have to be able to do a major investigation involving
one of their own," he said.
The
2003 Riders settlement required police to institute 51 reforms. The department
is still out of compliance with 10 tasks, including those that involve
use-of-force reporting, supervisory control over police squads, internal
affairs procedures and the system designed to identify problem officers.
Oakland
released a statement that it is seeking new technology to replace the system
and that it is modifying training related to a number of tactics to help it
come into compliance. "OPD has turned the corner, and our new, more
collaborative relationship with the monitor and plaintiffs' attorneys will soon
bear results in compliance findings," Jordan said in the city-issued
statement.
Warshaw
said the Occupy protests provided no excuse for the department not to make
progress on complying with the settlement agreement. "Instead it is
precisely in such times that the reforms articulated in the (settlement
agreement) are at their point of greatest significance, as they govern the
behavior of the department and its officers," he wrote.
The
city is expecting a more thorough report on police handling of the Occupy
protests from outside consultant The Frazier Group. That report, commissioned
by the city, is expected to be released shortly.