{"id":158001,"date":"2026-01-31T13:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T13:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158001\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T13:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T13:19:09","slug":"judge-hopeful-that-oakland-police-oversight-may-end-under-mayor-barbara-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158001\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge hopeful that Oakland police oversight may end under Mayor Barbara Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 For over two decades, efforts to lift the Oakland Police Department out<\/a> from under the watchful eye of a federal judge have fallen short<\/a>. Now, though, the department may be nearing the finish line.<\/p>\n

If Judge William Orrick does relinquish control of the often scandal-ridden department by the end of this year, he may ultimately credit Mayor Barbara Lee, the former congresswoman to whom Orrick offered glowing praise<\/a> at a court hearing this week.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s oversight, an unprecedented arrangement that began with the infamous Riders brutality scandal in the early 2000s, will continue at least until May. Orrick, however, believes OPD is at the \u201cthreshold\u201d of full compliance because of the mayor\u2019s willingness to implement long-term reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say, there have been a few mayors who have expressed thoughtfulness about what to do\u201d to get OPD to full compliance, he said, offering rare praise, at the Tuesday hearing. \u201cNo one until now has demonstrated an awareness and holistic understanding of what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orrick lauded Lee, who took office last May<\/a>, for her decision to install the city\u2019s former inspector general<\/a>, Michelle Phillips, as an official in the department\u2019s top ranks. Phillips reports directly to the mayor, providing a direct window into the department\u2019s accountability measures.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Lee also appointed longtime OPD veteran James Beere<\/a> as the interim police chief. Beere promptly assigned a deputy chief, Aaron Smith, to head the police internal affairs unit.<\/p>\n

The direct lines of communication \u2014 between internal affairs and the chief, as well as the department and Lee \u2014 were received warmly by the court, which has often criticized OPD\u2019s \u201cability to police itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland Mayor Barbara Lee looks on as Oakland police Assistant Chief James Beere, who has been appointed as the interim Oakland Police Chief, speaks during a press conference on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think, if I had spent time on this, that I would have come up with the same thing,\u201d said Orrick, who spoke with similar admiration about Lee at a hearing last July.<\/p>\n

It is the most optimistic stance taken by the court in several years, signaling the possibility that OPD may soon need to answer only to Oakland\u2019s local accountability officials, rather than to Robert Warshaw, a monitor appointed by the court to oversee the mandated reform effort.<\/p>\n

Orrick\u2019s positivity about Lee, meanwhile, suggests she is making good on a campaign promise to restore leadership in Oakland after an era of political dysfunction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oversight began with a massive police brutality case at the turn of the century, leading to a civil settlement that put OPD on the hook to comply with dozens of \u201ctasks,\u201d or standards around \u201cconstitutional policing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several damaging scandals have leveled the department when it has previously come close to ending oversight. The most recent was a felony case against Phong Tran, a veteran homicide detective accused of bribing a witness in a murder case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fallout from Tran\u2019s case was substantial: multiple members of OPD\u2019s top command staff were disciplined or left their posts<\/a> and several other Oakland murder cases were dismissed<\/a> by prosecutors, while Orrick extended oversight indefinitely<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now the department is improving. Jim Chanin and John Burris, a pair of civil rights attorneys who first litigated the police brutality cases, both acknowledged that oversight could potentially end within the year.<\/p>\n

\"CivilCivil rights attorneys John Burris, left, and Jim Chanin speak after a federal hearing at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 10, 2017. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth attended the hearing to respond to criticism over the police department\u2019s handling of an underage sex scandal case. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chanin, a fierce police critic, praised the department\u2019s current leaders \u2014 including Beere and Smith \u2014 for the improvements, in addition to Lee.<\/p>\n

The progress, he said, marks a clear turnaround from former Chief Floyd Mitchell, who before resigning last fall openly criticized the stringent nature of federal oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department now is actually led by people who believe in the (oversight settlement) and want to get it done,\u201d Chanin said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a big change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the understaffed police department has a few hurdles to cross before reaching full compliance with the judge\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

OPD continues to struggle investigating misconduct claims within a court-ordered timeframe, though city officials promised this week that preliminary data in recent months indicate the department\u2019s timeliness is back above the court\u2019s threshold.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Tuesday court hearing, a newly surfaced internal report showed that OPD sustained disproportionately fewer misconduct claims in 2024 against white officers than Black or Latino officers.<\/p>\n

Just 2% of misconduct claims against white officers, who comprise a quarter of the Oakland police force, were sustained, while Black officers and Latino officers were sustained 6% and 7% of the time, respectively.<\/p>\n

For internally generated misconduct claims \u2014 lodged not by the public but within OPD itself \u2014 the gap was more stark: None of the eight complaints against white officers in 2024 were sustained, compared to seven of 15 claims against Black officers and four of 17 allegations against Latino officers.<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland city attorney Ryan Richardson speaks during the 2025 Inauguration Ceremony held at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Attorney Ryan Richardson pushed back on the court\u2019s latest findings, arguing instead for oversight to end.<\/p>\n

A pre-hearing statement submitted by his office cites a quote by civil-rights attorney Ben Nisenbaum, who had told news media that OPD had been \u201ctransformed\u201d successfully into a \u201cconstitutional policing model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nisenbaum, a law partner of Burris\u2019, later submitted his own statement to the court, claiming the city \u201cdistorted\u201d his intended praise of Oakland\u2019s improvement from the days of the infamous Riders brutality scandal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not even know what the Oakland Police Department\u2019s actual obligations are\u201d in the court settlement, he said.<\/p>\n

Orrick, who did not acknowledge the city\u2019s overtures, appeared more interested in what Lee had to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not ready either to end this, but I think we have the measures in place to stay on track,\u201d Lee told the judge, noting later that she was focused \u201cnot just on compliance, but what would happen after compliance ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 For over two decades, efforts to lift the Oakland Police Department out from under the watchful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,7,409,138,332,181,23,100,143,145,406,144,407,408,13,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-158001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-city-politics","12":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","13":"tag-east-bay","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-oakland","18":"tag-oakland-headlines","19":"tag-oakland-mayor","20":"tag-oakland-news","21":"tag-oakland-police-department","22":"tag-police-accountability","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-regional"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}