![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/250428-OPD-FILE-MD-01-KQED-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAfter more than two decades of federal supervision, a court monitor recently found the department had met all 51 reforms required by a court settlement. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An Oakland Police Department squad car in downtown Oakland on April 28, 2025.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n
As part of that agreement, the city and OPD agreed to pay nearly $11 million and comply with the court\u2019s reforms. The tasks relate to the use of force, discipline, supervision, training and internal affairs investigations, among other requirements.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As long as the department remains in compliance by the next court date, which is scheduled for Sept. 29, Orrick said he would close the case at that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Much of the city\u2019s leadership was in attendance at the hearing, including Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, who told Orrick she intends to ensure the department complies with his requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I said before the court, over and over again, I\u2019d like to be completed and exit this court oversight under my watch,\u201d Lee said. \u201cHowever, compliance with and no backsliding is also my requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a phone interview with KQED following the hearing, Lee called the news monumental, but said there\u2019s more to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been focus and direction and sustained commitment to constitutional policing that I believe is happening now,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe monitor and the judge at least through their comments and their evaluation \u2014 and believe you me this is not easy, it\u2019s very difficult \u2014 have said that the 51 tasks to date have been accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Chanin, one of two attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case, congratulated OPD, but expressed concern about what he described as a failure to consider whether there is a double standard in how officers of different races are disciplined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that the leadership of OPD really believes in the principles of the [settlement agreement],\u201d Chanin told the court, \u201cthat they no longer want to attain compliance because they have to, but because they want to. Hope I\u2019m right about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most recently, the court has been focused on three tasks that deal with the timeliness of internal affairs investigations, complaint procedures and the fairness and consistency of officer discipline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, these tasks appear to have been accomplished. Some work remains,\u201d Orrick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orrick directed the federal court monitor overseeing the reforms, Robert S. Warshaw, to continue to evaluate the department\u2019s compliance with those tasks over the coming months. He also asked the city to evaluate the other 48 tasks to determine if they too have been met and asked the parties to reflect on lessons they\u2019ve learned from the case.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plaintiffs attorney John Burris said he supported the city reviewing the other tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done here is not just for today, even though it has taken 20-something years to do, it is for the next 25 years,\u201d Burris said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why I want to make sure that we have put in place \u2014 and the court has sanctioned what has been in place \u2014 that will endure beyond today and beyond next September when this hopefully ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department has worked to meet those requirements even as new scandals have emerged and as the department has experienced repeated leadership turnover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Chanin said, much has changed within the department in the intervening years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started out doing police misconduct work in Oakland, people would beat people up and then they would get cheered in the locker room,\u201d he said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen anymore. Now they get turned in.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a May 22 report, Warshaw wrote that OPD had reached compliance with all 51 tasks of the settlement agreement for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is still work to be done, the mayor\u2019s leadership and the department\u2019s commitment to addressing these three tasks have culminated in success,\u201d Warshaw wrote. \u201cWe will continue to monitor the department\u2019s performance, and are hopeful that these findings will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than two decades of federal supervision, a court monitor recently found the department had met all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-335380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335380","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=335380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}