Two weeks before a highly anticipated court hearing that could be the last in the Oakland Police Department\u2019s 23-year federal oversight program, the department may be facing another setback.<\/p>\n
OPD has fallen out of compliance with one of the key final tasks in its reform program, according to a report<\/a> filed Tuesday by Robert Warshaw, the department\u2019s independent monitor.<\/p>\n The finding marks a blow to OPD, which returned to compliance with the task during the last reporting period after a year of noncompliance.<\/p>\n Known as Task 2, the requirement calls for OPD to complete at least 85% of its most serious police misconduct investigations within 180 days. According to the monitor\u2019s report, during the first quarter of the year, 83% of investigations involving the department\u2019s most serious misconduct allegations were completed within that timeframe.<\/p>\n Meeting the deadline is important because state laws can prohibit police departments from disciplining officers for misconduct if investigations into their actions aren\u2019t finished on time.<\/p>\n Warshaw did not state in his report whether the new finding will impact plans to release the department from oversight.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain optimistic that IAB [Internal Affairs Bureau] leadership is working diligently to continue to streamline the intake and investigative process,\u201d Warshaw wrote.<\/p>\n Jim Chanin, one of the two attorneys who sued OPD and the city in the case that led to OPD\u2019s federal oversight, said he was frustrated by the lack of clear direction from the monitor.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to end the NSA [Negotiated Settlement Agreement] on Sept. 29, and I think he should say something,\u201d Chanin said. \u201cWe\u2019re paying him money. We need the wisdom of his point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n John Burris, Chanin\u2019s co-counsel, said the findings are \u201cdisappointing,\u201d but he doesn\u2019t think they will result in the federal judge extending OPD\u2019s oversight program.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though we prefer to have everything in compliance, it may be an impossible task,\u201d he said. \u201cThe question is whether or not significant progress has been made to move the department in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Warshaw\u2019s report also found that OPD continued to meet court-ordered requirements governing how it receives and investigates misconduct complaints and how it imposes discipline.<\/p>\n The report is part of OPD\u2019s ongoing federal oversight, stemming from a 2003 agreement between the city and plaintiffs in a civil rights lawsuit<\/a>. OPD has been in a \u201csustainability period\u201d since May 2022, during which it is working to demonstrate that the 51 court-ordered reforms<\/a> have become lasting practices.<\/p>\n The sustainability period was initially expected to last one year, but U.S. District Judge William Orrick has extended it as various problems have popped up.<\/p>\n Warshaw\u2019s latest report focuses on three remaining requirements involving the department\u2019s Internal Affairs Bureau: the timeliness of misconduct investigations, complaint procedures, and consistency in discipline.<\/p>\n The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29 at the San Francisco federal courthouse.<\/p>\n The Oakland City Attorney\u2019s Office and OPD did not respond to The Oaklandside\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks before a highly anticipated court hearing that could be the last in the Oakland Police Department\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[74580,143,145,144,2452,407,15636,1492],"class_list":["post-465329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-negotiated-settlement-agreement","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-police","tag-oakland-police-department","tag-police-reform","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465329","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=465329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}