{"id":488588,"date":"2026-10-08T00:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T00:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488588\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T00:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T00:16:15","slug":"with-federal-oversight-ending-can-opd-police-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488588\/","title":{"rendered":"With federal oversight ending, can OPD police itself?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a historic decision last week, U.S. District Judge William Orrick released<\/a> the Oakland Police Department from 23 years of federal court oversight. Orrick, city leaders, and the civil rights attorneys who were party to the lawsuit that led to OPD\u2019s oversight all agreed that the police department has come a long way since the early 2000s, when the \u201cRiders\u201d scandal<\/a> exposed a group of officers who\u2019d been accused of beating up people, planting drugs, and lying on police reports.<\/p>\n

But they also agreed that OPD\u2019s near fulfillment of its reform agreement \u2014 50 of 51 tasks that overhauled the department\u2019s policies and procedures \u2014 isn\u2019t an end point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoy should be tempered with humility,\u201d Robert Warshaw, Oakland\u2019s longtime federal monitor, told city leaders last week. \u201cThe things you\u2019ve accomplished, you should have been doing all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Barbara Lee called the end of oversight a \u201cfloor, not the ceiling,\u201d and said Oakland will continue to seek ways of implementing constitutional policing.<\/p>\n

That puts much greater pressure on OPD\u2019s internal accountability systems, the mayor\u2019s office, and the city\u2019s civilian oversight bodies, including the Police Commission<\/a>, which oversees the Community Police Review Agency<\/a> and Office of the Inspector General<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether Oakland is ready for this responsibility is still up for debate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some residents and officials say the city has built the systems it needs to oversee its police department. Others worry those systems lack the resources necessary to hold OPD accountable without the federal court as a backstop. Still, others criticize federal oversight and say the city will thrive now that it doesn\u2019t have to answer to the court-appointed monitor and judge.<\/p>\n

Oakland\u2019s civilian police watchdogs say they need more resources<\/p>\n

\"\"Community Police Review Agency Executive Director Antonio Lawson, seen here on June 18, 2026, says he wants the mayor and City Council to provide more funding to hire more CPRA investigators. Credit: Godofredo Vasquez for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

The most significant civilian oversight body Oakland has created is its Police Commission. Voters established the powerful board in 2016. Under the commission\u2019s authority is the Community Police Review Agency, or CPRA. CPRA investigates complaints of police misconduct and recommends discipline when officers violate rules.<\/p>\n

The agency hasn\u2019t always had the staff it needs to deliver on this goal. Last year, CPRA had just three investigators, according to its 2025 annual report<\/a>. From 2017 through 2025, the vacancy rate among CPRA investigators has ranged from 22% to 56%, including frozen positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Antonio Lawson, CPRA\u2019s executive director, said the agency now has 12 employees and recently hired a deputy director of investigations and a project manager. The mayor and City Council also increased CPRA\u2019s budget<\/a> this year to $5.3 million, according to Lawson. This is up from $3.3 million two years ago.<\/p>\n

Still, Lawson said he wants to hire at least two more frontline investigators and two investigators with legal experience to handle more complex cases. The agency is also seeking outside counsel to help investigate some of OPD\u2019s most serious misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

CPRA is required to investigate certain allegations, including uses of force, in-custody deaths, dishonesty, and crowd-control incidents. The agency has discretion over whether to investigate other complaints, meaning its staffing levels can affect how many cases it takes on, according to Lawson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have more investigators on staff, then we could take on more cases,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re prepared for the future, but we\u2019re going to need more resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawson said he\u2019s encouraged by the mayor\u2019s support for civilian oversight and believes CPRA is in a better financial position than it was before Lee took office. But he\u2019s less certain whether the City Council, which ultimately approves the city budget, will provide the funding the agency needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful,\u201d he said. \u201cOnly time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less certain right now is the future of the Office of the Inspector General. Oakland voters created the office<\/a> in 2020 to independently audit OPD\u2019s policies and practices, including the reforms required under the negotiated settlement agreement, and to make recommendations for improvement.<\/p>\n

But Inspector General Zurvohn Maloof said his office has just three permanent employees: himself, a deputy inspector general, and an administrative assistant. The mayor and City Council chose this year to allocate<\/a> roughly $1.5 million to the office, down from $2.5 million two years ago.<\/p>\n

Maloof said he wants to add five employees, including three auditors and a policy analyst, to fulfill the office\u2019s responsibilities under the city charter<\/a>. His office is also seeking an outside auditing firm to review some of the reforms previously monitored by the federal court.<\/p>\n

The staffing shortage has already taken a toll. Maloof said employees have taken on multiple roles outside their job descriptions, and he regularly works 10- to 12-hour days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all stretched very thin in this office,\u201d Maloof said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Altogether, the Police Commission, CPRA, and inspector general\u2019s budgets total $7.3 million this year, less than 2% of the Oakland Police Department\u2019s $410 million budget.<\/p>\n

What kind of police department transparency can Oakland provide?<\/p>\n

\"\"Garcia-Acosta, center, says the Police Commission is considering ways to help the public monitor OPD\u2019s compliance with the reforms after federal supervision. Credit: Godofredo Vasquez for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Ricardo Garcia-Acosta, chair of the Police Commission, believes the end of federal oversight gives Oakland\u2019s homegrown accountability mechanisms an opportunity to take on a more prominent role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re committed to rolling our sleeves up and getting to work,\u201d he said at a press conference after last week\u2019s court hearing.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Garcia-Acosta said the federal monitoring process sometimes focused too narrowly on whether OPD had technically complied with individual tasks and subtasks. The department could check those boxes, he said, while other problems persisted.<\/p>\n

He pointed to OPD\u2019s previous period of compliance right before a new scandal derailed its progress toward exiting oversight. OPD had come close<\/a> to being released from federal supervision in early 2022. But later that year, Orrick prolonged federal monitoring after documents<\/a> revealed<\/a> that then-Chief LeRonne Armstrong and other OPD leaders had failed to adequately hold an officer accountable for an alleged hit-and-run with a parked car and, in a separate incident, allegedly firing his gun in an elevator inside OPD headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the last scandal showed me was that [OPD] could be in full compliance, and yet there may be scandals brewing under the scenes that we don\u2019t know about,\u201d said Garcia-Acosta.<\/p>\n

Still, he said he\u2019s hopeful the department will continue moving in the right direction under Chief James Beere\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

One question facing the commission now is how much of the reporting developed under federal oversight should continue. The federal monitor used to file quarterly reports detailing whether OPD was complying with the tasks in the reform agreement.<\/p>\n

Garcia-Acosta said OPD could continue producing some of the risk-management reports it previously provided to the monitor and instead present them to the Police Commission and the public. That could give residents a more direct way to track whether OPD continues complying with the reforms, even after the federal court is no longer watching.<\/p>\n

Last month, OPD commanders held a risk-management meeting<\/a>, open to the public, at their headquarters. The sparsely attended meeting included presentations by multiple deputy chiefs describing the various metrics they track to monitor whether certain officers or squads are at risk of violating policies, whether new training or tactics are needed, and other information the department uses to guide its work. OPD hasn\u2019t said whether these public meetings will continue.<\/p>\n

The Police Commission is also considering how to regularly highlight OPD\u2019s performance on the court-ordered reforms at its public meetings, Garcia-Acosta said, potentially giving residents more opportunities to follow the department\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n

But Garcia-Acosta acknowledged that CPRA and the inspector general are likely to see their workloads increase, making additional staffing even more important. Once the city stops paying the independent monitoring team, he said, commissioners intend to push the mayor and City Council to redirect some of those resources toward Oakland\u2019s own oversight infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor said she\u2019s fully committed to allocating resources to our civilian oversight structures, and we\u2019re looking forward to working with the city to make sure they cash in on those commitments,\u201d said Garcia-Acosta.<\/p>\n

Different views on the end of federal oversight<\/p>\n

\"\"The Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, seen here on Sept. 29, 2026, before the last hearing in OPD\u2019s federal oversight case. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Anne Janks, a member of the Coalition for Police Accountability<\/a>, isn\u2019t sure Oakland is actually ready to take full responsibility for ensuring its police department doesn\u2019t violate people\u2019s constitutional rights. She worries Oakland is placing more work on institutions it has historically failed to adequately fund. She said the Police Commission, CPRA, and inspector general\u2019s office remain severely understaffed and under-resourced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how you can say Oakland is ready when the city administration and council have actively and intentionally decimated the charter-mandated funding for independent oversight,\u201d Janks said.<\/p>\n

The city charter states that<\/a> Oakland \u201cshall allocate a sufficient budget for the OIG to perform its functions and duties.\u201d The charter also requires CPRA to have at least seven investigators.<\/p>\n

The next test, Janks said, will be whether the mayor and the City Council will follow through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to ensure that funding starts immediately, so that these independent oversight bodies can begin to rebuild to do this essential work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The coalition\u2019s demands represent one side in the broader debate over the role and effectiveness of Oakland\u2019s civilian police oversight system.<\/p>\n

Some residents and community groups argue that civilian oversight has hindered officers\u2019 ability to fight crime, driven away police chiefs, and demoralized the department. Earlier this year, District 7 Councilmember Ken Houston sought to address some of those concerns by proposing changes<\/a> to the city charter that would significantly reduce the Police Commission\u2019s powers.<\/p>\n

The Coalition for Police Accountability \u2014 whose members spent years advocating for independent civilian oversight<\/a>, leading to the commission\u2019s creation in 2016 \u2014 argues that those criticisms are misguided and that weakening the commission would go against the will of the voters. Measure LL<\/a>, which established the Police Commission and CPRA, was approved by 83% of Oakland voters in 2016; Measure S1<\/a>, which created the Office of the Inspector General, passed four years later with 81% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Others have questioned CPRA and the inspector general\u2019s performance, pointing to a city auditor\u2019s report<\/a> that found both agencies had failed to carry out some of their charter obligations.<\/p>\n

Janks rejects the argument that those findings demonstrate independent oversight is ineffective. The city cannot withhold resources from its oversight agencies, she said, and then cite their inability to fulfill all their responsibilities as evidence that the system does not work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to criticize them, what you do first is you give them the resources they need, and then you can complain about what is or isn\u2019t getting done,\u201d Janks said.<\/p>\n

Loren Taylor, a former City Council member and current leader with Safe Oakland<\/a> \u2014 a coalition founded in August \u2014 was no fan of federal court oversight. He described it as \u201ca shackle around the neck of our city for over 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were subjected to the whims of these outsiders who don\u2019t even live or spend more than one night in Oakland a year,\u201d said Taylor in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

Taylor said federal oversight complicated OPD\u2019s chain of command because the police chief had to answer to the federal judge and monitor, as well as the mayor and Police Commission. He also said officers have told him the additional scrutiny led them to \u201cerr on the side of less interaction with the community\u201d to avoid complaints, paperwork, and other administrative burdens.<\/p>\n

Ending federal monitoring does not mean Oakland needs to create a local replacement for the monitor, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

He believes Oakland\u2019s civilian oversight structures have already been doing much of the work needed to hold the police department accountable. The federal monitor and judge provided an added backstop, he said, rather than performing the day-to-day work of the Police Commission, CPRA, inspector general, and internal affairs.<\/p>\n

Taylor also pointed to the mayor\u2019s creation of a constitutional policing administrator<\/a> in her office, who is tasked with improving communication among OPD, the city administration, and civilian oversight bodies, as a positive sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monitor was not actually doing the job for us,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThe monitor was just an additional layer of oversight, review, and approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor said he and other Safe Oakland members \u2014 including the NAACP Oakland branch<\/a>, former OPD Chief Armstrong<\/a>, and leaders of local chambers of commerce \u2014 plan to continue attending Police Commission meetings, communicating with OPD and civilian oversight leaders, and reviewing reports to help residents understand whether the department is maintaining its reforms.<\/p>\n

Even with resource constraints, civilian oversight leaders remain cautiously optimistic. With the city no longer expected to spend more than $1 million annually on the independent monitoring team, Maloof hopes some of that money can instead support the Police Commission, CPRA and his office.<\/p>\n

Garcia-Acosta said discussions about that transition are already underway. City leaders have been talking about restoring frozen positions, he said, including investigators for CPRA and auditors for the inspector general.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, Orrick is expected to issue a written order formally dismissing the case. Civilian oversight leaders told The Oaklandside they hope the judge will provide recommendations for the city\u2019s transition, including how Oakland should support its independent oversight system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be important for us to understand where the city is going to invest resources and what type of reports they\u2019re going to share with the public,\u201d Garcia-Acosta said.<\/p>\n

Maloof said the end of federal oversight is both an opportunity and a test of the commitments city leaders made in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m optimistic that we\u2019re going to get those resources that we\u2019ve been trying so hard to achieve for the past four years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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