Is the Oakland Police Department's federal oversight ending after 23 years?

Oakland Police Department has complied with all 51 mandated tasks required under federal court oversight. The federal monitor reported the department’s full compliance and expressed hope the results will continue. City leaders are scheduled to appear in federal court to discuss progress and whether oversight can end. If the department sustains the reforms, the judge may sign off on the long-running police reform effort. Oakland placed OPD under court supervision in 2003 after allegations of misconduct by West Oakland officers, including planting drugs, beating residents, killing dogs, and kidnapping and assaulting a man. The negotiated settlement agreement set 51 tasks to improve oversight, accountability, prevent brutality and racial profiling, and professionalize the department. Previous mayors and chiefs did not complete the reforms, and multiple scandals delayed progress.

"For the first time in the history of its federal court oversight, the Oakland Police Department has complied with all of its 51 mandated tasks, according to a report filed last week by Robert Warshaw, OPD's federal monitor."

"“We will continue to monitor the Department's performance, and are hopeful that these findings will remain,” Warshaw wrote in his May 22 report to U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick."

"If OPD can sustain all of its 51 reforms, Orrick may finally sign off on what's become the longest-running police reform effort in the country. Completing the NSA is a goal that has eluded five previous mayors and eight police chiefs."

"The Negotiated Settlement Agreement laid out 51 tasks to address poor oversight and accountability, put an end to police brutality, prevent racial profiling, and professionalize OPD. At first, OPD stumbled badly, ignoring the agreement's requirements. And over the past two decades, the department was roiled by a series of additional scandals - illegal strip searches, perjured warrants, police riots, sexual exploitation of a minor, racial disparities in stops and searches, and inconsistent internal discipline - that prevented it from completing the reforms."

Read at The Oaklandside