Oakland Police Leave Federal Oversight After 23 Years. Now the City Has to Watch Itself

For the first time since 2003, no federal judge is looking over the Oakland Police Department's shoulder. U.S. District Judge William Orrick dismissed the long-running civil rights case against the city at a Sept. 29 hearing in San Francisco, ending what news outlets describe as the longest court-ordered police reform program in U.S. history.

How it started

The case began in December 2000, when 119 plaintiffs accused four veteran West Oakland officers, known as the "Riders," of beating people, planting drugs, making false arrests and falsifying reports, Courthouse News reported. The officers were acquitted in criminal court, but the city settled the civil suit in 2003 by agreeing to 51 reforms. The work was expected to take about five years. Instead it stretched across 23, as the department repeatedly made progress and then slipped amid new scandals, including a sex abuse case and mishandled internal affairs investigations.

OPD came close to an exit in early 2022, but Orrick extended monitoring after documents showed then-Chief LeRonne Armstrong and other leaders failed to properly discipline an officer in two incidents, The Oaklandside reported.

Why the judge stepped back

The civil rights attorneys who brought the case, Jim Chanin and John Burris, had asked for one more year of oversight with the Police Commission in the lead, KTVU reported. Orrick declined. "It's important for the federal court to get out of the way," he said, adding that oversight should come from the people rather than a federal courtroom. The department had substantially complied with 50 of the 51 tasks. Federal monitoring formally ended Sept. 30, and the monitor has until Oct. 16 to close his Oakland office.

What comes next

Authority over police discipline and policy now rests with the city, including the volunteer Oakland Police Commission, which oversees the Community Police Review Agency and the Office of the Inspector General. Mayor Barbara Lee called the end of oversight "a floor, not the ceiling." Councilmember Charlene Wang, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said she plans to take the transition seriously.

Orrick is expected to issue a written dismissal order in the coming months. Civilian oversight leaders told The Oaklandside they hope it includes recommendations on how the city should support its independent oversight system.