Oakland Police Department Faces Possible Federal Takeover If NSA
Issues Not Settled Soon *Judge Henderson,9/27/2011
Regarding the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, The Judge thinks that the OPD is sounding like a broken record. (my words) He heard the same thing, that Oakland would be in compliance by December 31, 5 years ago.
From The Bay Citizen on March 11, 2011
The police department entered into the negotiated settlement agreement in 2003 after two civil rights attorneys brought a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the department for the victims of police misconduct in the Riders case, in which four rogue police officers were accused of regularly planting evidence and beating suspects in West Oakland.
Cont.
The original deadline for compliance was 2005, but has been extended more than once. The latest deadline is January 2012. There is speculation that the threat of federal receivership led to the recent resignation of Chief Anthony Batts earlier this month.
It remains unclear how much Batts was influenced by the threat of increased federal control of the Police Department.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
On October 14th Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan was sworn in as interim Police Chief.
The swift appointment of Jordan, a 23-year department veteran who has previously served as an interim chief, is intended to bolster the city's compliance with court-ordered reforms, city officials said. SFGate
Oakland has previously ignored their own crowd management policy before the events of The Occupy Oakland March, and have failed to comply with a federal court order.
To sum up: Civilian Oversight of the OPD is long overdue, and in my opinion, funds need to be shifted from tear gas and crowd control, to compliance with the negotiated settlement agreement.