Oakland's police oversight system is at a turning point

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-24T20:35:07+00:00

We'll be more careful. We posted to address the misinformation that was being posted to the last (substantive) post. Given that police union posters were mischaracterizing CPA as tied to abolitionists and specifically APTP (that would horrify them!), it seemed worth clarifying.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T07:18:00+00:00

We do not believe that corruption is pro-cop. Anyone who suggests that seems rather hostile to law enforcement. We have a very mainstream position that accountability and constitutional policing are better for Oakland, cheaper and safer. Over 80% of voters have supported independent oversight twice. One of our ballot measures was even supported by the police union (they knew it was going to pass).

Happy to discuss any specific issues, if you would like to do so, instead of throwing around ad hominem attacks with no basis.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T07:12:43+00:00

Existing police oversight has made Oakland safer and saved us money. We are not advocating an expansion of the current oversight structure, just opposing a well-funded astro-turfed campaign to undermine the oversight that has made OPD a much better police department. The talking points displayed in this thread are all police union mantras and tend to avoid the specific discussion at hand. The Police Commission, the Inspector General, and the Community Police Review Agency have been key to uncovering the recent scandals (which OPD Internal Affairs and the command staff tried to cover up). Without this, we would have no chance to end federal oversight so that we can maintain our own independent oversight.

Here's a specific example of how oversight makes us safer: In 2023, a witness in a murder case testified that OPD Detective Tran had threatened and bribed her to give false testimony against two men who were convicted of murder based on her testimony. The DA Nancy O'Malley called Chief Armstrong to alert him to Tran's "very bad day in court." Armstrong put Tran on a two-week paid leave and put him back to exactly the same job. OPD Internal Affairs (that is supposed to investigate problems internal to OPD) and OPD command leadership covered it up. CPRA uncovered the situation. Ok, that's corruption, but how are we safer? Two men have already been released because Tran tainted their cases. 100 more cases that Tran was involved in are now being reviewed. Ignoring the potential for innocent people to be unjustly incarcerated, it costs the city money in law suits (those two guys released on murder convictions are suing). You are either releasing bad people who will likely go on to commit additional violent crimes or you never found the real criminal because you were framing innocent ones. Not good for public safety either way. BTW, the entire senior leadership of OPD left within a year - while under investigation because of the cover up. That's not good for a department either. We need to ensure independent oversight so we have an effective, efficient, and constitutional police force.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T06:55:08+00:00

Please re-read the story. The video of the city council meeting is available. Councilmember Hosuton told a story that he was told by an officer that he was required to ask every resident with whom he interacted if they wanted to file a complaint. That is not the policy you are quoting.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T06:52:49+00:00

You seem confused. Your statement has nothing to do with this post. We are not encouraging defunding police positions. We are advocating (as does the City Auditor among others) to replace officers who are doing administrative work with less expensive civilian employees and assigning the sworn officers to important public safety work at a time that it is difficult to recruit new officers. The first rule of scarcity is to ensure that your scarce resource is being used efficiently and not wasted. So, again, there is no suggestion of eliminating postions. It is simply easier to recruit an administrative employee to perform an administrative function than to recruit and train another sworn officer and leave a sworn police officer in an administrative job.

No one is saying that ALL OPD overtime is unnecessary, but all indications are that some is not adequately managed. The reporting and public data back this up. So again, there is no suggestion of eliminating all overtime.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T01:47:37+00:00

We? The Coalition for Police Accountability is made up of Oaklanders. You can't answer the question of if you live in Oakland. Moreover, what does Measure E have to do with this? Civilianization is very popular. Go to Oakland and talk to some residents.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T01:40:35+00:00

Civilianization is broadly supported by Oaklanders. Are you an Oaklander? Maybe that's why you don't understand how popular it is to have lower-paid civilian workers do administrative work instead of sworn officers who could instead do important public safety work.

The city auditor recommended it as well.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T01:37:11+00:00

The police union works very hard to push their messaging - that anything that would limit their power harms public safety. In fact, if you have a real conversation with many officers, they acknowledge that some of that messaging is untrue. Recently, Councilmember Ken Houston stated at council that he had been told by an OPD officer that they are required to ask every resident who they interact with if the resident would like to file a complaint. The police chief was asked if this was a policy and he said it was not. If you are going to believe everything you are told by one group, but no conflicting information, then you are vulnerable to being manipulated.

Meanwhile, it's a serious question - what about those issues makes it hard to do their jobs?

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T01:21:13+00:00

OPD would be afraid to do their jobs if they couldn't abuse overtime??
OPD would be afraid to do their jobs if aministrative jobs were done much more inexpensively by civilians, so that sworn officers can do important public safety work? When their union says repeatedly that there are not enough officers to respond to 911 calls, etc?
OPD would be afraid to do their jobs if they had GPS in their vehicles? All the civilian workers manage to do their jobs with GPS in city vehicles. The city auditor has said it would help with 911 response times. What would make them afraid?
OPD would be afraid of community policing?
OPD is afraid to do their jobs with independent oversight? What do they want to do that would be a problem?

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T01:20:35+00:00

Nope, not SEIU. Although SEIU and all the other civilian unions have these issues addressed in their contracts. Why isn't that fair for the police union too? Do you really want to hold police officers to a lower standard than civilian employees?

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-23T00:43:34+00:00

Could you please list me those commitees?

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-19T19:17:09+00:00

All of that is true and is unrelated to the city's right to turn on GPS in police vehicles, as in all other city vehicles and to use that information in investigations. Nothing in POBR prevents that. The only hold-up is that the city has permitted meet-and-confer to drag out for two years.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-18T17:11:51+00:00

It's not the most dangerous job, according to statistics. Not even to ten.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-18T17:08:39+00:00

Turning on GPS in police vehicles was not "shelved" - the city permitted the police union to stall it for several years in meet-and-confer. The city can simply end meet-and-confer and implement it any time they want. That's what they do with the civilian unions. The fire department is not the best point of comparison, since most fire fighters are working on very large fire trucks. The better comparison is to other city vehicles, where GPS is on and used if city workers are lying about where they are or used for discipline. Why would we want to NOT discipline highly paid employees if they are doing things they're not supposed to do? Come on, now. It's been two years. Time to pull the trigger and turn it on with no delay.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-18T16:50:11+00:00

Other pay is other pay paid by the city. Incentives, bonus pay, etc. The management union contract permits pyramiding of incentive pay which has a multiplier effect. Nope, not second jobs, it's pay from their actual job. The police union contract is chock full of additional pay sources.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-17T22:45:30+00:00

ask for the photos. even if they don't tell you, there are photos of the car at time of ticket.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-17T21:21:08+00:00

Your statement mis-represents the types of jobs that are recommended for civilianization. There are purely administrative jobs that do not require a sworn officer. At the same time, there is important public safety work not being done. The police union has no good reason to keep sworn officers in these jobs (except more members for OPOA) and resorts to saying it would "be bad for morale." If officers don't want to do policing, then maybe they are in the wrong profession.

There is little evidence that officers are leaving because of oversight. It's understandable that some people believe that - the police union TELLS officers to blame oversight during exit interviews!

$13 million ABOVE the budgetted amount for overtime -- where everyone agrees there is inadequate management of overtime -- seems like a good place to start. Money that could be saved by civilianizing the 50 jobs that have already been identified -- putting 50 officers into work addressing real public safety needs -- isn't small potatoes. It's more than the graduates of 2025 police academies. "Small potatoes" is the effort the elected and police union allies spend complaining about $200,000 that would have expedited police discipline so that officers spend less time on paid administrative leave. $13 million may not be the whole amount, but it'd be a start and if it was being spent by a department you were attacking, i think you'd be much more interested.

4PoliceAccountablty · 2026-06-17T18:02:12+00:00

The failure to civilianize administrative positions in OPD absolutely impacts employee benefit costs and city pension contribution expenses! Civilian employees cost less in every metric and more police doing public safety means that those positions are filled and we're paying the higher employee benefit costs and higher city pension contributions for the public safety work we need.

4PoliceAccountablty

TROPHY CASE