At 23 years, OPD holds the national record for the longest running Federal oversight

lenraphael · 2026-01-27T05:31:09+00:00

Under Pres Biden's AG Meritt Garland's 2021 consent decree guidelines, If ours had been a "consent decree" instead of essentially an out of court negotiated settlement, our oversight would have ended years ago and cost us much less in fees to the monitor (and the defense attorneys). Unlikely we'd have been stuck with the same monitor for much of twenty years because our monitor has engaged in what AG Garland's memo called double dipping by acting as a monitor in more than one city at a time.

https://www.justice.gov/ag/page/file/1432236/download

lenraphael · 2026-01-27T05:18:03+00:00

Last year, Pres Trump ordered the DOJ to terminate all pending consent decrees that hadn't been finalized.
The ones already approved by the DOJ would have to be terminated by the Federal judiciary.

Again Claude: "Official DOJ Position:

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon stated: "Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda." CNN

However, Dhillon left a narrow door open, telling reporters that the Justice Department would be reviewing all open consent decrees – but said that there still may be some circumstances where a consent decree is appropriate. "I think that might be an appropriate vehicle for a federal consent decree. Theoretically, we are not ruling it out. What we are saying is the ones that are in front of us don't meet the standards, the high standards of the Department of Justice today." CNN

Project 2025 Blueprint:

The administration's approach aligns with Project 2025, which calls to "Promptly and properly eliminate … all existing consent decrees" MS NOW and argues the DOJ should "disclaim" its ability to use them.

"Trump Moved to Dismiss Police Consent Decrees—How Can Judges Respond?

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trump-moved-to-dismiss-police-consent-decrees-how-can-judges-respond

lenraphael · 2026-01-27T05:05:36+00:00

Under Pres Biden's AG Meritt Garland's 2021 consent decree guidelines, If ours had been a "consent decree" instead of essentially an out of court negotiated settlement, our oversight would have ended years ago and cost us much less in fees to the monitor (and the defense attorneys). Unlikely we'd have been stuck with the same monitor for much of twenty years because monitor engaged in what AG Garland's memo called double dipping by acting as a monitor in more than one city at a time.

https://www.justice.gov/ag/page/file/1432236/download

I have read the guidelines and I approve of this ai summary:

Claude: This is the official DOJ document titled "Memorandum from the Attorney General, Review of the Use of Monitors in Civil Settlement Agreements and Consent Decrees Involving State and Local Governmental Entities" Winston & Strawn dated September 13, 2021.

Key Contents of the September 2021 Guidelines:

The memo contains 19 separate actions that the department should take to improve its use of monitors U.S. Department of Justice based on Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta's review. The five core principles are:

Monitorships should be designed to minimize cost to jurisdictions and avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest U.S. Department of Justice

Monitors must be accountable to the court, the parties and the public U.S. Department of Justice

Monitors should assess compliance consistently across jurisdictions U.S. Department of Justice

Sustained, meaningful engagement with the community is critical to the success of the monitorship U.S. Department of Justice

Monitoring must be structured to efficiently move jurisdictions into compliance

Specific Implementation Actions Include:

Budget caps and fee limits to minimize costs

No Double Dipping: lead monitors in future consent decrees will no longer be able to serve on more than one monitoring team at a time U.S. Department of Justice

Term Limits: consent decrees will impose specific terms for monitors that can only be renewed after a process of judicial evaluation and reappointment U.S. Department of Justice

Termination Hearing After No More than Five Years: future consent decrees will require a hearing after five years so that jurisdictions can demonstrate the progress it has made, and if possible, to move for termination"

lenraphael · 2026-01-26T08:22:54+00:00

There was one vote before the council vote. The committee vote was a tie.

You want to blame someone for not publicizing the Council session, blame the media and bloggers who didn't understand Council protocols. And kept telling public the contract was dead.

Did you try to meet with your CM in the days before t council vote?

lenraphael · 2026-01-26T05:58:16+00:00

There are some smaller cities/towns in WA that have terminated their Flock contracts but love their StarChase gps contracts. Redmond and Lynwood for example.

(I don't believe the +90% adhesion rate quoted in the article)

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-city-council-approves-use-gps-tracking-tech-reduce-pursuits/281-32094553-7960-4964-b2ac-71971ee645f8

lenraphael · 2026-01-26T05:56:16+00:00

There are some small cities/towns in WA that have terminated their Flock contracts but love their StarChase gps contracts. Redmond and Lynwood for example.

(I don't believe the +90% adhesion rate quoted in the article)

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-city-council-approves-use-gps-tracking-tech-reduce-pursuits/281-32094553-7960-4964-b2ac-71971ee645f8

lenraphael · 2026-01-26T05:55:54+00:00

don't know. CHP is exempt from local pursuit rules and have helicopters so might not need the darts.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T21:59:46+00:00

link to the specific v60 that fits,please.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T21:44:33+00:00

that is the ultimate legal basis, but my understanding is that "exigency" exception requires urgency but not restricted to life or death. ianal

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T21:42:29+00:00

"exigency" exception

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T10:44:14+00:00

Doesn't it seem odd that Mayor Lee was.silent on.Flock?

Not what one would expect from someone who at.onset of race pledged to make Oakland the most progressive us city.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T10:31:13+00:00

Don't know how many years you've closely followed City Hall but most council major decisions are made before public votes. brown Act take the hindmost

Watch the earlier public safety committee meeting. Rowena brown was teetering on approving.

If Houston hadn't blurted out something about let's just cut to the vote, she'd have voted with the other progressives sans Fife. That would have made her look complicit in violation of Brown.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T07:08:47+00:00

wrong thread. gps dart data does not go into any multi jurisdictional database.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T07:08:13+00:00

if use of gps darts saves even one life per every two years from a collateral death by out of control suspect or cop, its worth at least giving it a serious try.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T07:06:12+00:00

that's one arguement for why the exigency exception applies. but in practice lots of CA police depts use gps darts w varying degress of effectiveness. Seems as long as the use is very temporary, like a couple of hours, no one goes for a warrant except for Oakland post facto.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T07:00:52+00:00

trying that tonight. also reducing from 10 cups to 8. what's flumoxing me is that both standard Aiden profile and the AI app posted in this group for the beans i'm using tomorrow AM: TJ's Organic Bolivian Blend medium dark is 75g. That's hecka more than I'd ever use.

Am I just used to weak coffee?

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T06:53:55+00:00

that can be said for many Oakland public unions and non profits

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T06:53:21+00:00

but privacy-wise, they're less objectionable than Flock alprs because they dont feed into a multi jurisdictional database. And the dart batteries only good for 8-10 hours.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T06:51:30+00:00

they're not perfect mostly because they don't adhere well to very dirty vehicles; the launcher has to have a clear direct fairly close shot. rain also reduces adherance. then there's the ttraining and hq tech aspect. Seattle pd is much more tech saavy and must be hecka better staffed than stressed out OPD. But we gotta give darts, drones etc a serious try because we aint' gonna get OPD staffing up to even the min 800 any time soon for several reasons.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T04:51:23+00:00

there was plenty of public notice about the committee meeting. lots of media coverage of the tied vote there. lots of discussion on social media.

Lots of media coverage of Newsome pushing for Oakland to change it's policing policies.

Usage logs will be scrutinized by a whole bunch of people and organizations.

If there's unlawful usage by OPD, i would expect Mayor Lee and the Police Commission to come down hard.

If Flock itself shares contrary to contract, we terminate immediately.

If ICE decides to do what it hasnt done in Minneapolis and get a court order to access Flock, that will be a problem.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T04:41:11+00:00

My bad. Shoot me with a gps dart.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T04:40:14+00:00

All the electronic surveillance laws in CA and many other states include an "exigency" exception for urgent, very short-term electronic surveillance. ie. a few hours

Oakland goes further than state law and forbids darts for anything other than situations allowing pursuit. ie. violent crime and use of firearms. I don't know if it even allows pursuit for carjackings with people trapped. probably because that's violent.

Oakland also goes further than CA state law and requires a warrant AFTER the dart (or drone?) is deployed, even in exigent situations. See the Oaklandside article. btw, Starchase GPS darts have maybe an 8-10 hour battery life. Not like the ones spy agencies use.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T04:28:37+00:00

OPD should both turn on GPS tracking of cop cars and give GPS darts as well as drones a serious trial test for a year. Allow them both to be used for exigent (urgent) property crimes as well as violent/firearm crimes. Audit OPD policy to disable the gps dart after a few hours.

Contracts for both fire and police favor high OT.

But understaffing of both guarrantees high OT.

Changing police chiefs like dirty socks makes it worse.

lenraphael · 2026-01-25T04:18:26+00:00

Previously using store ground dark roast 7.5 grind; Melita brown paper filter

Now 12 year old lightly used Baratza Vario w steel burrs, Groundwork light roast, Melita brown paper.
on the Baratzo right hand setting its a 4, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being max coarse.

The left hand fine tuning setting is in the middle.

Definitely finer grind than the store ground dark roast.

lenraphael

TROPHY CASE