San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Oakland police monitor sees faulty statistics on use of force
The independent monitor overseeing reforms in the Oakland Police Department said he found additional evidence that some officers pointed guns at suspects or used force in other ways without reporting their actions as required.
Court-appointed monitor Robert Warshaw said that in a sampling of cases he reviewed, all uses of force by police officers were warranted and in line with department policy. It was the lack of reporting their actions that violated the rules, he wrote in a court filing last week.
Warshaw’s findings call into question Oakland’s celebrated drop in police use of force. According to the department, incidents fell 75 percent from 2012 to 2017. Warshaw’s probe into
the numbers is ongoing.
Skeptical of the “unexplained reduction,” Warshaw several months ago embarked on a review of arrest reports that has included watching body-camera footage to see whether interactions happened as police officers said they did.
Warshaw, a former police chief of Rochester, N.Y., and deputy drug czar under President Bill Clinton, said he watched videos from 38 cases, chosen because they were likely to have involved tangles with suspects, even though no force was reportedly used.
In 14 cases — more than a third — officers did, in fact, get physical with people they were trying to arrest, Warshaw said. Videos showed six officers pointing their guns at suspects, which is considered a use of force that should be reported under department policy. In six cases, officers also failed to activate their cameras during the actual arrest, according to the review.
“The Oakland Police Department is committed to fair and constitutional policing and will continue to work with the federal court and the monitoring team to implement sustainable reforms,” police spokeswoman Felicia Aisthorpe said in an email.
It’s not the first time in recent weeks that Warshaw has found inconsistencies and omissions.
His first audit, in September, turned up six out of 29 cases in which officers purportedly pointed firearms or got physical with suspects but did not report their actions. The next one, last month, found 11 unreported incidents in 40 cases.
The monitor called his latest findings “troubling.” The accompanying arrest reports said “no force was used or witnessed,” which Warshaw called “inaccurate, boilerplate” language and “a serious misrepresentation.”
“It is not clear whether these deficiencies result from supervisory direction or a lack thereof, a misinterpretation of OPD policy, or other reasons,” he wrote. “However, OPD must definitively determine this to assure confidence in the accuracy of its force data.”
The department’s inspector general opened its own review, but Warshaw had problems with that, too. He said the internal watchdog attributed part of the drop in force reporting to a lack of clarity on what’s considered intentionally pointing a firearm at someone.
Warshaw disagreed. He said the “policy appears clear on this issue.” Pointing a gun above a 45-degree angle, he noted, is a reportable use of force, according to department rules.
“Our review suggests the need for a more broadly based inquiry and consideration of corrective measures to include policy revisions, training, and intervention where appropriate,” Warshaw said in the report.
The probe has added another complication to the city’s 15-year-old reform program that stemmed from the Riders scandal, in which a group of officers in West Oakland were accused of beating residents and planting evidence. A civil settlement in the case laid out dozens of tasks that had to be completed before the Police Department could emerge from federal court oversight.
Police morale bottoms out in Richmond
It’s no secret that the Richmond Police Department has had its share of scandals over the years, but a scathing new report details the department’s toxic work environment and suggests a lack of leadership is partly to blame.
Ninety-seven percent of the sergeants and officers surveyed reported low morale and blamed an apathetic administration. Sixty-three percent said that their talents were barely leveraged or not leveraged at all. Former City Manager Bill Lindsay commissioned the 15-page report, which was completed in September by Boston consultants MBD Innovations. The findings were concluded through interviews with city officials and top ranking members of the police force. An anonymous online survey was also conducted with 67 sergeants and officers. Chief Allwyn Brown said in an email to The Chronicle that the low morale is due in part to short staffing and high demand, overtime obligations and lack of salary increases, which “we have little discretion and or control over.”
The report, however, said the department lacks a “compelling articulated vision,” resulting in an “operational disconnect” between senior members and first-line staff. The department was also criticized for not having anyone above the rank of sergeant on duty after 7 p.m. during “peak hours of police activity.”
When it comes to dealing with crime and issues presented by the community, the report called the department “reactive” and lacking a “cogent” and “comprehensive” strategy to deal with crime. The report also blasted the department’s inability to reach out to communities mistrustful of police.
The criticisms on the department’s strategic vision is “something we are studying internally,” Brown said.
How the department improves could be complicated by the relationship between the chief and office of the city manager, which was was found to be “sub-optimal.” The report pointed to mishandled disciplinary cases that have mired the department in the past, most notably the sexual misconduct scandal involving Richmond police officers and a young sex worker who went by the name Celeste Guap.
In the spring, a veteran Richmond police captain, Mark Gagan, was reinstated after he successfully appealed his firing. He had been accused of leaking a police report to a television news reporter, but maintained his innocence, and Lindsay said there was insufficient evidence.
City Manager Carlos Martinez, who was selected to take over that role in August, called the new report accurate in an email to The Chronicle. He said he has met with Brown to discuss the issues raised and will continue to meet with the chief regularly.
Brown told The Chronicle that only the city manager can enforce serious punishments, including termination from the force.
The report also found that the department leadership has an “acrimonious” relationship with the Richmond officers’ union.
Kimberly Veklerov and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@ sfchronicle.com, sravani@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Kveklerov @SarRavani