Oakland police again dinged by federal official for investigating misconduct too slowly

OAKLAND The city s police department is no closer to ending two decades of direct oversight by a federal judge having failed once again to investigate enough complaints against officers within a timeframe set by the court Between January and March of this year the Oakland Police Department s internal affairs unit finished vetting just of the the majority serious complaints within six months far short of a required threshold This marks another backslide for OPD which in an earlier published period fell short on just one assessment of such statements This time around OPD s internal affairs missed the mark on occasions It is a key task that U S District Court Judge William Orrick expects OPD to complete before he brings an end to court oversight where the department has remained ever since a brutality disgrace at the start of the century OPD has been plagued by other controversies in the ensuing years as well as high turnover Chief Floyd Mitchell s resignation in October will again leave the department without a permanent leader His last official day is Dec The latest assessment by federal monitor Robert Warshaw may signal that oversight is here to stay beyond OPD s next court hearing in January Achieving timely internal affairs investigations of officers is one of court-ordered reorganization tasks the department was required to fulfill as part of a negotiated settlement following the Riders outrage The department remains out of compliance with another task that deals more broadly with OPD s handling of IA investigations as a whole OPD was also deemed partially in compliance with a task requiring officers to be disciplined in a consistent non-discriminatory manner Warshaw s quarterly statement does echo optimism expressed by Orrick over the summer that Mayor Barbara Lee could steer Oakland to the end of the tunnel Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell left looks on as Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee delivers the State of Oakland address at Oakland City Hall in Oakland Calif on Tuesday Oct Ray Chavez Bay Area News Group We are confident that under Mayor Lee s leadership the Department will fulfill and surpass its obligations to the communities it serves Warshaw s new statement notes OPD s regression in studying complaints swiftly is a fairly current maturation The department had previously been in compliance with the timeliness task for years And the city s police trended backward from Warshaw s last assessment in another category which involves a less serious level of misconduct The department investigated of these insists within the required six-month timeframe down from in the previous reporting period according to the assessment Warshaw also determined OPD is out of step in how it investigates complaints in the first place a longstanding criticism of the department across various misconduct scandals over the years For this task the monitoring company offers less precise language only alluding cryptically to a number of issues concerns and developments which are not yet appropriate for residents discussion Jim Chanin an attorney for the plaintiffs in the Riders brutality incident that first led to OPD s federal oversight speculated that Warshaw is awaiting the outcome of a felony matter against homicide detective Phong Tran who has been placed on leave Statements that Tran bribed a witness have jeopardized a series of murder cases in Oakland led several high-ranking police leaders to be disciplined and leveled a blow to OPD s timeline for exiting oversight Oakland homicide investigator Phong Tran right leaves the scene where a headless armless and legless decomposed torso was identified on the rocks along Burma Road in West Oakland Calif on Wednesday May The body was discovered about noon on particular rocks near the Bay Bridge by a man taking pictures while on his lunch break and appeared to be a young male police mentioned Jane Tyska Bay Area News Group They need time to judge if internal affairs has really corrected itself Chanin noted in an interview of the Tran fallout and Warshaw s response to it The court may also need time to vet the performance of OPD under a new chief following Mitchell s released departure Earlier this month Lee named Assistant Chief James Beere an veteran of the department as the interim chief He will likely appear before the judge at the next hearing in January Lee also informed that Assistant City Administrator Michelle Phillips would serve in a new role that assesses OPD s systems of internal accountability The specifics of what Phillips the city s former inspector general will indeed do in the role are not fully clear And it is still nebulous if the internal affairs unit will be absorbed by the investigative arm of the civilian Oakland Police Commission which represents yet another arm of outside accountability for the department I m really not sure if that s really happening Sgt Huy Nguyen the head of the Oakland police officers union announced Monday Nobody s notified us of anything Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland Call or text him at - - or email him at smukherjee bayareanewsgroup com