Is Oakland’s police watchdog body truly independent? Its latest power struggle could be a crucial test. ...Middle East

OAKLAND — It was nearly a decade ago that Oakland voters overwhelmingly agreed in the ballot boxes that the city needed citizen oversight of the police department.

Many hoped at the time that the newly established watchdog body would eventually take the reins from federal officials who have maintained control of the Oakland Police Department for now over two decades.

But the commission — comprised of seven volunteer members — still seems to be struggling to gain footing within Oakland’s complex bureaucratic tangles.

The civilian group has often found itself in the crosshairs of the city’s combative politics, its deliberations fraught with accusations that the commissioners are either too cynical or overly lenient toward the police. There are renewed calls to weaken its authority.

On Thursday night, the commission voted to keep Ricardo Garcia-Acosta as its chair — an awkward arrangement, given that the Oakland City Council in October had unanimously rejected Garcia-Acosta’s reappointment as a commissioner altogether.

Garcia-Acosta, who works in nonprofits, and fellow Commissioner Omar Farmer, a small business owner, were submitted together by a selection panel, but the council in rare fashion used its veto powers to reject the slate.

The selection panel, whose own members are appointed by the council and mayor, simply resubmitted the two men for consideration in late December, creating an uncomfortable standoff with the city’s elected leaders.

The council’s Jan. 20 hearing to vet the commissioners a second time may provide a crucial test of the watchdog body’s independence.

The commission is among the strongest civilian oversight groups in the country. It can fire the police chief with cause and has significant influence over chief hirings. Its investigative arm reviews officer misconduct complaints, and is expected to one day replace the police department’s internal affairs division.

The commission also has a say in determining which practices OPD can follow, such as the use of militarized police equipment and whether officers are allowed to chase suspects at high vehicle speeds.

But in years past, the commission’s leaders have often been at odds with each other, or with police chiefs, including Anne Kirkpatrick and Floyd Mitchell, who resigned last fall. Yet this latest conflict marks new territory.

“The council had never rejected anybody outright,” said Jim Chanin, a civil-rights attorney who along with John Burris represented numerous residents in a brutality case that led to the OPD’s federal oversight two decades ago. “It has become a very political situation.”

For at least one elected leader, the power struggle also seems to have become personal.

Councilmember Ken Houston, an outspoken police advocate who is driving a political shift in Oakland, accused the two commissioners of approaching the council “disrespectfully” after the rejection vote in October.

“They came right up to the council dais and started talking to us instead of waiting their turn,” Houston said this week. “I’m like, ‘I’m the elected official!’ I have the right to make a decision. Who do these guys think they are? No one elected them, and they haven’t taken the oath that the police took: to protect and serve.”

Houston vowed in an interview to take away some of the police commission’s unprecedented authority in an upcoming election. “They should be more of an advisory board,” he said.

It may be a tall order. The commission, which previously faced a similar, short-lived threat from then-Mayor Sheng Thao, was established in 206 after 83% of Oakland voters supported its creation.

Four years later, 81% of voters approved a measure strengthening the commission’s powers and independence.

“It’s one of our biggest concerns,” Garcia-Acosta said. “The commission is being positioned to be without any real independence or the teeth to ensure the police department is following its own policies.”

Outside interests appear to be playing a role in the dispute, even though the council’s official reasoning for rejecting Garcia-Acosta and Farmer was a shortage of candidate applications. The selection panel similarly blamed an earlier process error in resubmitting the two commissioners’ names.

The Oakland police officers’ union has lobbied councilmembers, with its president accusing the commission of fostering an atmosphere of distrust that drove Mitchell to resign and depleted OPD’s ranks.

“I had conversations with the council about the police commission,” Sgt. Huy Nguyen, the union head, confirmed in an interview. “We have to find away to treat police officers better in this city or they’re going to keep leaving.”

Rajni Mandal, a City Hall gadfly who resides in the Oakland hills, has criticized Farmer for a litany of public statements that she described as inappropriately “partisan,” including his hostility to OPD’s use of militarized equipment.

She has aggressively lobbied the council, noting that Farmer helped draft a letter last June urging a federal judge to grant the commission far more control over OPD.

The letter, Mandal said, was a bold overture, given that the city attorney and other key players in the department’s oversight were not consulted beforehand.

“Commissioner Farmer has repeatedly overstepped his authority as defined in the City Charter,” Mandal wrote in an email to city officials, “and involved himself in matters outside the Commission’s scope.”

Farmer defended his actions, disputing Mandal’s claims that he violated the commission’s code of conduct. “I just feel like this whole thing is a smear campaign,” he said.

Meanwhile, critics believe an advocate group, the Coalition for Police Accountability, has often wielded too much influence in the commission’s decision-making.

The group, whose members are deeply skeptical that OPD can hold itself accountable, was instrumental in the early construction of the volunteer commission.

“These people blame the commission for the chief leaving and the morale of the (police) department being low,” Rashidah Grinage, a member of the advocate group, said of its opponents.

Four of the commission’s seven members are chosen by a selection panel and three others by the mayor. On Thursday, the council advanced Mayor Barbara Lee’s appointments of Evelio Grillo And Doug Wong to fill two of the seats.

The panel’s chair, Rickisha Herron, was an appointee of former Councilmember Loren Taylor. Like the commissioners themselves, she serves as a part-time volunteer. Herron said she had never previously spoken to the Coalition for Police Accountability’s members before they took issue with the council’s rejection vote.

She defended the integrity of the recruitment process, but admitted it has left her jaded.

“It’s an overstep and an overreach,” she said, for the council members “to try to influence and — lightweight — bully our selections for their personal or political reasons, whatever they are.”

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at [email protected]. 

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