21st-quarterly-report.pdf

Twenty-First Quarterly Report of the Independent Monitor for the Oakland Police Department May 4, 2015 Page 36 Overall, we determined officers’ pointing of their firearms to be appropriate in 136, or 98%, of the 138 instances we assessed.12 We also noted with concern, the absence of justification for the pointing of a firearm in two of the 138 events; specifically, in these cases, there was no indication that the officer(s) or others faced immediate threat of harm. The total racial breakdown for the 53 use of force events reviewed is as follows: Black, 78%; Hispanic, 13%; and White, 9%. We also tabulated the racial breakdown of the subjects involved in the events where, in our opinion, the pointing of a firearm was not necessary or appropriate and found the following: The two unjustified pointing of firearms involved one Hispanic subject and one Black subject. In all cases, the supervisory review found the officers’ use of force appropriate, objectively reasonable for a legitimate law enforcement purpose, and in compliance with OPD policy. The Department needs to continue to review and address instances of unquestioned supervisory and command approval – of both the documentation of officers’ actions and the actions themselves. OPD is in compliance with Tasks 24.2 and 24.3. Task 24.4 requires that a supervisor respond to the scene upon notification of a Level 1, 2, or 3 use of force or an allegation of excessive use of force, unless community unrest or other conditions makes such response impracticable (compliance standard: 95%). Supervisors responded to the scene in all 12 applicable Level 2 and 3 incidents in our sample. This represents a 100% compliance rate. OPD is in compliance with Task 24.4. Tasks 24.5, 24.6, and 24.8 require certain notifications in uses of force relative to officer- involved shootings and the use of lethal force.13 Specifically, Task 24.5 requires that following every use of lethal force resulting in death or injury likely to result in death, OPD notify the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office immediately or as soon as circumstances permit (compliance standard: 95%). Task 24.6 requires that following every use of lethal force resulting in death or injury likely to result in death, OPD notify the City Attorney’s Office as soon as circumstances permit (compliance standard: 95%). Task 24.8 requires that following every officer-involved shooting, OPD notify Homicide and Internal Affairs investigators (compliance standard: 95%). During this reporting period, there was no Level 1 use of force incident in our dataset. OPD remains in compliance with these subtasks. Task 24.9 requires OPD to enter data regarding use of force into OPD’s Personnel Assessment System (PAS) (compliance standard: 95%). PAS now allows personnel to access use of force reports directly. OPD is in compliance with Task 24.9. 12 As in our more in-depth assessment of such incidents during the sixth reporting period, we gave the benefit of the doubt to involved officers whenever there was a question as to whether an officer’s action was appropriate. We also assumed that the pointing of firearms was justified in cases where officers were responding to a burglary or criminal trespass involving an actual structure search, or when making a high-risk vehicle stop based on the legitimate belief that the vehicle was stolen. 13 Task 24.7 is no longer applicable.