19th-quarterly-report.pdf

Nineteenth Quarterly Report of the Independent Monitor for the Oakland Police Department October 30, 2014 Page 22 OPD is in compliance with Task 5.21. In response to the July reinstatement of an officer who had been terminated for his actions during the Occupy Oakland-related protests of 2011, Judge Henderson issued an Order, which reads in part: “This is not the first time an arbitrator has overturned an officer’s termination by Defendants, and, indeed, this Court previously ordered the parties to discuss the reinstatement of [another officer] by arbitration at the September 22, 2011 status conference. The City’s promises to correct deficiencies at that time have fallen short, and further intervention by this Court is now required. “Failure to address the issues addressed in this order will prevent compliance, let alone sustainable compliance, with the Negotiated Settlement Agreement (“NSA”). Defendants cannot be in compliance with Task 5 if the internal investigations leading to disciplinary decisions by Defendants are inadequate. Likewise, they cannot be in compliance with Task 45 if discipline is not consistently imposed. Because imposition of discipline is meaningless if it is not final, the Monitor and the Court must consider whether discipline is upheld at the highest level, most often arbitration…” Consequently, until such time as OPD addresses the issues specifically outlined in Judge Henderson’s Order, we consider OPD to be in deferred compliance status with Task 5. Compliance Status: Phase 1: In compliance Phase 2: Deferred Task 6: Refusal to Accept or Refer Citizen Complaints Requirements: Refusal to accept a citizen complaint, failure to refer a citizen to IAD (when that citizen can be reasonably understood to want to make a citizen’s complaint), discouraging a person from filing a complaint, and/or knowingly providing false, inaccurate or incomplete information about IAD shall be grounds for discipline for any OPD member or employee. (Negotiated Settlement Agreement III. F.) Discussion: OPD published Departmental General Order M-03, Complaints Against Department Personnel and Procedures, which incorporates the requirements of Task 6, on December 6, 2005. General Order M-03 was revised most recently on August 22, 2013. The requirements of this Task are also incorporated into Manual of Rules Sections 314.07, 398.70, and 398.76. As the Department