Coalition for Police Accountability

Note: The Coalition’s changes to the Kalb. Gallo proposed Ordinance of Feb. 6 are here: 4.8 Coalition Ordinance  in bold/underlined text.

Support the Coalition’s substitute ordinance by filling out the comment section below.

The deadline is Wednesday, March 8! Unless a strong Ordinance is passed, the Police Commission (Measure LL) will not be able to fulfill its mission!

Our substitute ordinance:

1. Gives more power to the Police Commission to send investigations back to the Agency to add information that the Discipline Committee deems necessary in order to make decisions in complaints which consist of allegations of serious misconduct. The Discipline Committee needs to have authority to require the Agency to supplement its original investigative report and findings if it feels that important or relevant facts were not provided.
2. Adjusts the Commissioner training to those topics that are relevant to the job of a Commissioner. The Citizens’ Police Academy (mandated by Kalb.Gallo) requires Commissioners to attend a nine-week course much of which is not connected to the work of the Commission.  We believe this is an excessive burden and unnecessary. Visiting the dispatch center and the crime lab may be interesting, but the Commission’s job is not to fight crime but to focus on allegations of misconduct and the policies that govern the way that police officers interact with the community. We believe that the CPA course can be collapsed into a 10 hour weekend training.
3. Establishes that Commissioners must re-apply if they wish to serve a second term; there is no automatic roll-over (as is the current system).  (Kalb. Gallo version is silent on this). The voting records of Commissioners must be publicly reported (again, Kalb. Gallo is silent).
4. Establishes that the Agency (where complaints are brought) must be located in a venue that is street–level and visible. (Kalb. Gallo silent on location.) Complaints of misconduct should be able to be filed on-line as well as via phone, in addition to being mailed or delivered in person.
5. Sets minimum staffing levels for the Commission and the Agency in order to inform the City’s 2017-2019 budget allocations. (The Kalb. Gallo version omits some essential staffing, such as the Counsel to the Commission and the Administrative Director of the Commission, as well as clerical support.)

cpa-substitute-ord-2-22-17

UC Berkeley Law Policy Advocacy Clinic_Public Comment on Police Commission Ordinance

On November 8th, more than 80% of Oakland voters approved Measure LL, a change to the City Charter that establishes a Police Commission and the Community Police Review Agency (CPRA) to investigate complaints of misconduct by Oakland police officers and Park Rangers. The Commission also has the authority to review and create police policies and practices and discipline police officers found to have engaged in misconduct.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?400567-1/police-race-relations

Former St. Louis police sergeant Reddick Hudson discusses his experiences and testifies to the racial disparities in law enforcement practices, calling for increased accountability.