Justice
The Scary Things You Learn From 23 Years of Oakland Police Records
A new website is putting the Department under a microscope. They don't come out looking so good.
In Oakland, California, the police loom large. Not only does the city have one of the nation's highest crime rates, the department's track record has been muddied by allegations of corruption and brutality.
Most notoriously, in 2000, a group of officers known as the Riders was accused in a civil rights lawsuit of kidnapping, planting evidence, and brutality, leading to a negotiated settlement in which the city paid almost $11 million to 119 plaintiffs and agreed to reform the department. In 2012, a federal judge ruled that the city had failed to meet the terms of the settlement. While the department avoided a complete federal takeover, an independent "compliance monitor" was appointed by the court to oversee ongoing reforms.