PUEBLO And ACLU Strengthen Police Accountability in Oakland

Oakland City Council Approves Consent Decree Requiring Discussion of Citizens' Police Review Board Matters in Open Session
For Immediate Release: November 29, 2000

Just weeks after criminal charges were brought against four Oakland Police Officers for abusing the rights of residents of West Oakland, the Oakland City Council approved a consent decree requiring that the Citizens' Police Review Board (CPRB) matters must be discussed by the Oakland City Council in open session. The CPRB is an appointed body of civilians who, along with their staff, investigate and adjudicate allegations of police misconduct. The consent decree comes two years after the lawsuit People United for a Better Oakland v. City of Oakland was filed against the City by Pueblo and the ACLU of Northern California charging the City Council with violating the Brown Act and the Sunshine Ordinance by discussing CPRB matters in closed session.

"This consent decree is a significant victory for the citizens of Oakland - it guarantees greater openness of Citizens' Police Review Board issues than even the Brown Act and the Oakland Sunshine Ordinance require," said Monique Olivier of the Law Offices of Amitai Schwartz and the ACLU cooperating attorney. "Oakland can now move forward with the business of implementing key reforms to the Citizens' Police Review Board and strengthening police review."

"The community has been calling on the City Council to demonstrate leadership and to begin to seriously address police abuse and police accountability," said Dawn Phillips of People United for a Better Oakland. "By settling this lawsuit in the midst of the current public focus on the Oakland Police Department (OPD) because of the criminal charges brought against the Oakland Police Officers for terrorizing residents of West Oakland, we can get to the real work of taking steps towards policies that address police accountability and community safety. The first step the City Council can take is to immediately adopt the CPRB Task Force consensus recommendations."

Those recommendations include that the CPRB should have original jurisdiction over all citizen complaints, increased staffing and more training.

"This consent decree reaffirms the legal principle declared by Judge Needham in his ruling last year - namely, that matters concerning the powers and authority of the CPRB are public policy matters that must be discussed by the Council in open session rather than in closed door meetings," said ACLU-NC managing attorney Alan Schlosser. "We believe this is a victory both for effective civilian oversight of police as well as the principle of open government." The decree will result in the final resolution of both this case and a related case brought by the City (City of Oakland v. Public Ethics Commission), and provides for a dismissal of all pending appeals from the rulings of the Superior Court.