Compliance Director Files Plan to Complete Police Reforms

By Bay City News Service

The compliance director appointed by a federal judge to oversee reforms in the Oakland Police Department that were mandated in the settlement of a police brutality lawsuit a decade ago filed a plan Wednesday to achieve those reforms.

Thomas Frazier, who formerly headed Baltimore's Police Department and oversaw police reforms in Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Detroit, said in his 59-page filing with U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson that "very few of the items we list in this plan can be initiated easily and painlessly."

Frazier said, "The road ahead will certainly be rocky and occasionally divisive" but he said he also feels "confident that we can navigate these issues and produce a solid foundation for the future success of the Oakland Police Department."

On Jan. 22, 2003, Henderson approved the settlement of a lawsuit filed by 119 Oakland citizens who alleged that four officers known as the "Riders" beat them, made false arrests and planted evidence on them in 2000.

Three of the officers faced two lengthy trials on multiple criminal charges stemming from the allegations against them but they ultimately weren't convicted of any crimes.

The fourth officer fled to Mexico and was never prosecuted.

The settlement called for the Police Department to complete 51 reforms but 12 remain uncompleted.

The department's slow progress in complying with the mandated reforms prompted civil rights attorneys John Burris and James Chanin, who represent the plaintiffs in the case, to seek a federal takeover of the Oakland Police Department last year and have a federal receiver appointed.

But an agreement reached in December instead called for Henderson to appoint an independent compliance director to be in charge of completing all the reforms and Henderson appointed Frazier in March.

Frazier has the power to fire Oakland police Chief Howard Jordan and order city leaders to spend money on improvements in police practices.

An independent monitor who also has been overseeing the department's reforms, Robert Warshaw, said in his quarterly report earlier this week that he approves of Frazier having such power because Frazier "can hold to great account those in the city and (Police) Department who have the responsibility to institute these reforms."

Burris said Wednesday that he also thinks that Frazier's presence in Oakland has "contributed to the department stepping up its efforts to make the improvements dictated by the court settlement."

Burris said Frazier's plan is "overall a good effort to address the needed reforms" but he thinks Frazier "ultimately has to be more specific in addressing issues such as racial profiling and the use of firearms" by officers who confront suspects.

Frazier said in his filing that he and his staff have only had six weeks so far "to understand a complex issue that has lingered for over ten years."

He said that in a review of 158 recent incidents in which officers pointed firearms at suspects, he determined that 129 were appropriate but in 29 instances it was inappropriate for officers to point their firearms because there wasn't any indication they faced an "imminent threat of harm."

Frazier said the "vast majority" of Oakland police officers are "dedicated, hardworking men and women doing an extraordinarily difficult job" but "a few behave in manners that result in citizen complaints and administrative investigations."

He also said Police Department supervisors "fail to enforce departmental policy by not intervening or reporting unacceptable behavior that they are either informed or witness."

Frazier said one of his goals is to change the department's culture to show that improper actions "are not tolerated at a peer level, by supervisors or by executive leadership."

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