{"slug": "judge-federal-oversight-of-oakland-police-department-could-end-in-september", "title": "Judge: Federal oversight of Oakland Police Department could end in September", "summary": "U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick set a Sept. 29 court date to potentially end federal oversight of the Oakland Police Department, praising the agency for completing all reforms required under a 2003 settlement stemming from the Riders scandal. The move marks the first time the department could escape court supervision in over 20 years, though police accountability advocates warned that ending oversight sends a \"dangerous message\" to a department with a history of scandal.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland Police Department took a monumental step forward Wednesday in escaping [the watchful eye of a federal judge](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/31/oakland-police-oversight-barbara-lee/) for the first time since the infamous Riders scandal more than 20 years ago.\n\nThe agency received praise Wednesday from U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick, who said the department was on track to move out of from under decades of federal court oversight that has hounded the agency since 2003. Orrick set a Sept. 29 court date to double-check the department’s compliance with dozens of reforms it has completed over the years, at which time the agency could finally be released from his control.\n\n“No one can say ‘Mission accomplished,’ ” Orrick said, in remarks that kicked off a hearing Wednesday. “But I do congratulate the city and OPD on getting this far.”\n\nThe move comes days after the federal monitor overseeing the agency found the department had hit every benchmark from the landmark Riders settlement that required wholesale reforms to how Oakland polices its residents and holds itself accountable when its officers do wrong. That included three lingering problem areas that had bedeviled the agency for years — among them, the speed with which it [investigated misconduct claims](https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/11/25/oakland-police-oversight-misconduct-investigations/).\n\nOn Wednesday, Oakland leaders praised the move, even as police accountability advocates warned of the “dangerous message” ending oversight sends to a department whose history is littered with scandal.\n\nSpeaking moments after the hearing, Mayor Barbara Lee stressed: “This is not the same police department as before.\n\n“It’s a milestone,” said Lee. “We still have to make sure we don’t backslide.”\n\nCity Council President Kevin Jenkins called Wednesday’s hearing — and Oakland’s ability to complete every task set out in its Riders settlement agreement — “a monumental occasion for the city of Oakland.” Councilmember Ken Houston expressed confidence that the oversight would end as planned in September, adding that “it’s a different police force now.”\n\nDespite the hearing’s celebratory atmosphere, concern lingered among some police accountability advocates about the possibility of a federal judge no longer keeping tabs on Oakland’s officers.\n\nIn a statement ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the Anti Police-Terror Project lamented the city’s loss of a “last line of defense against a police department that has never been able to police itself,” citing how “even with a federal monitor watching, the scandals never stopped.\n\n“The oversight process was expensive, slow, and deeply flawed, but it still provided a level of public scrutiny over a department with a long history of harm,” read the statement. Project leaders specifically raised concerns about the ability of the Oakland Police Commission and the Community Police Review Agency to oversee the department moving forward, given that “both are critically under-resourced.”\n\n“That means Oakland is moving toward a reality where there is no fully functioning independent body standing between OPD and the communities it polices,” the statement said. “This is unacceptable.”\n\nThe court-monitored oversight stems from the notorious Riders scandal, when four officers were accused of going rogue, beating West Oakland residents and planting drugs on them, all while filing falsified police reports. A 2003 class-action lawsuit resulted in a $10.9 million payout to scores of people who claimed abuse at the hands of those Oakland cops.\n\nSince then, a federal judge has overseen the department through an appointed monitor, Robert Warshaw, who has long drawn the ire of a rotating cast of mayors and police chiefs who questioned his financial motivations for staying on the case. All of them fought unsuccessfully to end the oversight arrangement — repeatedly coming close, only to watch the department once again become embroiled in scandal.\n\nThe police department nearly escaped oversight in 2016, right before allegations emerged that numerous officers sexually exploited a teenage girl in a scandal that spread to multiple other agencies across the East Bay.\n\nIn 2022, veteran homicide detective Phong Tran was accused of bribing a witness in a murder case and then lying about it. The ensuing fallout— which came just as the department cleared all but one benchmark — led multiple members of OPD’s top command staff to be disciplined, while numerous criminal cases were dismissed or overturned, including at least three murder convictions.\n\nLast fall, former Chief Floyd Mitchell openly criticized the stringent nature of federal court oversight while resigning from the department after just a year and a half on the job, leaving the agency searching for a new leader for at least the 10th time since 2015.\n\nYet [signs of progress emerged in January](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/31/oakland-police-oversight-barbara-lee/), when Orrick lauded Lee and her decision to install the city’s former inspector general, Michelle Phillips, as an official in the department’s top ranks who reports directly to the mayor. That move — along with [the appointment of OPD veteran James Beere](https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/11/14/oakland-interim-police-chief-james-beere/) as as the agency’s interim police chief, and his decision to assign Deputy Chief Aaron Smith to head the internal affairs unit — were received warmly by the judge, which has often criticized OPD’s “ability to police itself.”\n\n“No one until (Mayor Lee) has demonstrated an awareness and holistic understanding of what we need to do,” Orrick said at the January hearing.\n\nIn a report released Friday, Warshaw said the Oakland Police Department had met all 51 benchmarks needed to escape federal court oversight — an achievement never before reached by the department. Notably, the agency completed more than 85% of its internal affairs investigations within 180 days, a mark the department had struggled to reach in recent years. It also reformed its internal affairs procedures, and has made significant progress in ensuring its disciplinary policy is imposed in a “fair and consistent manner.”\n\n“While there is still work to be done, the Mayor’s leadership and the Department’s commitment to addressing these three Tasks have culminated in success,” Warshaw’s report said.\n\nThe signs of progress come as Oakland’s leaders consider weakening other forms of oversight for their police department. A proposal that could appear before Oakland voters in November would take away the Oakland Police Commission’s ability to help hire the police chief or appoint the city’s inspector general. Its own members also would have more direct supervision from the Oakland City Council, undermining a key aspect of its independence.\n\n*Reporter Shomik Mukherjee contributed to this report.*\n\n*Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-federal-oversight-of-oakland-police-department-could-end-in-september", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/27/oakland-police-oversight-end-september/", "published_at": "2026-05-28 00:06:11+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-28 00:06:55.766580+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Oakland Police Department", "William H. Orrick", "Riders scandal"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-federal-oversight-of-oakland-police-department-could-end-in-september", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-federal-oversight-of-oakland-police-department-could-end-in-september.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-federal-oversight-of-oakland-police-department-could-end-in-september.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-federal-oversight-of-oakland-police-department-could-end-in-september.jsonld"}}