Tonight Police Accountability Under Attack at Oakland Public Safety Meeting

On the agenda tonight at the Public Safety Committee are at least four items of particular concern to those of us who are fighting for police accountability and community safety in Oakland.

#8 Improve Community Policing
Speak out to promote accountability measures in community policing practices. Community police officers are supposed to work with the people in their beats to solve problems rather than send more folks to jail. PUEBLO is urging the city to develop appropriate measures to make sure that these officers and policies are held accountable to the public.

#9 Consent Decree Resolving Actions
PUEBLO and the ACLU are working to stop the OPOA's (the cop association) efforts at undermining the Citizen's Police Review Board. Right now, the OPOA has filed a grievance with the city to stop Officers from being brought to CPRB hearings in cases where a claim has been filed. Further, the CPRB is no longer hearing cases where a claim has been filed. Basically, we are fighting for our right to a fair and public hearing for folks who have complaints against the police, whether or not they may pursue civil suits against the city in the future.

#10 Citizen's Police Review Board
The 2004 Annual Report for the Citizen's Police Review Board shows a significant increase in the number of complaints filed against the police in 2004 from previous years.

#11 Sideshow Abatement
The new Chief of Police, Chief Tucker is working at instituting "sideshow patrols" to shut down "sideshow related activity" in Oakland. Officers doing sideshow patrol are effectively instructed to write as many citations and tow as many cars as possible during these shifts--especially and including seat belt violatings, jaywalking, and vehicle registration citations. Sideshow patrols cover designated parts of East and West Oakland, and typically start around 10pm.

PUEBLO will have copies of our 'talking points' available at the meeting. We encourage all concerned community members to speak out about this issues.

You can fill out speaker's cards at the beginning of the meeting or online at:
http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/city_clerk/speaker_instructions.cfm

The full agenda is available online at:
http://clerkwebsvr1.oaklandnet.com/meetings/4399_A__Public_Safety_Committee_05-04-26_Meeting_Agenda.htm

See also Bob Valladon's piece in the Oakland Tribune for one account about what's going on in the City of Oakland concerning police accoutability:
http://insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2681321