Former Oakland Police Chief Renews Criticism Of Federal Monitor
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Two former Oakland police chiefs and a current city councilman on Thursday called for the firing of a federal monitor who oversees the police force. They said plan to make their case with the justice department and federal lawmakers.
Their arguement? That federal monitor Robert Warshaw is in it for the money.
"I came to wonder, 'Who is monitoring the monitor?'" said former Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick blasted Warshaw, saying he has no interest in getting the Oakland Police Department out of federal oversight because he benefits from it.
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The city pays Warshaw's firm roughly $1.2 million a year to oversee the department. The contract is the result of a settlement from the Riders police misconduct lawsuit. The oversight has dragged on since 2003 and cost taxpayers a total of about $28 million.
"There have been 10 chiefs, four mayors, two judges, two monitoring teams; something's wrong," said Kirkpatrick.
The chief said she started questioning the federal monitor's intention last year. But she couldn't speak out because he could fire her. Last month, the citizen-led police commission and the mayor did fire her.
Kirkpatrick said she will sue the city over her firing. But more importantly, she said she owed it to Oakland residents to speak out about Warshaw.
"Your officers are spending more time on administrative tasks than they are able to be out there and fighting crime," said Kirkpatrick.
"It was very difficult to be in compliance and also fight crime," said retired Chief Howard Jordan. "We had more people in internal affairs than we had in [the homicide department]."
But civil rights attorney Jim Chanin says Warshaw is not the problem.
He says the police department was so close to full compliance and had only three tasks left in 2015 before gaining full compliance. But under Kirkpatrick's leadership, a federal judge added 5 more tasks. Some of those are related to the police shooting of a homeless man in 2018.
"Now that's she's been terminated, she's doing sour grapes about the monitor and the police commission and all the rest. She's blaming everyone but herself," said Chanin.
Councilman Noel Gallo will soon head to Washington D.C. to ask the federal government to investigate the oversight.
Councilman Gallo said the city council also plans to debate whether or not to change the model of the citizen-run police commission. He believes the city council should have the final say on the firing of a police chief, not the appointed police commissioners.
