Federal oversight of Oakland Police Department ends after 23 years

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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ended federal monitoring of the Oakland Police Department after 23 years, capping the longest-running oversight of a police department in U.S. history.

"I'm particularly grateful to the men and women of the Oakland Police Department ... for achieving substantial compliance," San Francisco judge William Orrick said. "May it ever be thus."

The police department made national news in 2000 after a rookie officer came forward to report abuse of power by a group of officers known as the Oakland "Riders." The four officers were charged with making false arrests, planting evidence, using excessive force, falsifying police reports and assaulting people in west Oakland, a predominantly Black area. Three of the officers were acquitted after two separate juries deadlocked on most of the charges. The fourth officer is a fugitive and is believed to have fled the country.

The case resulted in the department coming under federal oversight in 2003 and being required to enact dozens of reform measures and report its progress to an outside monitor and a federal judge. That same year, the city of about 400,000 people settled a class-action police abuse lawsuit involving 119 people for $11 million.

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