Oakland city workers and activists unite to civilianize police positions

Oakland, CA – On May 12, around 20 Oakland city workers, activists and community members mobilized to City Hall in support of civilians taking over the 38 administrative jobs currently occupied by the Oakland Police Department (OPD).

The push to attend the city council’s finance committee and to make public comment was called for by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21, a union representing hundreds of city workers. While workers experience staffing vacancies and budget cuts, OPD overspent up to $33 million a year for the past six years on overtime, with 6% of its force behind desks. The union demands change as the city enters contract negotiations with the Oakland Police Officers’ Association.

“The single biggest overtime expense was half a million dollars for one individual for crash reports, something that should be civilianized,” remarked Kevin Dally, an Oakland resident.

“Oakland should not be discussing cuts to services until you have replaced officers in administrative jobs with regular city staff,” said Romaine Charite, a member of the Oakland Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “These are issues that the police union does not want you to act on. Please start listening to Oaklanders, like me, instead of the police union.”

Eliot Goodrich, a transportation planner and member of IFPTE Local 21, spoke on the 23-year-old federal consent decree over OPD after a scandal involving racist police gangs kidnapping, beating and falsely arresting Black and brown residents, stating, “Of the 38 positions identified, 22 are in Internal Affairs. OPD is still under federal oversight, the Negotiated Settlement Agreement is a legally binding agreement with the city, made to 119 Oaklanders who had their civil rights violated.”

Anne Jenks, with the Coalition for Police Accountability, said, “The city council failed for a year to follow up after instructing the city administrator to begin the process of moving investigations from OPD Internal Affairs to the independent Community Review Police Agency. The administrator did nothing until the deadline approached.”

The Community Review Police Agency is the investigative arm of the Oakland Police Commission, which is named one of the strongest civilian police oversight boards in the country and was voted in by Oaklanders to get OPD under control.

#OaklandCA #CA #PoliceAccountability #InjusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #OppressedNationalities