Oakland Police Department has a reputation for lawlessness going back more than a decade, when a judge placed the department under federal oversight for a pattern of civil rights violations and brutality. Despite this oversight, four OPD officers were recently criminally charged for sex trafficking a minor in a scandal that led to the dismissal of three different police chiefs in just 9 days.
That’s why Oakland needs Measure LL to pass in November. It would establish an independent Police Commission with the power to investigate and discipline bad police officers, recommend certain policy changes, and even fire the police chief if necessary.