PUEBLO/City of Oakland Survey of Citizens’ Interactions with Police

I. Area of Need

In the wake of domestic terrorist attacks, public safety has become our nation’s most pressing concern. With increased security have come concerns over racial profiling, loss of civil rights, and effective mechanisms to hold police accountable. In diverse communities like ours, the national climate has a complex effect. Right now, we are being asked to depend on and trust in law enforcement more than ever. However, in low-income communities of color, people continue to experience police misconduct on a daily basis and our relationship with law enforcement continues to suffer.

Advocacy organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have authored important studies documenting the tragic stories of victims and their families resulting from police misconduct. Police departments have initiated countless studies of community attitudes towards the police. While important, neither type of study enhances our understanding of the extent to which the reporting of police misconduct occurs in our communities. In cities across the nation, elected officials and citizens continue to look for effective mechanisms to hold police accountable to our diverse communities where public service and the rule of law are upheld. In an era where civil rights are under pressure, an impartial analysis based on accurate and reliable data can provide invaluable lessons on public service-oriented policing.

While studies such as Wilson (1968), Lundman (1980) and Cao and Huang (2000) have analyzed the factors that increase or decrease the civilian complaint rate of police misconduct, no analysis or survey has been done to document the reporting of police misconduct. Such a study would be vital to properly educate the public and policy-makers to make informed decisions on such vital areas as community-police relations, internal affairs, language access to police services, the conduct of Oakland’s Citizens’ Police Review Board, etc.

II. PUEBLO/City of Oakland Survey of Citizens’ Interactions with Police

People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) has launched an important initiative that brings key institutions in the city of Oakland to systematically address police misconduct practices. Along with the Oakland Police Department, City Attorney’s Office, the City Manager’s Office, this project will document the experiences of residents in the reporting of alleged police misconduct. Policy reforms will come out of a community-driven analysis of the data.

This study meets three goals:

• To develop a model process to measure the reporting of police misconduct,
• To build greater trust among Oakland’s low income neighborhoods, community groups, and the Oakland Police Department, and
• To provide a study that guides the efforts of community-based organizations, policy-makers, and the police department to enact meaningful reforms that will be embraced by residents.

Oakland provides a compelling environment in which to launch this pilot study. It is the most racially and ethnically diverse city of its size in the United States, with no single racial group constituting more than 40% of the population. Oakland has a long history of contentious community-police relations dating back to clashes between members of the Black Panther Party and the Oakland Police Department in the late 1960s. Yet, the city also has a reputation for attempting innovative solutions to complex public safety problems; it was the second city in California to adopt a Citizens’ Police Review Board in 1980 and was an early proponent of community-oriented policing. The Mayor, City Manager and Chief of Police each assumed their respective roles with promises to address an array of public safety issues, including a ‘zero tolerance’ of police misconduct. However, Oakland continues to pay much higher amounts in police misconduct liability settlements ($12 million in the last six years) than other cities its size. In addition the City of Oakland recently settled a multi-million dollar misconduct class action suit against the ‘Riders’ that adds an estimated $20 to $30 million dollars to this figure.

PUEBLO and the City of Oakland are fortunate to have established a partnership in this project with Professor Sam Walker of the University of Nebraska. Professor Walker has agreed to design the survey instrument and the sample, analyze the collected data and write the report of its findings. Maguire Research Associates will administer the survey to obtain at least 800 completed interviews. Professor Walker has conducted research in the area of police practices and citizen police oversight, having been funded by both the Soros Foundation and the Department of Justice. He has earned a reputation nationally as one of the foremost experts on law enforcement issues, particularly in the areas of public perception and models of community review.

After the project period, PUEBLO will continue pushing for the reforms identified in the process with city agencies. It is our hope that this process can institutionalize a meaningful mechanism for the City of Oakland, the Police department, and community organizations to work on issues of mutual interest. The intent is to increase public confidence in law enforcement, and to provide incentives for police to reduce the incidence of institutional violence by improving the mechanisms of community police oversight.