The Oakland Police Department has until January to make reforms outlined in a police corruptio lawsuit or possibly fall under control of the federal government, a judge warned this week.
The lawsuit stems from the 2003 Riders case, in which it was alleged rogue officers were beating and framing city residents, according to the Oakland Tribune. A court gave the department a list of 51 reform tasks to complete, but eight years later, only 32 had been completed.
That shows a "culture of resistance" in the department, according to Judge Thelton Henderson. "It's clear to me that we need a change [in] how things are being done," the judge added. OPD "is behind the times... this is no longer business as usual."
Mayor Jean Quan addressed the judge and said that she would do what she could to get the ball rolling on the reforms, but that she'd "been here eight months, not eight years." Still, the heat is on, according to one of the lawyers who filed the original suit.
"I don't think this is going to go on much longer," Attorney Jim Chanin told the newspaper. "The mayor won't have the time her predecessors did."
