Oakland Police Exit Federal Oversight After 23 Years

A federal judge on Tuesday terminated the consent decree governing the Oakland Police Department, ending what is believed to be the longest-running court-ordered police reform program in U.S. history and returning full control of the force to the city after 23 years.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick, of the Northern District of California, dismissed the case during a hearing in San Francisco, declaring that “the season for judicial oversight is over,” according to KQED. The ruling hands authority over OPD to the city and its civilian oversight structures, even though a monitor’s report earlier this month found the department briefly out of compliance on one reform task.

The Riders Scandal and a Two-Decade Reform Effort

Federal oversight began in 2003, when the city settled a class-action civil rights lawsuit brought by 119 residents in the wake of the “Riders” scandal. Four West Oakland patrol officers were accused of beating people, planting drugs and evidence, falsifying reports, and engaging in intimidation, kidnapping, and racial discrimination. None of the four were ultimately convicted. Under the settlement, the city paid $11 million and agreed to implement 51 organizational reforms covering use of force, discipline, supervision, training, and internal affairs investigations.

Court oversight was expected to last five to seven years. Instead, it stretched across more than two decades, punctuated by repeated missteps, documented backsliding, a revolving door of police chiefs, and multiple city administrations, as The Oaklandside reported. The department met most requirements years ago and assumed responsibility for sustaining them in 2022, but continued to fall short on a few tasks, keeping the city in limbo.

A Final Stumble, and a Terminated Decree

Earlier this month, court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw reported that OPD had fallen out of compliance with its requirement to complete at least 85% of internal affairs investigations into the most serious misconduct allegations within 180 days. Between January and March 2026, only 77 of 93 such investigations — 83% — were completed on time.

The lapse left open the possibility that Orrick would keep the department under court watch longer. Both plaintiffs’ attorneys, John Burris and Jim Chanin, said they were disappointed by the slip but supported ending the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, citing new leadership and what they described as a “culture of accountability.”

“We have been involved in pushing this rock up the hill for 23 years, and every time we got close, it’s fallen back down,” Burris told the court. “Today, I am hoping to say we’ve pushed this rock as far as we can … and it’s up to the city to push it [the rest of the way].”

Chanin described the department’s transformation as “astronomic,” telling the court the force is “a much different department than they were. It’s like night and day.”

Orrick cited several markers of progress in his ruling. He noted that OPD officers in 2025 stopped 25% fewer Black drivers than in 2016, that lawsuits against the city and OPD are down two-thirds from 2003, and that violent crime in Oakland is down 18% year to date compared with the same period in 2025.

‘A New Beginning’ — With Caveats

Officials framed the decision as both a milestone and a starting point, repeatedly invoking the metaphor of the reform effort as a rock rolled uphill.

“Today is not a ceiling, it’s a floor,” Warshaw said in court. “The city should see this not as the end of something, but as a new beginning.” He added a note of caution: “Joy should be tempered with humility. The things you’ve accomplished, you should have been doing all along.”

Oakland Police Chief James Beere, flanked by city officials at a press conference outside the courthouse, acknowledged the department’s most recent stumble and said he would own it. “It’s a historic day for the Oakland Police Department, but especially for the Oakland community,” Beere said, according to NBC Bay Area. “They are getting their police department back; the oversight is going to belong to the people of Oakland.”

Mayor Barbara Lee, who said she had wanted federal oversight to end when she took office 16 months ago, described the ruling as “the floor, not the ceiling, but … a major step toward constitutional policing and our city taking ownership of the department.” Lee, who has spoken about personally experiencing the department’s troubled history, added: “This is a new police department.”

Brigid Martin, Oakland’s special counsel, pushed back on the idea that the department’s obligations end with the decree. “NSA compliance is not a temporary obligation; it is the core of Oakland’s police operation,” she said.

Who Holds OPD Accountable Now

With the court stepping aside, accountability shifts to a trio of local mechanisms: OPD’s own Internal Affairs Bureau, the civilian-run Oakland Police Commission — which comprises the Inspector General’s Office and the Community Police Review Agency — and the Mayor’s Office. The city recently created a “constitutional policing administrator” role to oversee transparency and constitutional practices, appointing Assistant City Administrator Michelle Phillips to the position.

“I’m very much committed to ensuring that this infrastructure is stable, our systems are steadfast, and that we have the appropriate leadership,” Phillips said.

Not everyone is convinced the local structures are ready. The Coalition for Police Accountability, joined by Police Commission Chair Emeritus Regina Jackson and other advocates, wrote to the judge before the hearing opposing termination. The group has repeatedly warned that the City Council has not given the Community Police Review Agency and the Inspector General’s Office adequate staffing or funding.

“We cannot pass the job of police oversight over to mechanisms that both do not have the resources to do the job and have been pressured not to advocate for either resources or independence,” wrote coalition members Millie Cleveland and Larry White.

A rival coalition, Safe Oakland, took the opposite view in its own letter. “For twenty-three years, a federal court has held Oakland to the standard of constitutional policing,” it wrote. “The time has come for Oakland to hold itself to that standard, and for the community to share in that responsibility. We stand ready to do our part.”

Cesar Leyva, interim president of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association, said the department’s next chapter must focus on rebuilding staffing. “Federal oversight may be ending, but our commitment to professional policing, accountability, and the people of Oakland will continue every day,” he said.

What to Watch

Even the plaintiffs’ attorneys acknowledged the decision marks a transition rather than an ending. “After 26 years, I feel somewhat relieved, somewhat accomplished, and cautiously optimistic,” Burris told reporters. “I have no illusions that bad stuff will not happen, because it will. The question is how you handle it.”

Whether Oakland can sustain the reforms without the court’s leverage is now the central question. The city has invested in new oversight infrastructure, and its officials insist the changes are institutionalized in OPD’s policies and practices. But skeptics point to other cities that exited federal oversight only to backslide — and to a compliance lapse that occurred just weeks before the decree was lifted.

As Warshaw put it, the measure of success will not be Tuesday’s ruling but what happens next. “It’s not about today,” Burris said. “It’s about tomorrow.”