Critics of the Oakland Police Department are calling for the release of documents and videos relating to a fatal officer-involved shooting last month.
“This is what happens when a police department with a long history of violence is allowed to control the evidence, control the timeline, and control the story after taking someone’s life,” Cat Brooks, co-founder of the nonprofit Anti Police-Terror Project, said in a statement Tuesday.
On July 13, Oakland police officers were called to assist the California Highway Patrol in the 4000 block of International Boulevard. Once there, an armed person lunged at police with a weapon, and two officers fired, according to the department. The person died despite life-saving efforts.
“We are working with our law enforcement partners to identify the decedent and locate and notify the next of kin,” Oakland police wrote in an email Tuesday.
Oakland police previously said in a late-July social media post that the department would release “a contextual critical incident video and supporting audio and video” in connection with the July 13 shooting and would do so “before the end of August, which is in accordance with the law.”
OPD’s critics are unsatisfied with what the department has shared so far. The Anti Police-Terror Project’s director of policy and communications, Lance Wilson, pointed to the fact that July’s shooting was the third officer-involved shooting this year. The figure represents the city’s highest number of police shootings since 2021.
Lawsuit targets records withholding
In connection with the same shooting, the city of Oakland was sued on Monday for allegedly withholding documents. Plaintiff Robbie Powelson, an affiliate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law’s Criminal Law and Justice Center and an advocate for people without housing, is accusing the city of unlawfully denying his public records request.
Police cited Section 832.7 of the California Penal Code, which allows disclosure to be delayed for up to 18 months if the release of records may interfere with active investigations involving an officer.
“At this time, there are no responsive, disclosable records,” they wrote before closing the request.
But Powelson believes the response is not enough.
“An active investigation permits, at most, a temporary and procedurally regulated delay,” he wrote in a petition for a court order. “Not a denial, and not termination of the request.”
Powelson also argued that police were required to provide any nonexempt material. He requested that the court order the department to reopen the request and provide any documents that do not fall under the active investigation rule.
“Oakland Police are showing contempt for the rule of law by withholding records without justification,” he said.
This is what happens when a police department with a long history of violence is allowed to control the evidence, control the timeline, and control the story after taking someone’s life.
Cat Brooks, co-founder of the nonprofit Anti Police-Terror Project
According to its official records request portal, NextRequest, the city of Oakland has 3,996 open public records requests as of this month, 3,591 of which are past due. The Oakland Police Department has 1,137 open requests, all of which appear to be past due.
The Oakland City Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The concerns from critics come as the Oakland Police Department prepares to exit the federal oversight it has been under for more than two decades.
“Now we are seeing exactly why this department should never be trusted to police itself,” Brooks said.
