Oakland Police: Success Story or Scandal?

His words delivered in a soft-spoken dirge, Jervis Muwwakkil says he can appreciate the pain that Rodney King’s parents must have felt.

His son Jamil Wheatfall, 36, the fourth of 11 children, was also beaten by a phalanx of police officers after a high-speed car chase. The unarmed bank robbery suspect was bashed repeatedly with a baton and overwhelmed by officers after he resisted arrest in April.

Yet in Wheatfall’s case there was no videotape of the incident captured by a bystander, no prosecution of the officers. And Muwwakkil was left to bury his son after the confrontation.

Watchdog groups say Wheatfall’s death shows the dark side of this city’s high-profile war on street crime. Many younger officers have translated Mayor Jerry Brown’s get-tough mandate for public order to mean they can do no wrong, critics say. The result is that a growing number of people are now afraid of their own police force.

Oakland police say officers in the Wheatfall case acted within department policy. But Muwwakkil, a veteran private investigator, believes he knows better.

“They went overboard,” he said. “I know how police act. They have an attitude that if a suspect tries to flee, they’re going to teach him a lesson. He’s never going to run from them again.”

But the aggressive policing has brought a significant crime drop in a city whose reputation had been tarnished by its long criminal rap sheet, officials say. To reward the department’s more than 700 officers, the City Council is expected this month to ratify a five-year contract making Oakland police among the best-compensated in the state.

Police Chief Richard Word said the higher pay is necessary to attract and keep good officers. “This is still a tough town with a lot of tough policing to do,” he said. “These salaries are not only the best way to attract the best and the brightest, but to keep them.”

But critics contend that the raise sends the wrong message to a troubled department with little outside review, where they say a dwindling number of veteran supervisors have lost control of young rank-and-file officers--60% of whom have less than four years of experience.

And reasons for concern are growing, they say.

* While the number of reported overall crimes in Oakland has dropped 31%--from 36,000 in 1998 to 25,000 in 2000--the number of complaints of police misconduct has nearly doubled.

The department received 83 citizen complaints of police misconduct in 1998 but 154 in 2000, according to statistics from the city attorney’s office. There were no statistics on how many of those complaints were corroborated.

Activists believe that the number of citizen complaints against police is actually much higher.

* The American Civil Liberties Union accused Oakland and other agencies this year of racial profiling in so-called consent searches made during routine traffic stops. Such searches consist of officers’ reviewing contents of a vehicle even though they have no probable cause. While the California Highway Patrol declared a moratorium on such searches, Oakland police have made no policy change, ACLU officials said.

* In a case frequently compared to the LAPD’s Rampart Division scandal, four veteran Oakland officers known as the “Riders” face criminal charges and a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that they faked evidence, planted drugs and beat up suspects. They were arrested last year after a 23-year-old rookie officer blew the whistle, telling authorities he was sickened by what he saw.

So far, prosecutors have overturned 82 arrests in their review of 350 cases filed by the Riders, including some involving suspects who were discriminated against because of their race.

* And just last week, a narcotics agent recently named officer of the year was placed on administrative leave amid an Internal Affairs Division investigation, the officer’s attorney said. Officials would not disclose the nature of the probe.

All this worries some in this blue-collar city of 400,000 residents, where blacks make up 43% of the population and the Police Department is nearly 50% white.

“Many people view the police as an alien force there to harass them,” said John Burris, a civil rights lawyer who filed the class-action lawsuit. “Even good people are mindful of officers here. When bad things happen, many people think twice before picking up the phone to call the Oakland Police Department.”

Some say funds for the raise package, which includes a 27% pay boost over five years, should be spent on providing more independent police oversight and on bolstering the department’s overworked Citizens Police Review Board.

Chief Word said the department does just fine policing problem officers, which he views as “a few bad apples.” But activists point to how rash actions among young officers in January resulted in police killing one of their own.

An undercover officer who had cornered a fleeing car thief was shot and killed by fellow officers who did not recognize him. The two officers, both in their 20s and who had been with the force for less than a year, shot at seven-year veteran William Wilkins 11 times as he held his suspect at gunpoint.

Andrea Pritchett, a member of Copwatch, blames the incident on city officials who she says ignore uncontrolled police violence as long as crime rates remain low.

“Rather than dealing with the fact that Oakland is perceived as the ‘Wild, Wild West’ of police departments, the mayor and City Council try to finesse the truth--just to be able to continue bragging about how crime is dropping,” she said. “But people on the street know what’s going on.”

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente said problem officers have been fired but not before leaving a stigma that gives the public the impression that the entire department is dysfunctional.

“Some people here are afraid of the police, there’s no question about that,” he said. “But with our large inner city and its problems, being a cop here is a very difficult job. When handing out raises, we shouldn’t punish the good officers for what the bad folks do.”

Still, Harold Pendergrass, a local attorney on the city’s nine-member Citizens Police Review Board, said he wonders whether his understaffed panel is having any effect weeding out rogue cops.

The board has the resources to hear only one-third of the 60 “excessive use of force” claims received each year, he said. If not reviewed within 12 months, such complaints are dismissed under state law.

“We’re overloaded.” Pendergrass said. “We need more board members and more investigators to handle the backlog.”

Word said he is suspicious of the outside review panel and is against any additional funding. “In meetings, I’ve heard cat-calling and hissing against my officers,” he said. “When these people see an officer for the second or third time, many immediately assume he’s guilty. And that’s not fair.”

Civil rights attorney Burris acknowledged that many police commanders have left Oakland for higher-paying jobs, leaving rookie officers without proper supervision. The raise, which would eventually pay a five-year officer $87,000 annually, would help to retain many veterans, he said.

The contract would also include new benefits, such as differential pay for certain shifts, an enhanced retirement package and premium pay for bilingual officers and evidence technicians.

“Better pay is fine, but you need to increase the department’s standard of conduct or all you’re doing is throwing good money after bad,” said Burris, author of a 1999 book on police brutality against blacks.

The lawsuit, which represents 90 people arrested by the Riders whose cases were dismissed, seeks a review of the Internal Affairs Division, better training and more supervision of officers.

In the aftermath of the Riders case, Word said the department may soon make an annual report to city officials on how it handles the average 300 citizen complaints received each year. And the City Council is comparing the number of complaints for excessive force with those at similar size police departments.

On the street, the number of officers assigned to each supervisor will be reduced, and sergeants are now required to respond to police chases.

“These situations are tense. After a lengthy chase, struggles often ensue,” Word said. “People are upset. Crowds begin to form. I want somebody there to de-escalate things.”

Despite his zero-tolerance policy toward brutality, Word said such incidents are often misinterpreted by the public.

“People assume that if you strike a handcuffed prisoner, it’s excessive and you should be fired,” he said. “But that’s not always the case. A suspect might come at an officer with arms raised, hands cuffed in front of him.”

Activists say police discrimination against minorities isn’t limited to criminal arrests and occurs even during routine stops. The ACLU reported that African Americans are three times more likely to be searched during traffic stops than whites, according to data collected by Oakland police on 21,000 vehicle stops made by officers between June 2000 and April 2001.

Blacks accounted for nearly half the stops, while whites, who constitute 33% of the population, accounted for 16%. Oakland police have claimed that the data do not “suggest significantly disproportionate stops of minorities” but added that further research was necessary.

“People want a well-trained and well-paid police force,” said Michelle Alexander, Northern California director of the ACLU’s racial justice project. “But they also want police to be accountable to the community. That means reforms to eliminate racial profiling.”

In recent years, activists have published what they call the “Nasty Nine Report” to track problem officers.

Dawn Phillips, executive director of People United for a Better Oakland, said the case of Officer Mike Yoell represents a particular slap in the face to the department’s zero-tolerance policy.

The 42-year-old officer was involved in the fatal shooting of an armed man in 1999 that investigators ruled was justified. Four years earlier, he was suspended for three days for shooting a robbery suspect he said he believed was armed but whose gun was never found. And the city paid a $225,000 settlement after Yoell was found to have improperly beaten a West Oakland recreation director.

“We asked the department to investigate, and they said he’d been promoted to lieutenant,” Phillips said.

When asked about the case, Officer Bob Valladon, president of the Oakland Police Officers Assn., said: “You’re talking to the people who hate the police. So I’m not talking to you.” Then he hung up the phone.

Lt. Yoell said he is misunderstood.

“I’m no bad apple. I’m just out there doing my job every day,” said the 19-year veteran, who supervises officers in East Oakland. “When you deal with the criminal element, civil rights violations are all up to personal interpretation.”

Yoell said citizen complaints filed against him are outweighed by commendations for good police work. “If I was the person a lot of people think I am, I certainly wouldn’t still be here,” he said. “Until you walk my beat, it’s hard to judge me.”

In March, three members of the Riders gang will stand trial on charges of 35 felonies that include kidnapping and assault. The group’s senior officer, known as “Choker” for allegedly squeezing a suspect’s throat during questioning, remains a fugitive who reportedly has fled the country.

Prosecutors said the case is not an indictment of the entire police force. “There is clearly a vocal segment of the community which thinks there are deeper and widespread problems with the Oakland Police Department,” said Alameda County Deputy Dist. Atty. Davis Hollister. “Yet in my mind, I don’t see an entire department that’s constantly crossing the line.”

Jervis Muwwakkil does.

Nine months after the death of his son, he remains wary of police--even at a community meeting attended by officers in a local school gymnasium.

“I felt uncomfortable every time one of them passed behind me where I couldn’t see what they were doing,” he said. “I’ve never felt that way before--to be afraid of a police officer. Think about that.”

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Police Pay in 10 Largest Cities

Oakland Police are among the highest-paid big city officers in California. They are set to receive a 27% hike over five years, to a monthly minimum of $5,763 and a maximum of $7,274. Figures below are for 2000:

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Agency Sworn officers Min. Salary* Max. Salary* Los Angeles 9,346 $3,431 $4,609 San Francisco 2,227 $3,991 $4,966 San Diego 2,064 $2,698 $4,246 San Jose 1,342 $3,834 $5,399 Long Beach 903 $3,518 $4,841 Oakland 747 $4,177 $5,035 Fresno 700 $3,429 $4,754 Sacramento 664 $2,757 $3,695 Anaheim 400 $3,879 $5,304 Santa Ana 404 $4,152 $5,051

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* Monthly rate

Source: Employment Data for California Law Enforcement, California Commission on Peace Officer Standards & Training