Oakland Police Change Demonstration Tactics

Stung by criticism over his officers' actions during Occupy Oakland protests and other demonstrations, Police Chief Howard Jordan said Monday he was ordering "major reforms" in how police deal with large crowds.

Smaller groups of officers will go into crowds to weed out problem protesters, and officers will make every effort to ensure that demonstrators hear dispersal orders and are given a chance to leave, Jordan said at a City Hall news conference. Within the next week, all officers will have undergone training on how to handle large crowds, he said.

The police initiatives will balance protesters' First Amendment right of peaceful assembly with officers' responsibility to enforce the law and protect citizens and property, Jordan said.

"It is our duty to protect public safety and at the same time balance the free-speech rights of individual protesters with the rights of nonprotesting residents," Jordan said.

The chief said protesters must still leave when ordered by police, and officers will still be armed with "less-lethal" weapons that have caused controversy in Occupy protests, including batons, beanbag bullets and tear gas.

The chief denied he was feeling pressure because of a federal consent decree mandating that the department undergo systemic changes in response to a police misconduct scandal.

"The change really has to come from within," Jordan said. "I know what it takes to make changes here."

Jordan was joined at the news conference by Mayor Jean Quan, City Administrator Deanna Santana and community representatives.

"We're trying to build trust between the community and the Oakland Police Department," Quan said. "We are trying to really define and build constitutional policing in this city that is meaningful."

Occupy and its sympathizers have criticized police and Quan for the city's response to the group's protests since October. Protesters have accused officers of using batons and firing beanbag bullets and tear gas without justification and have pointed out that other large-scale protests across the country have not generated a similar response.

Protesters have also accused police of making unlawful mass arrests without ordering people to disperse.

Assaults on police

Police counter that some protesters have assaulted officers with knives, rocks, bottles and Mace.

On Monday, Jordan acknowledged that his department needed to improve the way it plans for large-scale protests and how it investigates individual officers "when they step over the line." An outside investigator is reviewing 38 Occupy-related complaints, and two officers have been moved to internal affairs "just to deal with Occupy complaints," the chief said.

The department will also be more diligent in tracking the movements and use of force by officers from outside agencies that come to Oakland for mutual aid, the chief said.

In January, experts overseeing the Police Department under a $10.5 million civil settlement in the "Riders" police misconduct scandal also said they had "serious concerns" about what they saw officers doing at some Occupy protests and questioned whether the department has made enough progress in bringing about change.

Judge's complaints

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who is overseeing a consent decree stemming from the Riders case, has also complained about the slow pace of reforms.

"I am disappointed as well as everyone else that it took 10 years," Jordan said.

Jim Chanin, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the civil settlement, said Monday that he was suspicious about Jordan's announcement, given that the next report from the independent monitors is "imminent."

"We'll see in the future whether this means anything," Chanin said. "The time for words has long since passed."

Occupy activist Jaime Omar Yassin agreed, saying, "Of course, I don't believe it. This is a way of ameliorating public dissatisfaction with the fact that they can't get their act together to do the very simple reforms that are outlined in Henderson's judgment."