The Oakland Police Department (OPD) is experiencing significant changes after 23 years of federal oversight. This oversight is the longest in U.S. history and was initiated due to the exposure of patterns of misconduct in police behavior. In 2014, human rights lawyers John Burris and Jim Chanin asked me to come to Oakland to work as an expert in this field. They represented a group of plaintiffs seeking justice in a city that faced severe pressures from violent and discriminatory police behavior.
Development of Changes in Oakland
Federal oversight of OPD began when evidence of police misconduct was made public. Now, a federal judge is set to decide whether this oversight can come to an end. Whatever the outcome of this decision, Oakland has undergone significant changes over the past two decades. For the first time, we have the necessary tools to closely examine police behavior.
Body Camera Data and Its Analysis
Since 2014, Oakland has been recognized as one of the first cities to use police body cameras. This technology has helped collect a vast amount of footage that can accurately document interactions between police and citizens. Unfortunately, this footage has often remained unused. We concluded that this footage could serve as a data source for a better understanding of police and citizen behaviors.
In collaboration with researchers from Stanford University, we analyzed this footage. Our team included linguists and social psychologists, and we developed computational tools to analyze these videos. These tools allowed us to identify linguistic patterns present in routine police interactions.
Results and Implications of Reforms
After implementing new policies and training, stops involving Black citizens in Oakland decreased by 43% without an increase in crime. Additionally, our analysis showed that officers' language in interactions with the public has improved, and greater concerns for driver safety have been expressed.
Over a 10-year period, OPD continued to reform and improve its practices. For example, after implementing a policy to prevent chasing suspects into yards, officer injuries decreased by 70%. Also, officer-involved shootings, which averaged eight annually in the past, dropped to a total of eight over a five-year period.
Developments in Oakland represent a new hope for improving relations between police and the community, demonstrating that positive outcomes can be achieved through the use of appropriate data and analytical tools.
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