Monitor blasts Oakland police shootings

The court-appointed monitor tracking police reforms in Oakland issued a scathing report Tuesday concluding that officers sometimes shoot at suspects even though they don't face an imminent threat, perhaps because of "hypersensitivity" to the dangers of their job.

The monitor, Robert Warshaw, said in a 17-page report that in-house investigations into the shootings often fell short. In most cases, he said, detectives appeared to be "predisposed to the position that the shooting is justified."

Warshaw reviewed nine recent cases, including seven shootings that killed three people and injured a fourth, though details of the cases were redacted. In some cases, officers fired but missed. Warshaw said he was most troubled by cases in which the use of deadly force was "questionable."

"These are the cases, above all others, that require objective, unbiased, probing investigations," Warshaw wrote, "and yet they appear to be cases that exhibit the most deficiencies and the least inquisitiveness."

Reaction from union

While not mentioning specific cases, Warshaw made clear he had reviewed a May 2011 shooting in which two officers fatally shot two men - one of whom had a gun - after learning they were on their way to carry out a killing. Alameda County prosecutors cleared the officers.

A police spokesman said he was not prepared to comment on the report. But the head of the union representing officers was angry. Barry Donelan said that probes into police shootings are exhaustive, and that officers encounter armed suspects every day in Oakland, which has the state's highest violent crime rate.

"Our officers see more violence in a shift than many officers in America see in an entire year," he said.

Michael Rains, an attorney who defends officers in Oakland, noted that Alameda County prosecutors also investigated the shootings.

"I daresay if Mr. Warshaw wants to be critical of those cases, then I'm sure someone at the district attorney's office will be more than happy to discuss the exhaustive process they go through," Rains said.

Reforms ordered

The report comes as city leaders seek to avoid a federal takeover of the police force. The department has been trying for a decade to make reforms ordered by a federal judge after four officers, who called themselves the Riders, were accused in 2000 of imposing vigilante justice in West Oakland.

The officers were never convicted, but a lawsuit filed by their alleged victims resulted in a civil judgment against the city of $10.9 million, as well as the ordered reforms.

The plaintiffs' attorneys are preparing to ask U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to put the department under receivership for failing to implement all the reforms. Their opening motion is due Thursday, and a hearing is set for Dec. 13.

Warshaw said he would discuss his concerns about specific shootings with the judge, which could result in discipline.