The time has come for the U.S. Department of Justice to intercede and allow the Oakland Police Department to complete its reforms.

The citizens of Oakland deserve an effective, fair and accountable police department. That’s what I sought to achieve when I accepted the job of police chief in 2017 and set out to institute reforms and make the department more transparent to the community it serves.

Like the nine chiefs before me, my efforts and that of the women and men of the department were thwarted by the very person whose job it is to oversee them: Robert Warshaw, the appointed monitor.

The reason the Oakland Police Department remains “out of compliance” with the federal monitoring is not its officers or its policies and procedures. Rather, it is because Warshaw, the monitor himself, who earns a million dollars a year from Oakland taxpayers, has no incentive to see those reforms succeed.

Worse, the ever-changing mountain of bureaucracy he has instituted takes police officers off the streets and keeps them behind desks filling out forms and looking at hours of video, putting public safety at risk.

After 17 years, 500 new police officers, 10 police chiefs, four mayors and two federal judges, it’s clear where the roadblock to reform lies. The time has come for the U.S. Department of Justice to oversee the overseer and allow the Oakland Police Department to complete its reforms.

When I came to the department, I had been warned about the serious problems with how Warshaw operates.

I knew that in 2013, the former city administrator of Oakland accused Warshaw of sexual harassment, yet he was allowed to keep his job. I knew that in 2014, retiring Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan warned in the strongest possible terms that “to put him in charge is a travesty of justice” and that he “rules by fear and intimidation.”

I knew that his dual roles – as both the author of compliance programs and the monitor of their progress – created an inherent conflict of interest. I knew that his oversight team, which constantly criticized the department for a supposed lack of diversity, itself, had not a single person of color.

I knew that Warshaw hadn’t been involved in direct policing for many years and thus lacks any current front-line understanding of the kind of modern police force he is charged with “reforming.” Some members of his team have little or no police or law enforcement experience at all.

Nonetheless, when I arrived, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I sought to work with him in good faith.

I soon found that faith was seriously misplaced.

Whenever we came close to the finish line, the line would be moved – and the public would be told that we had begun to “slip backwards.” In private, I would be told that we were making progress; just three weeks ago he said we were “deep in the red zone,” meaning we were nearly at the goal line. In public, he scolded and ridiculed the department and its officers as having failed.

Perhaps the most glaring example of this came in the review of the shooting of Joshua Pawlik in 2018.

‘If the facts were honestly told, they would demonstrate that the Oakland Police Department has met its reform goals, and Warshaw’s million-dollar job would disappear. As he lines his pockets, he’s putting the community in the line of fire.’

At the time, I proposed to Warshaw using all outside experts to sit on the Use of Force Review Board, as I had done in Washington State when I was one of the first police chiefs to ask for outside agencies to investigate officer-involved shootings. Warshaw told me he thought it was a great idea – “revolutionary for policing.” I arranged for a retired federal magistrate and two highly respected use of force experts from Sacramento and Los Angeles to comprise the board who would vote and make recommendations to me on the actions to take regarding the officers involved.

Yet after these arrangements had been made, Warshaw suddenly reversed his position and would not allow me to use outsiders.

In the end, a separate independent review by the District Attorney and the City Attorney agreed with my finding that the officers had acted properly. In total, 10 attorneys, including a retired federal judge who witnessed the entire board proceedings, as well as the two civilian investigators who worked for the Police Commission, also found the officers acted properly. Yet, Warshaw ignored those experts and the evidence, and instead ordered the officers to be terminated.

Why would he reject outside experts and a transparent process? Because, if the facts were honestly told, they would demonstrate that the Oakland Police Department has met its reform goals, and his million-dollar job would disappear. As he lines his pockets, he’s putting the community in the line of fire.

Warshaw continues to adulterate the reform process. The latest demand for additional police paperwork, which went into effect three weeks ago, created such a huge and unnecessary burden that at times there are as many as 100 calls for service that cannot be answered because officers are writing reports. Emergency calls routinely back up. This latest demand was so onerous and impossible to institute that it was almost immediately modified this past week by Warshaw.

I believe in reform. I believe in transparency. I believe in outside review. I believe in accountability, and that there are some cases where that accountability requires federal oversight.

That is not the case in Oakland. The Oakland Police Department is a shining example of what real, effective police reform looks like. If we were benchmarked with other police departments the public would see just how amazing the men and women of the Oakland Police Department really are. They should stand proud.

Neither the department, nor the people it serves, should continue to suffer under this broken and dangerous system. That’s why I have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to step in and examine how Warshaw has failed the city while collecting millions. We need to stop the bleeding of resources and get officers out from behind desks and onto the streets of the community – and get Warshaw off our streets for good.

Anne Kirkpatrick served as Oakland’s police chief from February 2017 to February 2020. Since 1982, she has served in eight law enforcement departments, four of them as chief of police. She is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, The FBI National Executive Institute and the FBI’s Law Enforcement Executive Development School. She has also been a licensed attorney for the past 30 years.