Oakland, CA - Yesterday, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its policy review of the Oakland Police Department’s (OPD’s) Departmental General Order (DGO) M-19: Prohibitions Regarding Racial Profiling and Other Bias-Based Policing. The OIG offers six recommendations and three considerations to improve the language, definitions, timelines, and consistency of officers’ general conduct. With these updates, the OIG seeks to clarify the subjectivity of DGO M-19 while promoting greater levels of police accountability.
“Every community member deserves to receive quality police services,” said Inspector General Michelle N. Phillips. “Via its recommendations to refine DGO M-19, the OIG hopes to sharpen OPD’s formula for decreasing instances of racial profiling and other bias-based policing practices.”
In OPD’s response to the OIG’s policy review, they provide their plan to deliver on each recommendation and consideration. Additionally, OPD notes its plans to go beyond the prescribed suggestions by “developing a cultural accountability statement in the policy, creating new training modules, updating existing procedures, and establishing a monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance with and effectiveness of changes.”
###