What’s the future of police accountability?

Mac Muir returned to his hometown of Oakland in 2023 to run the town’s civilian police watchdog. Nevertheless, it was a tricky time for the Police Fee.

The Neighborhood Police Evaluation Company, which operates beneath the authority of the Police Fee, had turn out to be overwhelmed with pending circumstances and massive expectations and was scuffling with too few employees. Muir spent two years rebuilding the company, hiring investigators, growing a brand new case administration system, cleansing the case backlog, and managing high-profile evaluations of police misconduct. 

Earlier this yr, Muir left his job as govt director of the company, warning his bosses on the police fee that impending cuts to his staff threatened the progress they’d made. 

However he’s nonetheless an optimist in regards to the potential for civilian oversight to rework public security, together with in Oakland. Muir not too long ago authored a e book, Cop Cop, based mostly on his decade as an investigator for New York Metropolis’s Civilian Grievance Evaluation Board, and has stayed busy sharing his insights with metropolis leaders and activists throughout the nation.

We not too long ago caught up with Muir to listen to about his new e book and his ideas on the way forward for police accountability in Oakland and past.

This interview has been edited for readability and size.

You coauthored a book with Greg Finch that got here out in April. It’s about your experiences as investigators for New York Metropolis’s Civilian Grievance Evaluation Board. What’s the response to the e book been like?

The reception has been actually optimistic. The dialog across the constitutionality of law enforcement officials’ conduct is evergreen. 

We had an perception into the NYPD universe we felt we wanted to share — into one thing actually particular, distinctive, and related for everybody who cares about American policing. 

The conversations about policing have pale to a sure extent for the reason that homicide of George Floyd. I feel this can be a nice solution to reinvigorate that dialog, particularly in mild of what’s been occurring with the Trump administration, the threats to ship army into numerous cities, together with Oakland.

What we do within the e book that hasn’t been performed earlier than is give a firsthand expertise of investigating police misconduct. It’s a perspective of what occurs when a police misconduct case is opened, the way it’s investigated, and what the challenges are. I feel if everybody knew this, we’d have a a lot better system of policing.

So I’m actually excited in regards to the suggestions. I’ve been having attention-grabbing conversations with of us throughout the nation.

It looks as if we’re on this backlash interval in opposition to police reform. The individuals who need to unleash police, and even the military, on society are on the march. We now have this oscillation the place we’ve these conversations about change, however then it snaps again to a narrative that crime is out of control, and the police needs to be free to do no matter. What are your ideas about this?

An enormous problem with what occurred after the homicide of George Floyd is that we didn’t actually have a dialog about policing, not in the best way we thought we did.

We had a broad dialog about race in America. It was a racial reckoning. However we didn’t get into the nitty-gritty of what sorts of accountability mechanisms there are in police departments that may forestall these items from taking place within the first place, and the way we will extra broadly construction policing to scale back hurt.

I do suppose this second we now discover ourselves in is opening up a renewed dialog round constitutional policing, significantly when you’ve ICE and the Nationwide Guard showing to go from metropolis to metropolis with out regard for the US Structure. 

We’re seeing insurance policies put ahead once more in New York for issues which were discovered unconstitutional, like stop-and-frisk. Proper now, each American needs to be asking themselves, What are the boundaries of my constitutional rights? I feel we’re going to be stepping into these sorts of questions increasingly as persons are confronted with the prospect of huge unconstitutional policing — not simply in Black and brown communities, as has traditionally been the case — however in all places.

In a approach, you sound nearly optimistic, like this second may be eye-opening for many individuals? Maybe the politicians who’ve these authoritarian tendencies may be pushing so exhausting that they’re going to reopen the dialog we didn’t get to totally have in 2020?

Completely. And whereas there was pushback in opposition to adjustments and reforms, there has additionally been actual, significant progress. 

Many of the nation’s police oversight establishments, like Oakland’s Police Fee, are actually new. It’s exhausting to create a brand new authorities entity, and really troublesome to create a brand new type of accountability in authorities. And so they’ve gone via rising pains.

However in case you have a look at the police oversight entities in Chicago and Cleveland, and different locations, you’ll discover that oversight hasn’t simply grown; it has proven tangible outcomes. The outcomes embody issues like fewer use-of-force incidents by law enforcement officials and fewer civil rights lawsuit payouts. That’s actually true in Oakland, the place lawsuit payouts have collapsed. There’s actual progress. And we’re seeing extra cities borrow from these classes, construct establishments that parallel a few of what Oakland does. That makes me optimistic.

As these establishments turn out to be everlasting, extra individuals will turn out to be conscious of them. Fifteen years in the past, there was barely any data of civilian oversight. However now it’s simply extra a part of the dialog about what authorities is. When you have police, are there accountability programs? Are they unbiased? When the reply is sure, I feel you see significant outcomes.

What do you suppose the largest false impression about policing is?

One is the concept that the police ought to police themselves. It’s not a necessity. Nevertheless it’s constructed into the storytelling of what police departments have been and what we’ve seen on TV with inside affairs.

Editor’s notice: Most police and sheriff’s departments and different legislation enforcement businesses have models inside them which can be tasked with investigating allegations of wrongdoing by officers. They’re often referred to as inside affairs models, however generally produce other names.

I feel a giant false impression is that law enforcement officials can inherently do higher-quality investigations than civilians. There’s a veneer of authority that comes with the badge. However the crucial considering wanted in an investigation could be performed by anybody with the requisite coaching. And the objectivity comes from independence from the establishment you’re investigating. So I feel everybody ought to replicate on that assumption, the concept that inside affairs ought to exist as is.

The second factor, and that is truest in New York Metropolis however echoed elsewhere, is that the police officer on the road, their conduct, is usually formed by policymaking of politicians, and the data-driven incentives that result in profession development, a elevate, promotion, {and professional} success. I feel one of many challenges of 2020 was that we checked out law enforcement officials via the lens of their very own company. One of many challenges I’ve noticed for law enforcement officials is that they lose a specific amount of company, and so they’re beholden to their bosses, political pressures, and shifting winds by way of how policing is completed.

However this makes me optimistic as a result of finally, policing is a democratic establishment. It’s aware of what political actors body it as. I feel sooner or later, as there’s elevated data about what policing appears to be like like on a day-to-day foundation, you’re going to see extra responsive politicians who’ve extra understanding of the results of their decision-making.

Let’s speak about Oakland. Oakland’s police fee is usually described as probably the most highly effective within the nation. Is that this true? How is police misconduct overseen elsewhere?

What makes the Oakland Police Fee probably the most highly effective oversight entity within the nation is its capability to fireside the chief of police.

Editor’s notice: The fee gained this energy when it was established in 2017. Since then, the fee has fired one police chief: Anne Kirkpatrick in 2020, a call that then-Mayor Libby Schaaf joined in. Oakland’s mayor additionally has the facility to fireside the chief, and LeRonne Armstrong was eliminated from OPD’s high publish in 2023 by then-Mayor Sheng Thao.

Throughout the fee, you’ve the Community Police Review Agency, which is a extremely highly effective investigative company, and you’ve got the inspector basic’s workplace, which has widespread authority to audit and oversee coverage and advocate adjustments. You might have a whole lot of entry. That’s what makes it arguably probably the most highly effective.

In terms of how different departments are overseen, there are just a few different cities which have what I’d argue is de facto significant and highly effective oversight. In the event you have a look at Chicago, what occurred there’s that when the Division of Justice got here in with their consent decree, they wove oversight into the answer. This ensured that oversight is a long-lasting establishment that shall be round nicely after the DOJ is gone.

Editor’s notice: In April, President Trump issued an govt order — “…unleashing America’s law enforcement…” — directing the Justice Division to overview all ongoing consent decrees and take steps to finish them. Consequently, federal efforts to result in police reforms have ended in a minimum of 20 cities.

Elsewhere, you’ll have an inspector basic who will oversee insurance policies and generally audit the oversight company itself. 

However the true battleground is whether or not you’ve unbiased investigations. We take this with no consideration in Oakland and San Francisco, however some cities solely have inside affairs. In these locations, you’ll be able to have individuals reviewing inside affairs recordsdata and recommending enhancements or corrections. After which in different cities, you simply have individuals auditing police knowledge and coverage. In my view, that could be a a lot weaker type of oversight. 

When you’ve unbiased investigations, you’ve clear solutions to the toughest questions, and that’s good oversight. There needs to be no query that may’t be requested when it’s within the public curiosity.

In terms of the fee’s energy, there’s a huge caveat. California doesn’t have sturdy transparency legal guidelines. A lot of the work the CPRA does gained’t be made public within the present authorized atmosphere. I feel that’s a problem for anybody making an attempt to evaluate the worth of the CPRA and related police oversight businesses in California. The work is shielded from public entry a whole lot of the time and that provides to the controversy of how helpful oversight is when you’ll be able to’t see the outcomes.

Editor’s notice: California’s law concerning the confidentiality of police personnel and self-discipline data is among the strictest within the nation. With just a few exceptions, details about misconduct investigations can’t be made public.

In Oakland and throughout California, law enforcement officials who’ve been investigated and located to have engaged in misconduct have two layers of appeals the place they’ll attempt to overturn findings or self-discipline. They’ve Skelly hearings, that are imagined to be a verify on due course of, however it could take a whole lot of time. After which they’ve arbitration. I’ve heard many issues voiced over time that the arbitration stage of a police disciplinary motion could be tilted in an officer’s favor. That’s due to the pool of arbitrators out there, or due to the character of arbitration, and that may weaken the disciplinary outcomes. In some circumstances, I’ve heard of arbitrators making a ruling not based mostly on legislation or reality. That’s actually an issue for any severe disciplinary course of.

Editor’s notice: A 1975 court case mandated a Skelly listening to anytime a police division needs to self-discipline an officer. Earlier than imposing self-discipline, the division should notify the officer, hand over all of the data of its investigation, and permit the officer to reply and object to the proposed self-discipline throughout a listening to. Arbitration is the following step in lots of police departments’ disciplinary processes, permitting an officer, typically represented by a police union legal professional, to rebut an investigation’s findings earlier than a impartial arbitrator picked by the police union and metropolis. The arbitrator makes the ultimate resolution as as to whether the officer shall be disciplined.

That will get into some tough territory. I do know there are some on the market who say police unions aren’t actual unions. However the actuality is, police unions are labor organizations. They do characterize their members, similar to different unions, particularly within the public sector. They battle tooth and nail for Skelly and arbitration rights of their contracts. Are we questioning the flexibility of officers to have arbitration? That will be going nuclear in opposition to police unions. Do you suppose it’s reasonable that California may ever get to a degree the place it removes arbitration for law enforcement officials?

I don’t have an issue with Skellys and arbitrations as long as they’re truthful and unbiased and have fact-based outcomes. However that’s not at all times the case. 

They take a whole lot of time and price some huge cash. Each officer throughout the nation is entitled to and deserves due course of. If a chief or inside affairs or civilian overview investigator made a foul resolution or one which was not grounded in actual fact and purpose, then it needs to be scrutinized and probably overturned or modified. 

However the issue is that I don’t have the impression that the disciplinary course of, from starting to finish, is unbiased and completely reliant on the information. 

And that’s what civilian overview tries to do — get us a bit of nearer to the world the place each member of the general public and each officer can count on a constant, fact-based course of. 

In some locations, arbitration has been challenged, and so they’ve provide you with alternate options to it. Chicago, Illinois, is a type of locations. The Chicago Police Board, which is unbiased from the police division, guidelines on self-discipline. In New York, it’s simply the police commissioner, a system that has its personal issues. 

So there are alternate options. However I don’t know that eliminating arbitration is the reply.

Having run Oakland’s Neighborhood Police Evaluation Company, what would you say are its largest strengths and its largest weaknesses? Choose just a few.

The primary power is the CPRA’s entry to data.

OPD and the oversight entities have labored nicely to verify investigators have entry to body-worn cameras. I used to be in a position to have a look at footage shortly after incidents. I feel each oversight entity within the nation ought to have related direct entry. 

And data normally had been supplied in a well timed trend. There are some pure delays that include the quick staffing at OPD, however there was good communication, and I walked away from that considering it was a fantastic system. The place there have been points, there was efficient dialogue.

The second huge power is the Police Fee’s unbiased authorized counsel. The CPRA has its personal attorneys and may argue on behalf of its personal positions and views. That’s a elementary tenet of civilian oversight, however not a whole lot of oversight entities have this. The difficulty is that there’s a notion that while you’re counting on the town legal professional’s workplace, they’re additionally representing the police division, and there’s a possible battle of curiosity. You need legal professionals who aren’t additionally representing the police division. We employed the primary attorneys for the CPRA whereas I used to be there.

The third main power is the standard of investigations total. Though we had been short-staffed whereas I used to be there and though it was a continuing battle to take care of our employees ranges and advocate for sturdy oversight, the work we did — I used to be very impressed by it. The investigators put in a ton of time and vitality and utilized wonderful skilled abilities to their work. There’s a fantastic staff that’s invested in that. And there’s additionally a system that continues to provide high quality investigations. 

What the standard is because of is being able to independently direct investigations. When there are points and questions, the CPRA can, individually from inside affairs, say there’s a problem we have to handle. When evaluating proof, the CPRA can achieve this independently and evenhandedly. Throughout interviews with officers and witnesses, or subject material specialists, CPRA investigators are in a position to embody crucial questions. All that’s necessary to the method.

Lastly, CPRA has the flexibility to current investigation findings on to the chief and deputy chiefs and the police fee. All that ensures that there’s a significant, considerate dialogue round all these choices, and there are checks on energy, whether or not that’s the facility of the police chief or the CPRA director.

Inform me about weaknesses now. You ran up in opposition to a bunch of issues whilst you led the CPRA. What had been a few of the greater and extra damaging issues?

The elephant within the room is funds. 

The fluctuating monetary state of affairs for CPRA signifies that it was very troublesome to do long-term planning. You would possibly suppose you knew what the funds was going to be for the following two years, however then, halfway via a cycle, it will get lower. I left whereas there have been layoffs occurring. That impacts day-to-day work since you spend extra time placing out fires. There are cascading penalties to the monetary instability.

The Metropolis Council got here very near approving a parcel tax to completely fund oversight. I used to be very excited when that was on the agenda. I hope in some unspecified time in the future there shall be a collective understanding that oversight must be completely funded. These are pillars of presidency, whether or not it’s the ethics fee, auditor, the police fee, they need to persist in darkish occasions. There have been cuts made to assist be certain the town’s funds had been steady, however there was a price, and often you gained’t see it as a result of it’s not within the public file or the results gained’t pop up for years. When accountability falters, it takes some time to affect the streets.

Internally, I feel CPRA’s knowledge assortment and its coverage strategy are a weak spot within the discipline of civilian oversight. When Measure S1 handed, it transferred the coverage analyst place from the CPRA to the inspector basic’s workplace. In a strong oversight entity, you’re not simply going to do investigations, you’re going to take knowledge from the police division and be taught many extra classes by aggregating that.

I felt like there have been many tales within the knowledge that we couldn’t push via as a result of there was no knowledge coverage unit inside the CPRA.

That’s fascinating. It sounds such as you’re saying CPRA may have recognized issues utilizing knowledge, however you simply didn’t have the staffing and sources wanted?

That’s the way forward for civilian oversight. It’s knowledge evaluation. Once you have a look at probably the most complete research of police misconduct, there are patterns and developments you’ll be able to see: associations between officers. You may geomap misconduct. The models which can be disproportionately accountable for misconduct. Discovering these items is all depending on having sound knowledge assortment and evaluation. However you want the infrastructure, the databases, and extra.

OPD has spent a few years organising a system referred to as VISION. It’s an enormous database of the sorts of data you’re speaking about. OPD makes use of it to look out for warning indicators, like whether or not or not there was an uptick in police chases and car collisions, or if some models have seen a giant spike in complaints. Was the CPRA ever given the flexibility to look into VISION or the danger administration experiences OPD produced?

I joined these threat administration conferences and had entry to VISION. Nevertheless, it’s one factor to have the ability to view the division’s knowledge versus with the ability to accumulate or analyze knowledge by yourself. At that time, we’re doing the work of a journalist, asking, Is there a significant story right here? The questions have already been posed while you’re a threat administration report, like, are there extra automobile crashes?

However when we’ve an interview and an officer says, “Properly, I used to be skilled to do it that approach,” then you’ll be able to have a look at the info to look at that and you’ll deliver one thing as much as the division in case you discover points and developments.

Oversight businesses have their very own questions in regards to the division and may have the ability to reply these independently after which current their findings.

One other weak spot with the CPRA is with its outreach. Numerous different oversight entities have devoted outreach employees. It was very difficult for our employees to do outreach absent that staffing. 

Why has there been a lot strife internally within the fee? 

I really feel like I left on nice phrases with the police fee. I may be the primary one in a position to say that?

I feel over time, the function of the police fee has been evolving. When it first got here into impact, it was in response to the scandal that rocked the department in 2016. There’s an enormous accountability that comes with being a police commissioner and a weight, additionally. It is a neighborhood that’s been rocked by scandal after scandal, and all the best way again to the Black Panther period, you’ve received police violence and the town making an attempt to reconcile with that. And instantly, as a police commissioner, the load of that historical past is in your shoulders. When the fee was first established, I feel individuals felt the load.

However as soon as the commissioners started to repeatedly see what the CPRA may do at its finest, it made it rather a lot simpler to give attention to the work moderately than the accountability that comes with it. 

Chair Garcia Acosta has performed a fantastic job gathering classes realized and listening to former commissioners and constructing stability. You’ve seen that with much less turnover than ever on the fee. I feel they’re actually devoted to specializing in fixing issues. That’s my sizzling take.

There have been occasions after I disagreed with fee members, and generally very considerably. However I considered it via the lens of, we’re all making an attempt to have a greater police division and have a neighborhood that feels safer. With yearly, I feel that’s going to get a bit of higher, with some bumps within the highway.

Not lots of people would possibly count on you to be as optimistic as you’re.

A number of what the police fee was originally was an entity with a whole lot of energy however no boundaries. So for me, a part of the accountability because the CPRA director was to attempt to set wholesome, moral boundaries. To have severe conversations in regards to the challenges our company confronted and oversight faces. 

As that occurred, I noticed higher and higher outcomes. I feel the media dialog across the fee — as a result of there have been some sensational issues that occurred — it’s simple to miss the true progress being made. The clashes are extra of what you see. However while you simply see the fee conferences, you see a sliver of the work that’s performed.

Editor’s notice: In 2023, the police fee was beset with infighting as two opposing teams of commissioners fought for management. The battle spilled over into public settings a number of occasions, leading to accusations of mismanagement, threats, and even legal action taken by some commissioners in opposition to the town.

There’s a story in some corners in Oakland — unfold very a lot by some law enforcement officials and some Oakland residents — that police oversight has gone too far, that it’s broken OPD’s capacity to answer crime. What do you say when individuals deliver this up?

I say it hasn’t.

I’ve seen the circumstances. I’ve seen each investigation the CPRA did whereas I used to be there. I’ve seen the outcomes. I’ve seen actually significant accountability work happen. And I’ve by no means seen it tangibly restrict the division’s capacity to answer crime.

The homicide fee has dropped considerably. The division does have trigger to have fun a few of its accomplishments. However that’s occurred whereas oversight is right here. And never solely that, you’ve tens of millions of dollars saved in civil lawsuit payouts. Payouts, which, by the best way, are calculations of hurt to people. 

So, you can also make that assertion, however I haven’t seen the proof to again it up. I feel oversight is a straightforward vessel to plant one’s cynicism or frustration in. However that’s as a result of oversight officers typically can’t successfully categorical the outcomes of the circumstances and the work they’re doing. Police oversight is a sort of labor that’s exhausting to defend for that purpose. Folks can’t see a whole lot of the work it has performed, resulting in optimistic outcomes, the flexibility for the division to raised police itself, the flexibility for oversight to be concerned in that dialog, and the flexibility for the division to extra adequately reply to crime.

Simply so we’re clear, while you discuss in regards to the incapability of the police fee and the CPRA to point out their work, you’re speaking about state legal guidelines that strictly prohibit the sharing of details about most police misconduct circumstances, proper? The CPRA typically can’t even share a few of its work with the police commissioners themselves, not to mention the general public.

That was a really irritating facet of the work, the limiting of data sharing between the fee, my bosses, and the CPRA.

I’d direct you to the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting on how police have circumvented SB 1421 and different makes an attempt at transparency. It’s very troublesome for a police personnel file in California to be made public. Only a tiny sliver of the work we did has been made public. And that’s irritating as a result of I feel of us could be pleased with a few of the work we did, and it will spark significant conversations round oversight.

The final process OPD should accomplish earlier than it could emerge from federal courtroom oversight has to do with fixing its inside affairs bureau. Why is that this the final and seemingly unfixable factor holding OPD again?

I don’t suppose that is an Oakland challenge. I feel that is an existential policing challenge. 

Police policing themselves is an immensely delicate and difficult space full of points we’ve seen throughout the nation. Oakland’s inside affairs bureau has been beneath immense scrutiny largely as a result of the settlement settlement ensures points are made public. So there have been scandals. I’m undecided they’d have turn out to be recognized to the general public in any other case.

The better challenge is: It’s exhausting for the police to police themselves, and if you wish to get one thing proper, it’s not one thing you do in a single day. I feel it’s the basic problem holding again constitutional policing throughout the nation. 

At its worst, inside affairs can do great hurt. Not simply to the belongings you’d count on, like exonerations that aren’t warranted, or overlooking issues in circumstances to let an officer off simple. I feel at its worst, inside affairs, as an idea, can institutionalize and embolden dangerous policing and hurt officers who attempt to get up in opposition to it. You see that in some cities. An officer would possibly put in a whistleblower criticism or say one thing the division is doing isn’t moral, after which instantly there’s an inside affairs criticism drummed up in opposition to them. I feel there’s an understanding amongst most cops that that could be a threat.

Earlier, you made a reference to police TV reveals, how they typically unfold myths about policing, however I feel that is one space the place police procedurals really get stuff proper. Usually on these reveals, a part of the plot includes the hero cop not solely having to catch the dangerous man, but additionally being screwed with by their very own division as a result of they’ve tried to lift inside points. This comes up rather a lot in popular culture, and it’s type of true.

Many of the firebrands in policing who’ve tried to tackle probably the most difficult facets of it have confronted termination. Like Jack Maple, the man who invented COMPSTAT and revolutionized American policing, he was consistently on the point of being fired. He simply needed to give attention to hurt discount in policing, and so they tried to fireside him.

Why ought to any officer need to take care of that? Shouldn’t you have the ability to get up and say what’s proper? I do suppose that’s one of many strongest arguments for civilianizing inside affairs. A minimum of you’d know everybody goes to get the identical shake and there’s no inside politics. It’s only a matter of what occurred and whether or not there have been violations of the foundations or legislation, after which we’re on to the following case.

Broadly, what are you seeing in the remainder of the nation proper now on the subject of police oversight? 

I feel you’re seeing in some states, like Arizona and Florida, that civilian oversight is changing into extra of a pink versus blue challenge. Oversight was essentially banned in Florida. I feel that’s actually regarding. Folks’s constitutional rights needs to be a bipartisan, all-American challenge that issues everybody.

However exterior of that, we’re seeing in locations like Cleveland, Portland, and Chicago, actually modern concepts coming to fruition. As new transparency legal guidelines go, we’re seeing modern concepts about knowledge, monitoring patterns of police misconduct. That’s the idea for my optimism. 

Past that, there’s AI. There’ll quickly be a capability for police departments to research all physique digicam footage. That’s going to actually change the character of oversight. I feel we’re all simply starting to know that that’s the following step. It’s estimated that solely about 1% of physique digicam video in the US is ever watched. However that’s going to be 100% very quickly.

Mac, thanks for speaking to us.

Thanks.