Deadline approaches to decide fate of Oakland police chief

The fate of Oakland Police Chief Leron Armstrong has come into question after a new confidential report from an independent law firm found that he had violated his duties as police chief.

The law firm released its findings publicly on Chief Armstrong back in January, giving the city of Oakland a deadline to punish him.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Oakland Police Commission must prove a valid reason for his dismissal, however, if the decision is left to Mayor Sheng Tao, she has the right to dismiss him without cause.

A 57-page report from San Francisco-based law firm Clarence, Dyer and Cohen accuses Armstrong of gross dereliction of duty when he failed to hold OPD employees accountable for misconduct and failed to provide a fair and thorough disciplinary process. .

This report details a 2021 incident in which two OPD officers who had a secret romantic relationship hit a parked pedestrian vehicle with their police car and drove off. The incident was filmed on video and was at the disposal of the police department.

A second confidential report, published in full on Oaklandside.com, describes a meeting a few months later in which Armstrong claims to know little about the hit-and-run and prefers not to punish any of the officers involved.

“The officers at the meeting described him as interrupting the discussion, cutting off questions that others had about the incident, so that the meeting ended abruptly when the chief simply interrupted everyone and then signed the report,” said Ladoris Cordell, a retired judge. judge and former Independent Auditor for the City of San Jose Police.

If this is true, Cordell says it will be difficult for Armstrong to escape discipline or even keep his job.

“If he had allowed questions to be asked and information to be made public, then I think we would have had a different outcome,” she said.

Tao sent Armstrong on leave last month after the federal court judge overseeing the department released a brief report on the law firm’s investigation.

NBC Bay Area reached out to Mayor Tao for comment Tuesday night, but her office did not respond.

Former Auckland City Council member Lauren Taylor claims key information about the hit-and-run was withheld from Armstrong. He questions the accuracy of the report’s findings.

“When I look at the report, it raises a lot of questions, there are inconsistencies that need to be addressed, I hope the police commission will do the same as they evaluate the report along with the progress report under Chief Armstrong. ‘ Taylor said.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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