U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick made the call in a San Francisco courtroom packed with Oakland city officials. OPD had been under federal supervision since 2003, when the department settled an $11 million class action lawsuit that kicked off the monitoring.
Orrick didn't mince words about why he ended it now. "While it was important for this court to play the role it has, now it's important for the court to get out of the way, and let the people of Oakland and their leaders fill their future," he told the courtroom.
The ruling hands full independence back to a department that hasn't operated without a judge watching over it in decades. City officials and police leadership now take on responsibility for keeping reforms in place without a court forcing the issue. For a department that built its entire operating culture under federal watch, that shift changes how it answers for itself going forward.