Derrick Jones

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August 19, 2011 | 10:52 AM | By

State laws put police oversight behind a wall of secrecy

Ali Winston

Allegations of police misconduct against individual cops are confidential, according to California law

When there are police shootings – they usually make front page news. Any officer involved in a shooting is usually immediately put on administrative leave, and the police department conducts an investigation. Reporters follow up on these stories, but their access is limited. That’s because five years ago, the California Supreme Court decided to bar the public from seeing misconduct allegations filed with police watchdog agencies. The case was called Copley Press v. San Diego.

I spent the past two years looking at the effect of this ruling and how police departments deal with officers involved in multiple shootings. Yesterday, Colorlines Magazine published my story about the state of police oversight in Oakland – a city where shootings by Oakland and BART police have led to civil unrest. The piece article focuses on the story of one officer involved in four high-profile shootings and other instances of misconduct. His behavior has cost Oakland $3.6 million in settlements – and he is still on the police force.

Yesterday,  I sat down with KALW’s Hana Baba to talk about the findings of my investigation.

(Transcript after the jump)

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FILED UNDER: Police, Colorlines, Copley Press v. Superior Court, Derrick Jones, Gary King Jr., Lovelle Mixon, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Officer-involved shootings, Sgt. Patrick Gonzales
August 17, 2011 | 11:24 AM | By

CA laws seal off police misconduct, masking Oakland Police violence

Ali Winston

A now-sandblasted mural to Gary King Jr. at 54th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in North Oakland. King Jr. was shot to death by Oakland Police Sgt. Patrick Gonzales on September 20, 2007.

Today, The Informant published a two-year joint investigation with Colorlines, The Nation’s Investigative Fund and UC-Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program into California’s laws regarding the confidentiality of police misconduct records and their impact on the Oakland Police Department.

Prior to the California Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling in Copley Press v. Superior Court of San Diego, misconduct complaints filed with independent police watchdog agencies such as Oakland’s Citizens’ Police Review Board were public and contained extensive identifying information for police officers.

Following Copley, police review boards throughout California began redacting the names of officers from complaint records. Police accountability experts say that tracking officers’ allegations of misconduct is crucial to curbing misconduct early in their career. Studies show that officers frequently involved in low-level uses of force have a higher risk of shooting at a suspect.

This investigation focused on officers involved in repeat shootings in the Oakland Police Department. From 2000 to 2010, 16 OPD officers have been involved in more than one shooting, including 11 who are still on the force. Three officers have shot four times, including Sgt. Patrick Gonzales. Sgt. Gonzales has been involved in four shootings over the course of his career. Records from pre-Copley CPRB hearings and lawsuits also allege numerous instances of misconduct by Sgt. Gonzales. The investigation focuses on his career and documents the sort of misconduct allegations that have been deemed confidential information by the Copley Press decision.

An investigation last year into officer-involved shootings in Fresno revealed 29 Fresno Police officers had been involved in shooting incidents, 27 of whom were still on FPD’s roster.

An excerpt from the article is after the jump.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Ameir Rollins, Citizen's Police Review Board, Copley Press v. Superior Court, Derrick Jones, Gary King Jr., Joshua Russell, Lovelle Mixon, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Officer-involved shootings, Peace Officer's Bill of Rights, Sgt. Patrick Gonzales
December 17, 2010 | 2:15 PM | By

Oakland Police union claims FBI investigation took it by surprise, calls probe “political”

Photo courtesy of Mario Hodge

Derrick Jones, shot to death on November 8th by Oakland Police Officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz

The shooting of Derrick Jones by Oakland Police officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz is now the subject of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as separate probes by OPD’s Homicide and Internal Affairs units and the Alameda County District Attorney.

Police Chief Anthony Batts’ decision to call in the FBI was signed off on by Mayor-elect Jean Quan and City Attorney John Russo before Batts announced it at the Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday night. However, the Oakland Police Officer’s Association claims the chief didn’t notify either the rank and file or his command staff beforehand.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Derrick Jones, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Oakland Police Officer's Association
December 15, 2010 | 7:15 PM | By

Oakland leaders urged to look into policing controversies

rezlab

Oakland is roiled once again by public safety issues.

The contentious November 8th shooting of Derrick Jones by two Oakland Police officers and the proposed Fruitvale injunction against 40 alleged Norteno gang members dominated the final session of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee this year.

With the entire command staff of the Oakland Police Department looking on, relatives of Derrick Jones and their supporters spoke of the suffering Jones’ death has caused them and pressed for a transparent and speedy investigation into the shooting.

“We do not want Derrick’s death, this horrible crime with all the appearance of a murder, an execution, to be swept under the rug,” said Sammy Jones, one of Derrick’s uncles. He also leveled pointed words at the members of the City Council: “We hear no voices from our representatives on the council, no voices of outcry, of outrage.”

No one was expecting Chief Batts’ response when he rose to address the Jones family: Batts announced that he has called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the Jones shooting for civil rights violations. Batts said he took a similar route with a contentious officer-involved shooting while he was in charge of the Long Beach Police Department.

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FILED UNDER: Politics, Derrick Jones, Gang Injunctions, Nortenos, Oakland, Oakland City Council
November 12, 2010 | 6:01 PM | By

Oakland Police identified officers in Derrick Jones shooting

Photo courtesy of Mario Hodge

Derrick Jones, shot to death on November 8th by Oakland Police Officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz

Earlier today, the Oakland Tribune identified the two officers who fatally shot Derrick Jones on Monday evening as Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz. Perez-Angeles has been with OPD for three years and is a member of the SWAT team; Dara-Querioz has been on the force for four years. Their identities had been withheld since the shooting.

Jones was unarmed when he was shot. Officers said they saw a metal object in his hands, which they believed was a weapon. This morning, Oakland Police identified the object as an electronic pocket scale.

Perez-Angeles and Dara-Quiroz were both involved in a previous shooting incident on July 19, 2008 that resulted in the death of Leslie Allen, according to records from the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County District Attorney.

A report authored by Assistant District Attorney John Jay describes the Allen shooting in detail. Perez-Angeles was on patrol around 81st Street and International Boulevard with his partner at the time, Jeff Camilosa. They noticed a gold Lexus pull up alongside two men at the intersection and decided to conduct a car stop because of high narcotics activity in the area. The Lexus, driven by Vernon Dunbar with Leslie Allen riding in the passenger seat, pulled over when the officers initially stopped him but sped off when they exited their patrol car. At several points during the ensuing chase, both officers saw bags of suspected narcotics tossed out the window, which Perez-Angeles told investigators he presumed were cocaine.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Davis Street, Derrick Jones, Eriberto Perez-Angeles, Leslie Allen, Oakland, Oakland Police, Omar Daza-Quiroz
November 12, 2010 | 2:17 AM | By

Day of protests in East Oakland target gang injunctions, police shootings

Ali Winston

Protesters rallying against the shooting of Derrick Jones by Oakland Police shut down the Fruitvale BART station for an hour on Thursday

Community opposition to gang injunctions and police shootings took center stage at separate demonstrations in East Oakland yesterday. In the morning, a group of community advocates from the Fruitvale neighborhood denounced a gang injunction being pursued by City Attorney John Russo against the Norteños. A few hours later and less than two miles to the south, around 100 people gathered at Bancroft and Seminary Avenues to protest the shooting of Derrick Jones by Oakland Police on Monday night.

The actions come less than a week after a Los Angeles judge sentenced former BART officer Johannes Mehserle to two years in prison for the shooting of Oscar Grant, prompting another round of angry and occasionally violent protests in Oakland. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, Politics, BART, Derrick Jones, Fruitvale, Gang injunction, Gangs, Nortenos, Oakland, Oakland Police
November 9, 2010 | 3:52 PM | By

Oakland Police kill unarmed man, fired on in separate incidents last night

Ali Winston

Charles and Maurice Jones, cousins of Derrick Jones, at Oakland Police headquarters following a press conference today

A 37-year-old business owner was shot to death in East Oakland by police officers last night, just hours after Oakland police officers were fired on in West Oakland while questioning a parolee.

Derrick Jones, 37, was shot to death by two OPD officers near the corner of Bancroft Avenue and Trask Street after a foot chase. At a press conference today, Deputy Police Chief Jeff Israel said officers had received a call about a man “attempting to kill a woman” at a laundromat on Bancroft Avenue by allegedly choking her and slamming her head. When the two officers stopped Jones for questioning inside the Kwik Cuts Barbershop he owned nearby, Jones took off running. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community, Police, Aramiya Burrell, Copwatch, Derrick Jones, East Oakland, Kwik Stop Barbershop, Oakland, Oakland Police, Officer-involved shooting