A federal jury has sided with former Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick in deciding she was wrongfully terminated in 2020.
The decision came Thursday, about a week and a half after the jury trial began. In that time, city officials, police officers and members of the city’s police oversight commission were called to the stand to settle the question at the root of the lawsuit: whether Kirkpatrick was fired in retaliation for reporting allegedly bad behavior by the police commissioners, or whether — as the city’s mayor and commissioners testified — they terminated her because the community had lost faith in her ability to truly reform the department.
The Oakland Police Commission is made up of seven appointed city residents and was created to oversee the police department’s policies and practices. The commission also oversees the city’s Community Police Review Agency, which investigates police misconduct.
The commission has the ability to fire the police chief with cause or, jointly with the mayor, can terminate the contract of a police chief “without cause,” which is what Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and the commission did in 2020 with Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick then sued in August 2020, accused the city of failing to protect her against a retaliatory firing by its police commission for being a whistleblower, as she had reported to city administration that some commissioners allegedly “abused” and harassed police staff and sought special treatment because of their role. Her...
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