Last week, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf fired four Oakland Police Department (OPD) officers and disciplined eight more, after a scandal involving sexual assault and police misconduct.
As reported by The East Bay Times, the scandal revolved around an underage sex worker, and four officers who were fired for reasons such as attempted sexual assault and engagement in lewd conduct, while the remaining officers were disciplined for not reporting the misconduct. The woman involved claimed to have had relations with up to 30 OPD officers – four while she was a minor.
The department also had resignations of three police chiefs within nine days in June, as covered by CBS during the scandal, making departmental leadership unclear.
This past June, the department also came under criticism after a Stanford study found that the OPD has stopped, handcuffed, searched and arrested people with a racial bias.
Some Mills students expressed discontent with the OPD and what that meant in terms of theirs and the community’s safety, especially in regard to the treatment of a young woman in sex work. Irena Haung, a junior at Mills, thinks OPD needs major changes to be enacted.
“[OPD] needs work, radical policymaking and careful thought,” Haung said.
The Campanil reached out to the OPD for comment, but no one could be reached.
