Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao affirmed Saturday that an investigation is under way into Police Chief LaRonne Armstrong, two days after
she placed him on paid administrative leave
following a report released Wednesday that found the police department mishandled two misconduct cases.
Thao said the city is awaiting additional findings on the misconduct investigation in further reports that have not yet been made public. Those findings are expected to arrive “soon,” the mayor said, but she did not give a timeline. Thao indicated that she does not yet know what the reports say.
“Until we have the full picture to review, I cannot stand here and tell you that there has been a decision made” regarding Armstrong’s future in the department, she said. She added that she received the initial report at the same time it was made public, and did not have access to it as mayor before then.
The swift decision to place Armstrong on leave caught some by surprise. Thao, who took office less than three weeks ago, had
previously told The Chronicle
he was doing a good job leading the department.
On Saturday, Thao emphasized that the suspension was neither a punitive nor disciplinary action, but rather standard practice for a police officers who are under investigation.
“Under this administration, there will be no different kind of treatment, whether you’re the chief or rank-and-file,” she said. “This is an opportunity to more fully review the findings of the reports and let our oversight bodies act.”
“Our goal here is not to be punitive,” Mayor Sheng Thao said in remarks delivered to the media on Saturday outside Oakland City Hall. “This is not a disciplinary action. This is an opportunity to more fully review the findings of the reports and let our oversight bodies act.”
Yalonda M. James, Staff / The ChronicleThao said that because the police chief is under the oversight of several bodies outside city government, including the city’s police commission and a federal monitor, “there’s multiple different ways” that the final decision on Armstrong’s future could be made, and that she would take into account their recommendations.
The mayor and
her allies on the City Council
said the move ensures accountability of a police department that has
been under federal oversight for two decades
after a 2000 lawsuit in which six men in West Oakland argued they were falsely arrested on drug charges and who accused four officers, known as “the Riders,” of assaulting and conspiring to frame them.
The department is supposed to escape federal oversight on May 31, but this week’s report could be a setback for the embattled agency. Commissioned by the city and conducted by an independent law firm, the report on Wednesday found “systemic deficiencies” in the police department’s handling of internal investigations, including the two misconduct cases.
The report also found that Armstrong, who took over as the city’s top cop in early 2021, specifically had violated department rules when he failed to review evidence from the two cases before closing the investigations. Rank-and-file officers — who learned of the chief’s suspension after the news leaked to the media — were caught off guard. Assistant Chief Darren Allison, a 25-year veteran of the department, was named Acting Chief.
Jim Chanin, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Riders case, said he planned to ask the judge overseeing the federal oversight to extend the OPD’s probationary period beyond May 31.
On Saturday, Thao praised the police, including Armstrong, for their work getting the department to a place where federal oversight might end, but said that it was “an ongoing concern” whether the additional findings in the misconduct report will jeopardize that.
“In the very beginning, this oversight was supposed to end in five years. It’s been going on 21 years now, so of course we take it very seriously,” she said. “Under this Thao administration, we are going to move forward in a way where we’re going to try to get the department out of this federal oversight.”
The two misconduct cases involved a police sergeant who collided with a parked car in 2021 and failed to report the crash. That same sergeant fired his gun in an elevator at the police headquarters nearly a year later and failed to report it. Instead, the sergeant got rid of the evidence by throwing it off the Bay Bridge.
A captain for the Internal Affairs Division directed an internal affairs investigator to change the write-up on the sergeant’s behavior to minimize the severity of his actions, according to the report. When the investigator presented his findings, which had been altered, to the chief, Armstrong did not review video evidence of the crash or allow for “extensive” discussion on the incidents, according to the report. The city has not publicly identified the sergeant, the captain or the internal affairs investigator.
The investigation also revealed that officers within the department have used their personal cell phones for communication with other officers on work-related issues. In addition, multiple officers admitted that they communicate about work through text messaging apps that are set to auto-delete within 30 days. Chanin pointed to these revelations as a key concern that will be raised in a court hearing on Jan. 24. He told The Chronicle he wants to make sure that the department ceases the use of personal cell phones before it can come out of its probationary period.
Danielle Echeverria and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com, sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev, @SarRavani
