Commissioners testify about tense interactions with former Oakland police chief

He added, “I think everybody at this table is tired right now.”

Testifying Monday, Smith said he understood his colleagues’ frustration with Gleason’s failure to address a very real problem within the department.

“They seemed to be talking past each other,” he said. “Gleason didn’t seem to understand why they were concerned about why there were no Black women in the academy. There wasn’t that kind of collaboration. Instead, they were fighting. It’s hard to solve a problem when you’re fighting.”

He said he thought Kirkpatrick should have sought to defuse tensions rather than escalate them. “A transformational leader would step into the gap. Oakland has challenging issues we need to get together to resolve. I didn’t see that happening,” Smith said.

Harris testified she had concerns about Kirkpatrick’s performance, as well as her attitude toward a negotiated settlement in the 2003 civil rights lawsuit Delphine Allen et al. v. City of Oakland, which stemmed from the “Riders” scandal in which four officers were charged with kidnapping, beating, robbing, and planting evidence on residents of an impoverished neighborhood in West Oakland.

The agreement required the police department to meet certain reform benchmarks under the oversight of a federal monitor. Harris attended a hearing August 2019 where the chief and the city of Oakland updated the federal judge overseeing the case on the department’s progress.

“I sat in the court and listened to fluff. It was disheartening because the police commission has communication with the police and city officials all the time and they came to the courtroom and fluffed it,” Harris told the jury. “They made it like 'oh everything is great.’ And what put the cherry on top was when the former chief was asked about the most important thing she was focused on, she said,"the narrative.” And I just dropped my head. Not the people, not the relationships, not fighting crime, not stopping the 1,211 murders we had in one year, none of that. It was the ‘narrative.' And then I knew it was all about appearance for her, at least from my perspective.”

For Smith, Kirkpatrick’s treatment of the fatal police shooting of Joshua Pawlik in 2018 shook his confidence.

Pawlik, who was homeless, was found sleeping in an alley between two house with a gun at his side. Multiple officers responded and attempted to wake him by shouting at him from behind an armored vehicle. Pawlik did wake and was shot multiple times by five officers who said they thought they saw him reach for his gun.

Smith said he reviewed the video and found it unsettling that Kirkpatrick would downgrade the officers’ discipline.

The jury also heard from Harris about the infamous “tow incident,” where Kirkpatrick reported to city officials that Harris had come to police headquarters and demanded that her towing fees be dismissed. Harris said she did go to the station, but only to try to determine whether the department had followed policy, since her car was towed from her driveway.

Kirkpatrick accused Harris of using her police commissioner position get a favor out of the department.

Harris flatly denied that she asked for such a thing, growing a bit heated on the stand under questioning from Kirkpatrick’s attorney James Slaughter.

"I said I would never ask her for a favor,” Harris said. “I did not know her and I would never ask her for a favor.”

Commissioner Dorado said the incident played a small role in his vote. He thought Kirkpatrick was trying to smear his friend Harris, since the tow incident prompted the city of Oakland to launch an investigation of her that later became public. But the Gleason presentation, he said, "that was the capper."

Harris said she was unaware that Kirkpatrick had complained about her until Kirkpatrick filed her lawsuit, testimony that Slaughter easily impeached through Harris’ emails to Jackson and other commissioners, as well as a May 7, 2019, email from the outside firm hired to investigate Harris.

“Clearly this is retaliation. Let’s discuss,” Harris wrote in an email the next day to Jackson.

Smith said Kirkpatrick’s complaints about Harris had absolutely no bearing on his decision to vote to terminate the chief, though he did recall hearing about the tow incident from Harris.

“She vehemently denied ever asking for a favor. I remember her saying, “I did not ask that [expletive] woman for a favor.’ I think it was a misunderstanding," Smith said. "Ginale genuinely thought her car shouldn’t have been towed. That it was wrong.”

For Smith, it was yet another miscommunication. “I think they were talking past each other,” he said.

Follow @MariaDinzeo

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