OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A former police commissioner from Baltimore has been appointed by a federal court to oversee the embattled Oakland Police Department.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson announced Monday that new compliance director Thomas C. Frazier will have broad authority over the beleaguered force including the power to seek the dismissal of the police chief.
He's scheduled to begin March 12.
City officials and lawyers seeking a receivership of the department agreed last year to appoint a compliance director, avoiding an unprecedented federal takeover of the force. The deal stems from a decade-old police brutality lawsuit settlement resulting in still uncompleted court-ordered reforms.
Last year, Frazier said the department was ill-equipped to handle a violent protest just hours after officers cleared an Occupy Oakland encampment in front of City Hall in 2011.