NCJ Number
70177
Date Published
1969
Length
66 pages
Annotation
The final report of the LEAA funded project notes its accomplishments and current activities in such areas as citation release, landlord-tenant dispute settlement, complaint handling and recordkeeping.
Abstract
The aim of the project was to provide the Oakland Calif. Police Department with access to the legal skills of the project director and the Oakland Lawyer's Committee in an attempt to reduce police-community hostility. The major activity of the project has been the citation release program, providing both field and station release according to specified procedures and criteria applicable to all misdemeanants. This effort has resulted in fewer arrests and fewer people put in jail to await trial. The landlord-tenant dispute settlement program aims at positive police involvement to curtail landlord and tenant abuses, and to accommodate competing interests more equitably and effectively. The Oakland Lawyers' Committee has involved the private bar in such areas as the citation release project, instruction in constitutional and civil rights laws to police recruits, traffic court alert, minority recruitment, and chronic drunkenness offender problems. The Civil Disorder Planning Committee for Oakland is formultating emergency procedures to be implemented in the event of disorder. A neutral observer in the jail during civil disorder and a special panel of defense attorneys to represent those arrested are being considered. Other activities include the citizen-police association, revision of recordkeeping operations, accidential handling of complaints, and the authorization of private watchmen to carry firearms. Nine appendixes are included.