This interview aired in the June 10, 2026 episode of Crosscurrents.
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Oakland’s Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003, but this year that will be coming to an end. The oversight began after a civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of 119 residents, most of them Black men, who alleged that multiple Oakland police officers had beaten and planted evidence on them. The oversight would not be lifted until the OPD enacted internal reforms following the lawsuit that highlighted police corruption. This chapter in OPD’s history would become known as the “Riders Scandal.” And few predicted it would last for more than 20 years. But just last month, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said the OPD had completed all 51 of its agreed internal reforms and that the federal government would end its oversight in September.
But is that the end of the story, or the beginning of another?
To understand what this moment means, KALW’s Sunni Khalid spoke with Darwin BondGraham, the news editor at The Oaklandside. He is also the author, along with Ali Winston, of the book, "The Riders Come Out At Night," an exhaustive look at the scandal that shook the city of Oakland, as well as a history of decades of corruption inside the OPD.
