A class action lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department for outstanding public records, filed by 3 free-lance journalists (Scott Morris, Sarah Belle Lin, Brian Krans) and Oakland Privacy has settled. The City of Oakland agreed to release all outstanding public records requests to the Oakland Police Department filed from August of 2017 onwards within the next 15 months, with non-personnel records due in 6 months and records released under SB 1421 using the longer 15 month maximum.
The class action settlement benefits hundreds of city residents with pending requests, many of whom have been waiting for years. The City of Oakland also agreed to pay plaintiff’s $127,000 in legal costs and to overhaul the public records system.
The settlement documents are below.
Here is our initial story about the lawsuit, filed in late summer, 2020.
Check out the outcome of a related lawsuit by newspeople Darwin Bond-Graham and Ali Winston initiated about the same time.