Former Police Officer Kelly O’Haire Unacceptable as Oakland's Police Review Board Head

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Council members:

We understand the need to consolidate (at least, temporarily) the positions of Ethics Commission and CPRB management, but we believe that the choice of who should occupy both roles is gravely flawed and needs to be re-considered. We hope you agree and will support putting Patrick Caceres in charge of both roles, rather than Kelly O’Haire. (p87 of Exhibit A in the report).

Looking at the Linkedin bio of Kelly O’Haire (see below), there is no way a person with a history of being a police officer and defending police officers can be considered an acceptable choice to head the Citizens’ Police Review Board. The idea of transferring the intake from Internal Affairs to the CPRB was to increase the community’s confidence in the objectivity of the intake and investigative process. This appointment will only serve to increase skepticism and counter the effort to build trust in the accountability system.

Our recommendation is that Patrick Caceres retain his current position and also head the Public Ethics Commission.

Patrick is a known entity, having served the City for seven years and is recognized by the community as fair and impartial, as well as competent.

At this critical time with the NSA, we cannot afford to try out someone new to Oakland with a police-based professional background to oversee OPD; we need an Oakland resident and experienced employee with a proven track-record to head the transition that is soon to occur in the intake process.

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Kelly O'Haire

Legal Services Professional

San Francisco Bay Area Legal Services

Past

· Deputy Director Risk Management / Lead Labor Counsel at San Francisco Police Department

· Deputy District Attorney III at Marin County District Attorney's Office

· Police Officer / Detective at San Rafael Police Dept.

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