OAKLAND (KRON) — As the city of Oakland investigates several scandals at its police department, there is a new twist on Thursday–the city has hired a private investigator to try and figure out who has been leaking police personnel information.
This latest move by the Mayor Libby Schaaf administration is drawing criticism from some Oakland councilmembers.
Another investigation has been launched in connection with recent scandals at Oakland police. There is the sex scandal, racist text scandal, police misconduct scandal, and ongoing separate investigations into these matters.
Now, Oakland City Administrator Sabrina Landreth is launching an investigation into finding out who is leaking information to the media about these investigations.
“You know, I’ve got the investigator investigating the investigator,” city council member Noel Gallo said.
“We do need to give people a better way to share information like an independent oversight commission,” councilmember Rebecca Kaplan added.
Kaplan and Gallo both take issue with the city administrator going after whistleblowers who alerted the media about these scandals.
Gallo said looking for whistleblowers is a bad idea for the citizens of Oakland
“Sends a wrong message because that’s the problem that we have on the streets right now,” Gallo said. “People do not want to come forward when they see criminal activity occurring, because not only the repercussion from the thug on the street that is committing the crime, but now from the police department that doesn’t show up because, and there may be a repercussion at that level.”
“The city council has been learning about most of these issues from the media rather from the administration,” Kaplan said.
If there was some kind of cover-up of officers having sex with an underage girl, city councilmember Kaplan asks why would the administration punish the people who blew the whistle?
“If the people who blew the whistle on sexual misconduct are punished more than the people who knew about sexual misconduct and let it go on without saying anything, that would be a problem,” she said.
What does the 18-year-old self-described call girl, Celeste Guap, think about all of this?
KRON asked her in a text and she wrote simply, “I think it’s stupid.”
Landreth doesn’t think so.
The city administrator said her intention is to root out misconduct and prevent cover-ups, not to silence critics or whistle blowers.
However, some leaders at City Hall think there is a better way of going about doing that.