Full Notification

I am cognizant of my duty to provide public safety through a focus and dedication by means of crime prevention and crime response. Paramount to my duty, I place my personal values of honesty, integrity, courage and respect. These values are required by me, my profession, and the oath I took to serve. Through my 24 years of service to the City of Oakland, I have demonstrated these values in my relationships with, and service to, my community. It is important to me that my values, which have now become the values of the Department I lead, are equally exhibited in moments of routine as well as in moments of critical incident.

Officer-involved shootings may undoubtedly impact and affect police and community relations more so than any other incident or event. And deservedly so. These incidents represent moments of police authority and uses of lethal force – authority provided to us by law and derived from public consent - that result in the most contentious and adversarial of all outcomes.

These possible consequences exist during the course of each and every patrol officer’s shift when I ask them to go out and intelligently and lawfully use their training to intervene in potentially criminal behavior or to react to crime and exigent circumstances as they occur. Each of these requests requires trust in my officers, and trust in my leadership, to act professionally, ethically, and under the knowledge and weight of accountability for our actions.

Pursuant to their request under the California Public Records Request Act, documents were released this afternoon, October 2nd, to the attorney representing the family of a young man named Alan Blueford who was shot and killed during an officer-involved shooting shortly after midnight on May 6, 2012. Although the District Attorney’s Office has not yet released their independent report regarding the filing of criminal charges, and my Internal Affairs Division has yet to present its findings to the Department’s Executive Force Review Board, I have authorized these reports for release to the public. I am hopeful that these documents, once posted to the Oakland Police Department's website, will help serve to provide clarification.

This release is not intended to address all questions and criticisms that exist; however, critical issues regarding the investigation, the providing of medical care and aid, summary witness statements, lab results, the Coroner's report, and independently corroborated facts and circumstances as they existed on the scene are addressed through this release.

I also request the public’s understanding that, at this point in time, I am unable to comment on the specific issues of training, policy, or law that are relevant to the investigation. The purpose of the Executive Force Review Board is to assess, in full, the actions of all involved officers and to determine whether the force used was in compliance with Departmental policies and procedures, and to assess whether or not changes to policies or procedures are needed.

Sincerely,

Chief Howard A. Jordan