For the past several years, the Oakland Police Department has claimed that police officers are using substantially less force while making arrests. Supporting this assertion, OPD has published statistics showing a dramatic drop in the number of incidents in which an officer reported using any type of force, including drawing their guns on suspects. Between 2012 and 2017, officers reported a 75 percent decline in use of force.

But two months ago, a federal court-appointed independent monitor for the police department revealed that some use of force incidents weren't being reported by officers.