The Washington Post described them: At the high point of their careers, the so-called "Riders" were considered the best and the brightest, veterans whom rookie police officers tried to emulate.

Their specialty: bringing in reputed drug dealers in record numbers from the crime-plagued streets of West Oakland.

[4] 119 people pressed civil rights lawsuits for unlawful beatings and detention, ultimately settling for $11 million with an agreement that the Oakland Police Department would implement significant reforms.

His case was ultimately consolidated along with other similar civil rights lawsuits against Oakland and its police, including a total of 119 different plaintiffs.

Despite the settlement's hefty price tag, Russo said the cases could have cost the city tens of millions of dollars more had they gone to trial, pointing out that the victims had spent more than 25 years, combined, imprisoned on false charges.

The payout went to 119 plaintiffs who filed federal civil rights lawsuits claiming four police officers kidnapped, beat and planted drugs on them during the summer of 2000.

On August 20, 2003, the District Court appointed an independent monitoring team; Rachel Burgess, Kelli Evans, Charles Gruber and Christy Lopez to oversee the reform process and ensure city compliance with the settlement agreement.

[9] In a January 24, 2012, ruling, the district court found that Oakland Police Department had still failed to comply with the terms of the settlement.

Plaintiffs' motion ultimately led to a settlement by the parties, who agreed to the Court's appointment of a Compliance Director who would have broad ranging powers, including the power "to review, investigate and take correction action regarding Oakland Police Department policies, procedures, and practices that are related to the objectives of the Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA) and Amended Memorandum of Understanding (AMOU), even if such policies, procedures, or practices do not fall squarely within any specific NSA task.

[13] The December 12, 2012, Order settling the Plaintiffs' motion also called for the OPD "to address, resolve, and reduce: (1) incidents involving the unjustified use of force, including those involving the drawing and pointing of a firearm at a person or an officer-involved shooting (2) incidents of racial profiling and bias-based policing (3) citizen complaints (4) high-speed pursuits".