In response to the recent Stanislaus County Civil Grand Jury (SCCGJ) report that found several Oakdale Police Department officers out of compliance for mandated Domestic Violence training requirements, Police Chief Jerry Ramar on Monday night, Aug. 21 shared with Oakdale City Council members how the department has rectified the oversights.

City Manager Bryan Whitemyer said, “We appreciate the work the grand jury did,” in pointing out areas that needed improvements.

Council member Fred Smith added that the Grand Jury report was not meant to “villainize the police department,” but rather to find ways to improve service.

“This is a healthy thing, to better our community,” Smith said. “We want to stress to the public, we recognize the seriousness of having a trained police department … we’re very glad we’re implementing these systems.”

As a recap, the 19-member Civil Grand Jury represents a wide variety of experience, education and expertise that ensures integrity to the taxpayers about the state of their government. The 12-month long process gives the Civil Grand Jury information to provide a year-ending report.

In its report, SCCGJ found that some Oakdale officers were out of compliance with mandated Domestic Violence training during the latter half of 2021. The review also found that on Jan. 1, some officers were out of compliance with Continuing Professional Training (CPT) and Perishable Skills Training (PST).

During the course of the investigation, SCCGJ also found that COVID-19 restrictions nor budgetary limitations were at fault for the oversight.

OPD had 90 days to respond to the findings, but the department came to the table with a month to spare, choosing to put the highest priority on rectifying the oversights.

In a letter to Judge Carrie M. Stephens, Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, County of Stanislaus, Oakdale Mayor Cher Bairos submitted a multi-page document, detailing the corrections put into place in response to the findings.

Bairos wrote, “There were significant challenges in delivering a usual standard of training to smaller departments due to unprecedented events brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. OPD and other agencies within the state and nation were faced with the necessity to transition from traditional training practices to something that we were not familiar with, all while maintaining a primary focus on the safety of our community and the health of our personnel. We recognize and regret that these changes, compelled by the pandemic, impeded some aspects of our training, which included POST-mandated (Police Officer Standards and Training) training and Domestic Violence training. We aim to consider these hurdles as learning experiences in our ongoing quest to improve our training system.”

Bairos also pointed out that Chief Ramar recently implemented the LEFTA Training System, which is a software program that tracks all of the OPD officers’ training through internal documents and the POST electronic portal.

The system is a web-based software program that combines all training records in a single comprehensive application.

This project was initiated in August 2022 and commissioned in January 2023. LEFTA includes a 90-day warning system that notifies the officer and management when their POST-mandated and state-mandated training is going to expire.

Council member Christopher Smith commended Chief Ramar and the department for their swift attention to the matter, adding, “Every public interaction I have about the police department is positive … that speaks highly of your department.”

The entire response is available to the public in the Council packet documents on the City Council website at www.oakdalegov.com/agendas.