A 'Rogue' Police Department Attempts Reform

Peter Nicks’ newest documentary, “The Force,” is already getting Academy Awards buzz. The film, which Nicks made over the course of two years, follows young officers in the Oakland (California) Police Department, chronicling its attempts to enact criminal justice reform. Nicks sits down with Robert Scheer to discuss the documentary in this week’s edition of “Scheer Intelligence.”

The department, Nicks tells Scheer, was “forced to reform because of civil rights violations in 2000.”

“I think they saw themselves as the saviors,” Nicks says of the officers. “We as a society ask our cops to protect us. And cops say, ‘You want us to protect you? … We need you to turn the other way.’ This is, to some degree, a more micro-example of the bigger debate that we have about torture and war crimes. What’s acceptable? What do you need to do to achieve the goals that society asks you to achieve? And in this case, these officers, they just went rogue.”

Listen to the full conversation and to out past editions of “Scheer Intelligence” at KCRW.com