OAKLAND — Kaiser Permanente has fired a prime company safety official, together with numerous his underlings, amid allegations that an Oakland police officer shared data from a extremely confidential prison database with the well being care big.
In keeping with a number of sources, an Oakland police officer is accused of researching folks within the California Legislation Enforcement Telecommunications System, then passing alongside the knowledge to no less than one former police officer working for Kaiser.
The brewing scandal may stretch effectively past its obvious origins in Oakland, each due to Kaiser’s massive West Coast footprint and the breadth of the database. It additionally may result in prison costs as it’s unlawful underneath state regulation to make use of the database, identified by the acronym CLETS, for non-law enforcement functions. It incorporates residents’ prison historical past, driving information and hyperlinks to nationwide regulation enforcement databases.
The variety of people the Oakland officer is accused of checking just isn’t identified, however a number of sources stated the searches associated to threats made towards no less than one Kaiser worker. Specialists say such an data launch is a critical breach that would expose particulars that ought to by no means be shared with anybody exterior of a prison case, even former cops.
“There are an infinite number of ways that this information could be abused,” stated W. David Ball, a professor of prison regulation at Santa Clara College’s Faculty of Legislation. “The ability it has is it’s complete; that’s additionally the hazard.”
A number of sources with direct data of the scenario recognized the Oakland officer as Khyber Mangal, a veteran officer whose assignments in his decade-plus profession embody patrol, investigating violent crimes and dealing with town’s crime-reduction Ceasefire program. He’s additionally a member of the U.S. Marshals process drive.
The Oakland Police Division has opened an inside affairs inquiry and a prison investigation to find out if Mangal improperly accessed the prison database and whether or not he knew the knowledge would find yourself at Kaiser, the sources stated. He was on administrative go away as of Friday afternoon, in line with an e-mail from the division’s communications group.
A number of makes an attempt by this newspaper to achieve Mangal or an lawyer representing him had been unsuccessful.
The sources stated the information is believed to have ended up with a non-public Kaiser safety group working underneath Craig Chew, the nationwide director of company safety investigations for Kaiser, headquartered in Oakland.
Chew entered the non-public safety world after a virtually 40-year profession in East Bay regulation enforcement, most just lately because the chief of inspectors on the Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace, the place he labored till he was fired with out trigger in a large employees shakeup by then-District Legal professional Pamela Worth after she took workplace in January 2023. He later filed a lawsuit towards Alameda County over his dismissal, claiming Worth stoked a tradition of racial discrimination towards Asian Individuals.
In keeping with a number of sources, Chew introduced a number of former Oakland law enforcement officials to work underneath him at Kaiser, together with Omega Crum, who additionally previously labored as a part-time investigator on the San Francisco District Legal professional’s Workplace. Reached by cellphone, Crum hung up, and different makes an attempt to achieve him had been unsuccessful.
After studying of the allegations, Kaiser terminated a number of members of its safety element, in line with the sources and Chew, however the identities of these fired staff haven’t been made public. Different folks working in Kaiser company safety, which incorporates former regulation enforcement officers from different components of the Bay Space in addition to Southern California, both didn’t reply to requests for remark or declined to speak.
Reached this week, Chew stated he didn’t wish to “go into detail” concerning the scenario, however sought to distance himself from it.
“I can state that I never illegally obtained, requested nor directed any of my staff to obtain search results from the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System while working at Kaiser,” Chew stated. “If Kaiser is true to its policy of conducting fair and thorough investigations in matters of workplace complaints, Kaiser knows this statement is false. Their reason for terminating me, and many others, is a complete fabrication.”
His lawyer, Jon King, described the firings as “the ugliest example of corporate hardball and politics that I’ve ever seen in 25 years of being an attorney.” He stated Chew “worked tirelessly to establish a new unit there and to protect the safety of Kaiser’s doctors, nurses, employees and the thousands of Kaiser patients and visitors.”
Kaiser issued a press release after being despatched direct questions by this newspaper about doable CLETS violations, the safety group firings and the state of its company safety unit.
“Kaiser Permanente takes matters of security and inappropriate behavior amongst our staff seriously. When we investigate and confirm evidence of illegal behavior, we address it, notify law enforcement and cooperate fully with their investigation, as appropriate,” in line with the hospital’s assertion despatched by Kerri Leedy, senior supervisor of public relations. “We are committed to fully complying with all applicable laws and regulations and demonstrating high ethical standards in everything we do.”
Legislation enforcement companies are required to report suspected CLETS abuses to the California Division of Justice. In 2023, for instance, a file 7,275 circumstances had been reported to the state — greater than 90% of which originated from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Workplace, in line with the Digital Frontier Basis, a nonprofit digital rights group that obtained these information. In all, 24 officers had been suspended, 9 had been fired, and 6 resigned, the inspiration reported.
There’s inconsistency by which suspected CLETS abusers are investigated and prosecuted, which raises issues that “particular person safety — the privateness of the members of the general public — simply aren’t a excessive sufficient precedence” for a lot of regulation enforcement companies, stated Dave Maass, director of investigations on the basis. The allegations towards Kaiser and its safety group additionally trace at a broader drawback, he stated.
“The truth that they felt so brazen about this is likely to be that there’s been a tradition of impunity with these sorts of violations,” Maass stated.
Mangal and Crum seem to have identified one another, having partnered no less than as soon as prior to now a number of months, in a September 2024 case a few man accused of violating a restraining order and making dying threats towards a psychologist and different Kaiser staff in Oakland.
Mangal requested that Crum be despatched search warrant particulars associated to the case at Crum’s e-mail deal with with the San Francisco District Legal professional’s Workplace, the place he had labored on and off for the previous couple of years. Crum was on a part-time foundation there from July 2024 till he resigned March 4, a supply with direct data of his employment dates stated.
