View of the City of Oakland in California. Buses and heavy vehicular traffic on the street. Montage shows an orchestra band playing and various sports such as ice hockey and baseball. Black American citizens in their alleys. Black American children play. Black American men on streets. Pictures of Black American people during World War II.
Sewers in the back yards of a residential area in Oakland, California. Police car drives by. Congressman Ron Dellums speaks in his office about police brutality on black Americans during 1960s. Panther Party's demonstration outside the Alameda County Court House during 1960s. Oakland Police Department's chief Charles gain speaks in his office. Meeting between Oakland Police Department and civilians. Deputy Chief Thomas Donohue speaks.
A newspaper report titled 'The Police and The People'. Residential areas of Oakland, California. Liquor shops in the city. Black Americans outside the liquor shops. Policeman of the Oakland Police Department patrols on the city streets in his car. Oakland Police Chief George Hart speaks in his office.
Oakland Police and social scientists discuss inside an office in Oakland, California. Tape recording during a class session by Sergeant Jim Hahn of Conflict Management Section with some violent citizens. Analysis of a recorded tape. Panel of police officers discuss in a meeting. A police officer questioned on his actions.
Sergeant briefs a room full of police officers in Oakland, California at start of their shift. Closeups of individual policemen. Patrolman John Dixon in his patrol car notes that new procedures improve relations with the community but ease somewhat on law enforcement. He knocks on an apartment door.He talks with a woman there, about her child. Several patrol cars stop a car and search a suspect, as local residents watch somewhat amused. In locker room at the police station, a uniformed officer speaks of being more community service oriented, at the expense of law enforcement. Oakland Police Chief George Hart, in civilian clothes, defends the new approach to policing. The uniformed officer agrees that it would be a mistake to go back to the earlier approach.