Ingo Mayer - Oakland

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Ingo Mayer was a police officer with the Oakland Police Department.

In 2011, the City of Oakland and Officer Mayer were found to be liable for illegally, publicly strip searching two men in 2005, one of whom had been arrested and the other had been on parole at the time of the search for narcotics. The judge ruled that officers pulled over the men for no valid reason, and then "deliberately, callously and oppressively violated plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights.” The plaintiffs were awarded $205,000 plus $832,000 in attorney fees in a case against officer Mayer.

An internal investigation by the Oakland Police Department found that Mayer acted in compliance with department policies and training in effect at the time. Although a federal judge ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded both compensatory and punitive damages, the City Council determined that Mayer had acted in good faith, within the scope of his employment, and without malice.

Following the incident, OPD revised its policies related to personal searches and improved its documentation practices. Based on the findings that Mayer had followed then-existing policies, recommendations from the City Attorney’s Office, and approval by the City Council, Mayer was indemnified for the punitive damages and his actions remained formally exonerated due to his actions being in compliance with policy and training afforded to him at the time the searches occurred.

In salary data from 2007, Ingo Mayer was one of the highest paid employees in the city making a total of $109,405.

According to Ali Winston, Mayer no longer works for OPD- he retired on stress.¹

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