Dear Neighbors,

We all know that crime and violence in Oakland are up markedly this year. Year-to-date as compared with 2011, homicide is up 5% (63 so far), shootings up 5% (319), robbery up 24%, residential burglary up 32%, auto burglary up 67%, and auto theft up 19%. (data as of 7/22/12). Citizens justifiably expect their elected leaders to make sure a plan is in place to deal with this crisis. Below I will talk about the plan that OPD is rolling out this fall in phases and the extra resources that they brought in over the past six months.

My strong belief is that crime in Oakland will not come down to ordinary proportions until we have substantially more police officers on the street and in the investigations unit. (Yes, I believe in creating more jobs, counselors in grade schools, programs for teens, etc., but those things are not going to bring relief in the short term.) Oakland ranks at the bottom in officers-per-capita as compared with other California and U.S. major cities. My main goal as a Councilmember is to find a way to get more officers in the Oakland Police Department and technicians in the crime lab.
The Council has taken steps within the limited budget that we have now to grow the department a bit. In the amended budget passed last month, we authorized two more police academies in addition to the one that was slated to start this August. The second academy will start in January and the third will start in July 2013. The cost to recruit and run an academy exceeds $1.5 million. The net result after all three academies will be a department that has 30 or 40 more officers than we have now. The net growth is relatively small as the number of new officers is offset by continuous attrition through retirements and resignations.

To field the number of officers that we really need will require dramatically more money than is currently available. $1 million dollars a year pays for six officers (at most). So to get the 200 more officers that would be necessary to substantially reduce crime would cost about $33 million per year. Where to get that huge amount of money on an annual basis will be the subject of a many future discussions and much effort. Suffice it to say that it would have to include a new tax measure--and the passage of a new tax is quite unlikely in the next year or two because of the public's disappointment in how the City handled Measure Y (which, by the way, is still paying the salaries of 63 officers and contributing $4/year to the Fire Department).

So while we work on getting the resources to hire more officers, we need to make the most of what we have. The Police Chief has come up with a well-thought-out plan to re-structure the way his staff are deployed and organized, which he will be presenting to the Council and public in September. A key aspect of the re-organization is that there will once again be more pro-active teams (called CRTs) to investigate and enforce against criminal operations. Aspects of the new system are being phased in over six months, starting next week. I am optimistic that this will make a difference.

Chief Jordan has already been been very successful at gaining the assistance of outside law enforcement agencies. This year for the first time, the federal ATF was conducting operations in Oakland, which resulted in the arrest of over 60 serious offenders and broke up several gun-trafficking rings. We also had aid from the U.S. Marshall, the DEA, and the CHP. District Attorney Nancy O'Malley has also assigned a special DA to work full-time at OPD to help police officers charge crimes quickly and effectively. Though our overall crime rate has not decreased yet, I think this much appreciated assistance may have longer term benefit and has prevented crime that otherwise would have occurred.

Also set to kick off soon is the much-touted Ceasefire program, in which identified violent offenders are "called in" to get a warning from multiple law enforcement agencies that if they continue to commit crimes, especially violent ones, they will be prosecuted with certainty by state and federal authorities. This program has been very effective in reducing violence in several other cities over the past decade. OPD has been working directly with David Kennedy, the originator of the program, so that we implement it correctly and effectively.

Finally, I want to comment on the use of policy ideas such as curfews and gang injunctions. Many citizens hold out great hope that these measures will be the solution to our crime problem. I am not opposed to such measures philosophically, but I want to caution people that they are not likely to be a "quick fix". Oakland has had a gang injunction in place for six months in the Fruitvale, and crime is still outrageously high in that neighborhood. There was a gang injunction in North Oakland, which had mixed results. It removed drug-related violence from one neighborhood, but did not bring down the overall crime rate in North Oakland. If measures such as gang injunctions or curfews are to be effective, they need sufficient personnel to enforce them.

The Council will be considering curfew legislation this fall. The police commanders think it could be helpful, but only if they have enough resources to implement it--both sworn officers and a social services agency to provide supervision for the youth that are picked up late at night and don't have a safe home to go to. Stay tuned for those discussions.

In summary, I believe our task is to find the funds to enable us to hire substantially more police officers. That will doubtless make for some hard decisions in the future. In the meantime, we need to use the police resources we do have in smart strategies that are initiated by the Police Chief. (Beware of catchy ideas concocted by politicians who are in campaign mode.) I will keep you posted as the new plans are aired in September.