🚨 Why did the Oakland police union ask the Mayor to resign?
Treva Reid drops out, closing loophole on car break-ins, Jaylen Brown and Jason Kidd to build Black wealth in Oakland
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Story of the week
In an unprecedented move, the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPD’s union) demanded that Sheng Thao immediately resign as Mayor.
The four-page letter came just days before an August 9 deadline for Thao to voluntarily resign. With the deadline now passed, Thao’s recall is officially on the ballot this November.
If Thao is recalled, Oakland would hold a special mayoral election — all in costing the city upwards of $10M.
Recent polling shows 2 in 3 Oaklanders disapprove of Thao’s performance as Mayor.
The OPOA didn’t hold back. They admonished Thao for major staffing cuts, and cited the direct impact the cuts have had on crime from sideshows and robberies to homicides and gun violence.
They have a point: Oakland has the fewest police officers per crime of any major city in America. Oakland’s crime rate is 5x the national average. Since pre-pandemic, the robbery rate has more than doubled, and car theft has more than tripled.
In response, Thao doubled down saying the OPOA’s move was an attempt to distract from her Coliseum deal, which she’s been touting as a win.
She also cited declining crime data, which the police union and others were quick to dismiss given the broken and massively backlogged nature of Oakland’s crime reporting.
Don’t forget: Thao’s administration missed a deadline to apply for what would have been $15M in state grants that would have gone towards fighting retail crime.
What it means: The OPOA’s very loud public announcement speaks to the rapidly deteriorating political climate for Thao and an increasingly fraught relationship with OPD.
It’s no surprise the union attacked Thao when her political leverage is at an all-time low, as she faces the recall, FBI raid, and range of other criticisms around her handling of key issues like the city budget.
No magic fix: Naturally, the OPOA is calling for more officers and resources. But this alone won’t fix the problem, nor is it possible to hire hundreds of fully trained sworn officers overnight.
Gagan Biyani recently wrote about the challenges facing Oakland police officers, and how the city doesn’t empower them to do their job adequately.
So, what are the steps we can take to get public safety back on track?
Disincentivize crime. We currently live in a city with little to no consequences.
When a crime occurs, we need resources to actually solve the crime, including tracking and managing cases and prosecuting the criminals.
This is a multi-faceted process — but one that is currently impossible given officers can barely respond to a fraction of crimes as they happen, let alone follow through with solving them.
It also explains why crime and a sense of lawlessness is so pervasive.
Ask for help. We can’t increase the number of officers overnight. But we can ask for help from neighboring cities, the county, state, and even federal law enforcement to lend resources.
The Mayor, Police Chief, and City Administrator need to find ways to meet our officer shortage. This has already proven to be successful with recent help from CHP.
According to the OPOA, Oakland needs 1,000 to 1,200 officers to be at “full strength” — we’re currently at 678 — and the most realistic way to close that gap is getting help from others.
Embrace technology. Politicians love to talk about technology, often in aspirational terms, but they tend to overlook the cost and time required to implement it and realize the actual benefits.
Our goal should be to pursue quickly-deployable solutions that enable the current police force to do more with less, such as the use of surveillance cameras, license plate readers, and even the use of drones as SFPD recently demonstrated.
We should also explore tools to make administrative police work much more efficient, such as the ability to dictate and auto-populate case reports vs. typing them out, and better database software to track crimes and investigations vs. using Word documents shared over email.
The hurdle will always be money. It’s tough to spend on anything with the backdrop of the officer shortage, but we need to balance near-term needs with long-term investments that could help alleviate many of the core challenges.
Bottom line: Oaklanders are upset. The police department is fed up. Both are largely due to a lack of vision set forth by the Mayor and City Council to tackle the problem, not downplay it.
In other news…
The stakes were already incredibly high for this year’s election — and they just got higher with the news that Treva Reid (District 7) won’t run for re-election to City Council. Reid opted not to file papers by Friday’s deadline, so the race for D7 is wide open. Candidates will have until next Wednesday to enter the race (Mercury News)
A new California state bill (SB 905) would remove a senseless loophole against prosecuting car break-ins. Under current California law, prosecutors must prove the car was locked and forcibly broken into without permission, pretty much impossible unless the car owner is present at the time of the break-in. SB 905 passed the State Assembly with a 60-2 vote in favor, and will go to the State Senate before going to the Governor (SF Standard)
Oakland and Berkeley teens aged 16 and older will be allowed to vote for their districts’ school boards in the upcoming election. County Registrar Tim Dupuis had previously said that implementation was not feasible in time for the November election, drawing heated rebuke from outgoing District 5 Supervisor Keith Carson, “We had eight years to prepare for this. I don’t accept the fact that we’re not ready…” Last week Dupuis confirmed the technology and processes will be ready in time (SF Chronicle)
Oakland Airport has started construction on 16 new shops and 12 new restaurants, many of which will be connected to beloved East Bay small businesses. Some of the stores include Oakland Coffee Collective, Oakland Supply Co., Temescal Alley, among others (ABC)
After coming face to face with a home intruder in the middle of the day, Oakland resident Jennifer Pahlka wrote about her encounter and the aftermath with Oakland PD, which showed up two days after she called (SF Standard)
East Oakland resident Hua Kuang is fighting for his life after getting hit in the head by a stray bullet while asleep at his home. Kuang is the sole provider for his wife, two young kids, and parents; he immigrated from China nearly 20 years ago. His family is accepting donations for his recovery (ABC)
Oakland Proud
🏀 Cal Basketball alumni Jaylen Brown and Jason Kidd joined forces to launch Oakland XChange, a group designed to build Black wealth in Oakland. Initially, the group will raise $10M to begin investing in real estate and building programs, with the long-term goal of generating $5B in wealth for historically marginalized communities. (NBC)
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Check out the 2023-24 Alameda Civil Grand Jury report on the OPD’s use, or lacking use, of technology. The report highlights the challenges of deploying technology in Oakland but also makes practical recommendations on next steps for the process of moving forward. The grand jury saw the use of technology as a ‘force multiplier’ and while there is cost consideration, it’s not the primary reason technology isn’t being put to use.
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