🚔 Why does it take hours for Oakland police to show up?

Behind the scenes of a 12-hour Oakland police shift

When you call 911, you expect someone to answer. And when you need help, you want the police, fire department, or medics to show up ASAP.

So, why do we hear stories like one Oaklander who recently waited 2 days for the police to respond to an intruder she found inside her home? Or when it took days to show up after an apartment shooting?

From time to time, we’ll feature contributed pieces from our community. A few weeks ago, Empower Oakland’s own Gagan Biyani went on a 12-hour ride-along with Oakland PD. Read his account below.

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Ride-along with Oakland PD

Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

Contributed by Gagan Biyani:

By the end of my ride-along with the Oakland police, my head was pounding. I had just finished a 12-hour shift (2pm to 2am) with an officer born and raised in Oakland.

I’ve been on a mission to understand Oakland’s public safety crisis. It’s resulted in 20+ meetings with various leaders, including people inside the police department.

I heard the usual complaints: police are understaffed and overburdened with rules and regulations. At the same time, many city officials (including Mayor Thao) say they are making major strides to address public safety.

The following may help explain why police don’t respond to 911 calls or can’t stop the crime epidemic without further support from Oakland government…

• Rules prevent police from doing their job. Nearly every time an officer does something, they must consider the multitude of rules that govern how they do their job. Many of these rules are sensible, but in recent years they have made it incredibly difficult to do the mere basics. For example, an officer must consider 19 different factors to determine if they can chase a criminal. 19! Most of the time, they either don’t pursue or it’s already too late.

• The criminals exploit the rules imposed on police. At the end of the night, 3 cars drove right past us going 80 mph. They didn’t care that we were in a fully marked police vehicle. In fact, they sped past us twice. They knew exactly what they can get away with. What’s more, the police department and police commission don’t encourage officers to chase down most criminals — only violent offenders. That’s why criminals can get away with burglary, car theft, and reckless driving (even 80 mph with a stolen vehicle) — and it can all happen right in front of a police officer. It is extremely hard to do your job when the burden of responsibility is so disproportionate against law enforcement and in favor of criminals.

• Property crimes don’t matter. The Oakland patrol unit does not have the time or resources to take on property crimes. Worse still, they do not have the support from the City Council-appointed police commission and city government to take on these crimes. Since pre-pandemic, Oakland’s property crime has doubled, and car thefts have tripled.

• Oakland PD only has 35 patrol officers per shift. Oakland has the least police officers per crime of any major city in America. City Council has reduced the number of sworn officers for years despite rising crime and population (from 803 officers at peak to 678 today). Of that 678, there are only ~250 patrol officers on the streets.

• Backlog of 911 calls. During my ride-along, there were 150+ calls unanswered or not yet responded to. We were completely slammed for most of the shift responding to “Priority 1” calls — violent or dangerous situations such as domestic disputes, homicides, overdoses, manhunts, or DUIs. If you call 911 because someone just robbed you, but the perpetrator left the scene, that’s a P3 call and they often don’t have enough officers to respond.

• The patrol job is 80% paperwork. We visited 9 crimes during our 12-hour shift. Let that sink in. While most calls took just 5-10 minutes to handle, the rest of the time was spent on the computer writing up notes. This is not typical for other police departments in the area. We have created a “police state” to monitor our police, hamstringing an already beleaguered police force. The Mayor and the City Council could do something about this, but they haven’t. Governor Newsom has started to step in, just in time for the upcoming election.

• An incredibly hard job. In my life, I’ve visited refugee camps, indigenous tribes, and slums around the world. Yet, I was still shell-shocked by the stress of the day. One moment there’s a 60-year-old man crying in the backseat because he got arrested in front of his children, the next there’s a manhunt for a young adult who stole a car and brandished a gun. Later, we’re racing to help someone overdosing on fentanyl. Despite all of this, every officer I encountered handled themselves with professionalism, and they all had a deep sense of camaraderie amidst the current state of Oakland.

Final thoughts: When city officials tell you they are doing “everything” to reduce crime in the city; they mean “everything within the confines of their theory of change.” This theory does not include empowering the police, giving them more resources, reducing paperwork, or cutting other parts of the budget to ensure adequate police staffing.

I went into the ride-along expecting some of the rumors I’d heard to be true and others to be exaggerated. But my conclusion is they’re actually understated.

The police have systemic challenges that are preventing them from keeping us safe. City Council has shrunk police resources while simultaneously increasing the oversight and hampering their ability to do their jobs.

We can change this. We can remove incompetent politicians and vote in favor of effective ones who actually care about improving public safety through commonsense policies.