Same thing that works in every other jurisdiction: enforce traffic laws, arrest violent criminals, maintain prosecution competently and put violent criminals in jail.
I wish more people though like this. Plenty of cities have low crime rates without mass surveillance. People really believe that selling our personal liberties to silicon valley is gonna fix the crime problem, when we have a corrupt, underfunded police force that does nothing. Peter Thiel doesn't actually want to help us.
“Mass surveillance” does very little to combat low level street crime either. If you want lower crime, higher more police, support them, enable proactive policing and don’t cave to crazy leftists.
Cant enforce laws when we are severely under policed. I attended a community meeting and the captain said a study was done in like... 2012 (I think I'm right here but not 100%) that said the city needs 1200 police to be adequately policed. A more recent study says we need 877 as a baseline. Which is 199 less than we have now.
I'm all for tech to help, but manpower is essential
Enforcement… start by pulling over cars with missing or illegal license plate, and work your way up from there. You’d be surprised how far simply enforcing the basic rules of law will go to stop lawlessness.
it blows my mind that just driving on telegraph or broadway for 5 minutes the amount of cars with no license plates or clearly illegal ones. I'm not for a police state, but ffs the chances of those cars either doing illegal things and/or being stolen and/or getting in an accident and scramming is incredible high.
Strict enforcement eventually lowers the need for manpower.
I'd wager that most of the crime is caused by a relatively small number of individuals. You see this all the time whenever something horrible happens it turns out the person has a lengthy criminal record but kept being released early or charges were continually dismissed.
These are people who steal all day every day, or who continually get in fights, or do sideshows constantly, or who have multiple gun charges.
Its like a Spiders Georg situation, except its Crimes Georg. Get those people off the street and the overall crime rate would drop substantially.
Real time crime centers,DUI Saturation Patrols, additional plainclothes officers and detectives for gangs, narcotics, burglaries, auto thefts, cargo thefts.
More high quality detectives for investigations for crimes against People & Property.
Dedicated police officers responding to sideshows and more police helicopter hours along with drones first responders. Unpopular opinion are Automated License Plate Scanner’s in every high crime area, freeway entrances, parking lots,I’m talking at least 1000. 300 is barely touching the surface.
Oakland isn’t as bad as Stockton or Bakersfield.
High quality surveillance cameras in hot spots, mobile surveillance trailers.
Oakland Police needs at least 900 Officers and a Police Chief & command staff structure that can stick around more then a year. Their city council and mayor are corrupt as hell and do everything in their power to fuck the police department.
In order to fix all this, they need to properly staff a department. The city revenues are going downhill and Oakland and crime is always a trending news topic.
Not surprising when you castrate your police force instead of empowering them. Nobody wants to be hated and the community has made it painfully obvious that they hate the police department. They criticize them when they do their job then criticize them when they don't.
Then on top of all that, who wants to arrest anyone when the DA doesn't prosecute and the system lets them out a day later? Yeah, let me sign up to go bang head against the wall.
The oversight was started for good reason! The question is if it’s still warranted. From what I have read, things are much better now, and the federal monitor is conflicted because if he says the department is compliant, he loses a very lucrative sinecure.
There's a huge difference between the days of the Riders and today at OPD. It gets really old hearing people constantly trashing OPD; it's not an easy job and they're understaffed. If they went on strike for 3 weeks all the OPD-bashers would be crying for their Mama.
This isn't old news. Why do you carry water for this notoriously corrupt police department where corruption is literally ongoing? They're already on a silent strike lol.
Sorry, projecting from one officer's corruption to the whole force is a non-starter. There are too many people in this town who reflexively hate cops - - that's changing and changing fast. Thank goodness!
Also, the "silent strike" accusation is pure BS. OPD just took in 200 cars from sideshows. I speak to the cops who frequent my neighborhood; they are hard-working in an environment where "Monday Morning Quarterbacks" think they know more than the cops do - we've got plenty of those types in this forum; on the Privacy Commission and the Police Commission; they will all continue to be pushed aside to the point of irrelevance, because they're extremists who are not open to the fact that organizations and people can change.
Yes but let's not forget that the Black Panther party started in Oakland in large part because the cops were so overbearing, violent, and corrupt.
Just to say, there's a reason the feds were called in and it wasn't because they were doing such a great job of serving and protecting.
What needs to happen is what they did with East Palo Alto. The surrounding cities loaned them police officers. In 1992 East Palo Alto, pop 24,000 had 42 homicides. They had zero in 2023, 2 in 2024 and maybe zero this year.
They are having a hard time filling up the academy quota of roughly 35 officers (only in the mid-20's, so far). Also, once officers have graduated the academy in the past, many leave for other municipalities where the pay is better and the cops are not constrained by dysfunctional groups like the Privacy or Police Commissions, respectively.
Also sufficient prosecution. If the district attorney is offering sweetheart plea deals that avoid jail time before they even glance at the evidence, they need to be removed.
Memphian here—common sentiment is the cops aren’t enforcing primarily because DA isn’t doing his part and prosecuting…not sure if that’s the case for Oakland or not, but I can see why the cops wouldn’t want to risk their safety just to play catch and release. It really sucks for all of us just trying to live there…
Literally the reason the suburbs are safe is because johhny cop the asshole who failed high school is posted up on the Main Street watching for traffic violations all damn day
A baseline level of traffic enforcement that would reduce the number of folks operating with fake/no plates or stolen cars would be a cost-efficient place to start
Yeah I definitely see no plate, dealer plate, decoration plate driving around numerous times a day. Ever since the temp plates for new cars came 6 years ago - this should be an instant pull over as there is really no excuse now to not have a plate, it doesn't have to be punishing, it could be just a fix it ticket - but need to investigate why (the only acceptable reason would be your plate was stolen very recently).
If certain areas are majority black or hispanic, and have more crime. Increasing policing in those areas isnt overpolicing. That’s exactly what needs to happen.
No one has any interest in pointlessly assigning resources to an area that doesnt need it when Oakland PD is already stretched thin.
OPD could tow all cars parked on public roads with plates that are expired >6 months or have no real plate at all. No chasing needed. They just need a parking lot.
Despite claims otherwise, the crime rate went down when incarceration rates went up. It just did, by large percentages.
However, the crime rate went up when early release, closing prisons and deferred sentences went up.
I don’t believe we should re-institute the incarceration rates we had before. BUT— we should be investing much more into reforming, rehabilatation and re-establishment with formally incarcerated individuals. As it is now, most ex-cons face joblessness and eventual homelessness. No one will house or hire them. We used to have more rigorous programs pre and post release that gave people second chances. My family was involved in re-entry hiring programs. It was very successful. Doesn’t really exist now. Most funding goes to security (guards) not reform.
So what choice but continuing a life of crime do ex-cons have? During the pandemic, they were released, saw zero ways to feed themselves. But here were all these young kids out of school. They recruited and we saw the massive theft rings bloom seemingly overnight. Its not a coincidence.
Seems that a lot of the changes involving rehabilitation and reintegration need to be made at the state level. Oakland can’t change employment in California already has “Ban the Box” was the prohibited employee from asking about criminal backgrounds in most cases.
San Francisco in Berkeley both have, “Fair Chance” laws, and housing, which is something that Oakland could consider.
Oakland outlaws criminal background checks in housing. However, most ex cons don’t have credit, don’t have savings, no employment history.
I don’t think outlawing employers and landlord’s ability to know who they’re hiring/renting to is the answer. The answer is actual job training, halfway houses with a lot monitoring and a robust and revitalized parole system staffed with actual humans who do more than monitor ankle bracelets
This is that police PRESENCE is for and how it works. I’m really begging people to look at research and not go on vibes. Vibes gets more and more Black people and poor people locked up for longer as we abandon our communities and go with the urgent “I need it my way now” vibes of richer, Whiter people and the cries of communities increasing terrorized by crime. We need to learn what works, educate communities about it show how it will help over time. Vibes and our own desires to punish will not help communities over time. Poor communities will increasingly fall into crime as youth become more hopeless, more exposed to violence, and see little reason to participate in a fractured neighborhood. Shaking fingers, calling people animals, and declaring we are going to lock up people for life only adds to that.
You could maybe make this case if you’re considering crimes committed in prison as the same as crimes committed outside of prison. But the goal here should obviously be keeping criminals away from the innocent. The data is incredibly clear that there is a small number of repeat offenders committing a hugely disproportionate amount of the crime, this is not a difficult problem to solve.
The laws are the same for the entire state and county. Yet the crime problem in Oakland remains higher than comparable areas. We need more than just a blanket “lock em up” strategy. We already know that doesn’t work as a deterrent.
Yea, no clue what these folks are talking about. Look at El Salvador. ‘Lock em up’ might not be the most effective strategy for everyone involved, but it’s the best for law abiding citizens. (obviously not the best for criminals and rehabilitation).
In extreme situations like this, where crime rate is so high, you focus on cleaning the city up first. Rehabilitation second.
Lock a criminal up then that’s one less on the street committing crime. If he/she turns their life around in prison by taking responsibility for shit choices they made then great! If not then they can stay locked up for all I care.
This! We’re in the Bay. Center of innovation. How are not leveraging tech?
We should be able to follow a car blasting thru red lights with cameras.
At the least, simple enforcement. In my 20 years Oak, Ive never seen anyone pulled over for front tinted windows or no license plate.
I'd support more tech if it delivers such irrefutable proof in criminal matters it will silence the crime apologists. The political and social will to enforce the law is a much bigger problem, and if tech aids in tipping that balance, great.
Those cities in the bottom left have a mix of policies, populations, institutional problems. I say we look at them and see what makes sense for Oakland. I don’t think we need to listen to the extremes as much, we don’t need to triple our police force when we aren’t even at %100 capacity, we also don’t need to defund the police and give it all to “alternative programs”, when there’s so little political will outside of a few neighborhoods.
Pick smart and political viable solutions that have worked for similar cities with similar demographics and issues.
Educate people, show them what is important in life when they're still young. You could increase the number of police officers but it doesn't matter if people don't care. Driving through Oakland, it's pretty clear how many just don't give a shit about the neighborhood, community, and even themselves.
Watch the Wire for lessons on how a city becomes broken. It’s everything from the government to the police to the journalists to the unions to the schools. You need top to bottom change to fix a city.
But if you want to start somewhere, it starts at the top which is the mayor and city government. Strong leadership can dictate policing, deal with unions and make changes to schools.
The harsh reality is that if you want to fix Oakland as quick as possible, you’d have to gentrify it. Many people are against that because gentrification raises prices (from homes to retail). This is because new business investments come in the form of restaurants and office space. Residential prices go up because more money is coming in. All of this translates into tax dollars that can be reinvested into the city.
Naturally this means that while the city improves, some people will be priced out. This is what happens to places like the Mission in the city.
You are making things way too complicated. Some things can be done immediately and some things will take longer.
You don’t need to create some kind of civic utopia before you endeavor to lower violent crime. And there are places in the U.S. with very low violent crime but have plenty of corruption and other kinds of issues (e.g. Boston).
Oakland is like The Wire if the police department was gutted and arresting people just led to them being let out in a month.
The investment would come from the business owners. For example, you don't see many new restaurants and name brand stores popping up in East Oakland... but if there was new real estate development there, the businesses would start to come.
Oakland has always had periods of business investment but it comes and goes. Over the past 3 decades it went from Jack London to Rockridge to Downtown and to Uptown. The thing is that Oakland is geographically situated in a decent spot -- right across the bridge from the city, surrounded by consumers with money who want to go out and have good experiences. That's why there's development in places in like downtown Berkeley and Emeryville. Oakland has the waterfront and a diverse population that wants different kinds of experiences like ethnic foods. Fox Theater, for example, went through a major renovation about 15 years ago. Consider that destinations like the Ferry Building and Embarcadero and right across the bridge.
Since Bay Area real estate is in high demand, places that are more affordable will always be ripe for people looking for an opportunity. The Oakland Hills are an example of that. But developers will be resistant if crime is bad and businesses won't invest if they feel like customers won't come (and customers won't come if crime is bad).
It's entirely possible. SOMA is also a good example. Decades ago it was a real bad and rundown part of the city. But in 90s and 2000s there was a ton of investment as it became home to internet startups. That brought the business community which then brought more restaurants and bars to cater to them. That brought in more tax dollars and investments in residential buildings. And you just get a virtuous cycle of development.
Oakland has tried to do the same but can't sustain it.
What I and some others are saying is that we have to reduce the crime first, in a sustained and believable way, in order to have hope of investment. At least in the private sector, people with money to invest aren't dumb, and don't want to throw away their money.
The debate about gentrification happens much later.
Some people seem to think that "lower crime" automatically means "[bad] gentrification." I don't have time for people like that, and I know I can't change their minds.
I think the technology will get a lot better soon, between two trends. Video is getting cheaper to capture, and AI is making it easier to analyze that video.
For example, right now everyone is arguing about Flock's license plate scanners. But the technology is going to get much better. Modern cars are getting more cameras on them, and are getting more intelligent onboard video analysis. Eventually I expect every car to have cameras that scan every license plate they can see, and analyze the video for crime. Why not? Wouldn't you want to buy a car that will send an immediate alert, with attached video, to the police, as soon as someone breaks a window? Even if they're breaking into the car parked twenty feet away from yours. Eventually the data will get so good, even the Oakland police will be able to catch criminals.
Drones are also going to get better and better. Soon drone delivery companies are going to be constantly recording video, everywhere. It will seem silly for the cops to not have drones, once private companies have drones everywhere.
It might take a while but the best thing to do is to start using things like Flock so that the police get familiar with modern technology. I'm sure it'll happen eventually even if people protest a lot, but the sooner we can cut crime the better.
Pretty simple, there is plenty of data on what works and what doesn't work. The community and its politicians need to accept that they have failed at trying to analyze and outthink what we know about crime and get back to the imperfect system that worked better than this attempt at Utopia. People also have to accept that no system is perfect, errors will be made, but it's better than anarchy.
Soft on crime policy always sounds better on paper than it is in practice. In the end, the well intentioned, law abiding people just get taken advantage of. Laws need to be enforced and there needs to be strict consequences for breaking them.
The same thing Giuliani and then Bloomberg did in NYC: stop-and-frisk.
Stop crying "racism", detain and prosecute no matter the skin color.
Stop letting career criminals go again and again.
Return back cash bail.
Enforce the law.
Stop and arrest on sideshows.
That's not a rocket science. But democrats will never do that, and you're keep electing them again and again.
Well, if you were a politician in one of the highest crime areas in the country you should be doing everything to correct that. If you aren't you're allowing poor people to be perpetually victimized in your district.
Nothing…. I’ve been in the bay all my life…… and many have tried to reduce crime….. but it just gets worse decade after decade…… why you think all the sports teams left? THEY TRY BUT THEY ain’t TRYING. HARD ENOUGH.
all the top comments are enforcement, which i completely agree with. Unfortunately, the administration isn't really pushing enough of a pro enforcement agenda, so the thing that we as individuals can do is to elect people who want to arrest and prosecute criminals
Most felony's are committed by a very small percentage of the population and their recidivism-rate is super high as opposed to most first-time offenders. These individuals should be in jail, no plea deals or reduction in charges; if they can't function by the basic rules of society then they get separated. The rules around prosecutorial discretion need to be changed as too many ideologues have gotten into the DA position and used the position to play public defender instead of top law enforcement officer.
(1) Learn from how neighboring cities have done it, and learn from how other cities with similar problems (e.g. Boston) have done it.
(2) Be willing to offend some people, specifically, be willing to offend the vocal minority who are reflexively opposed to all law enforcement. Fuck those people.
(3) Tactically, stop and impound all cars with missing plates and/or tinted front windows. Alternatively, smash illegally tinted front windows on the spot.
(4) Start a task force to stop cars that run red lights and stop signs. Not sure what punishment: maybe impound the car? No point giving tickets that they won't pay. This continues until everyone gets the message.
It's so funny that these people will just say MOAR COPS MOAR JAILS MOAR PRISONS and then complain about taxes when it would be far cheaper to just pay people and give them housing
Offensive policing to surgically target the small handful of professional criminals who commit an outsized proportion of all crimes. Widening access to and subsidizing abortions to reduce the number of deadbeat parents with unwanted children. Re-education tactics focused on parents in historically violent and incarceration focused communities to break the single-parent to prison pipeline.
Everything starts small. I live in Oakland and i believe the smallest changes would net giant benefits. Simple examples like if everyone would stop throwing garbage in the street. Folks begin to show grace and respect for the elderly and people that require complicated care. And, maybe the hardest of all, the creation of more role models to inform a new generation.
I saw another comment mention this too, but traffic stops over small things net big results. I feel like the only way to get pulled over here is to be actively firing weapons out of a car that’s on fire. Minor exaggeration but, for those that live in The Town, it’s true.
Starts small. Don’t need to overthink. We just need to make tiny changes.
You can actually see the incidents of property crime versus violent crime on the different axis. Oakland is actually #1 in property crime and #2 in violent crime.
Honestly, don’t have kids you can’t afford not just in money, but also time. If you can’t invest in your child, there’s no shame in not having any. Really. Having kids is not some sort of maturity milestone. Don’t feel pressured to have kids if that’s not what works for you.
I used to work with a guy who was from Singapore and he said that caning would reduce petty crimes in America by at least 50%. No need to write citations, take people to jail, or go to court. Just tell ‘em to bend over and go to business. I would then tell him that we have a lot of guns in America and a lot of these gun owners ain’t gonna bend over willingly.
Still, part of me couldn’t help but to be curious of how such a law would play out in America.
Focus on one-three vehicle enforcement measures at a time. We overcomplicate this stuff way too much. Pick two zones, one wealthier one lower income. Keep good data. Enforce missing plates, DUI, running lights. Give some warnings as needed, but once the vehicle enters into a number of ignored violations, tow and impound . Enforcement is not fun, but idiot compassion just makes all of us miserable.
Ngl we saw some real police work being done when CA Gov Newson brought out the CHWP troops in numbers to Oakland. The streets were mad quiet if yall remember though that was only for a few weeks I think .
Everyone is saying to lock up the criminals and enforce laws. Oakland literally cannot do that. You guys have like 200 patrol officers, and over 3000 911 calls daily. Nothing can be done since no one can enforce the laws. Watch the Tommy G video on Oakland posted 2 weeks ago. It’s seriously the Wild West over there.
I’m not shitting on Oakland, I love Oakland and I spend a lot of my freetime there.
Simple, a surge in police and prosecutors who will put bad people away. Right now may Democrat cities including OAK are afraid to put people in jail and keep them in jail.
San Franciscans will see this and say our violent crime rates are very low just because we’re a smidge to the left of the middle when compared to a several dozen other cities.
We’re gonna have to start profiling in Oakland. Every single minivan on the road is committing a traffic infraction and also likely some sort of crime.
Off topic: hold up, why aren't Chicago and NY on this graph? (maybe they are and are in the conglomeration of dots near the center of the axis, but it's strange)
Yes there seems to be some missing data here. One I know LA has been having reporting issues so their position is probably a reflection of that. And there is no way Chicago and St Louis are not up there either.
A big cash injection and mandate to pull over and arrest every plateless car, reckless driver, hit and run, and to sweep and identify every stolen car. Also there needs to be massive investment in both public schools on general and also in community centers for after school programs and workforce development for youth and young adults - this type of stuff has worked wonders in places like Baltimore even as the cost of living crisis gets worse.. The biggest issue is a bankrupt city trying to make cuts and balance the budget amongst the worst crisis in crime and business viability the city has ever seen. They need a massive bailout and for it to be spent on the correct things. But if they do it right the city could easily turn a surplus if business and foot traffic returns, it's a very dense city compared to 95% of America and hence can balance its budget based on fundamental economics.
You f****** i****: crime has been trending down in Oakland, just like a lot of big cities for at least the last two years. You know why? Because as part of the post-covid recovery plans Biden was able to flood the zone with resources down to the local level. Communities were finally able to throw everything but the kitchen sink at problems like the opioid crisis, violent crime, and poverty. All of you keep talking about broken windows type policing, which doesn’t do shit. And all the tech based solutions in the world won’t make up for on the ground policing with community integration and social programs the bring generational change and build on current momentum.
Violent crime and property crimes are typically caused by people in lower socioeconomic strata. So, you just need to price those people out of the area.
I have an idea for an app. Called "Stitches" for snitching on other drivers. Connect to police systems. Get Starbucks credit when someone you snitch on gets a ticket.
Reputation score for how likely you are telling the truth. Kinda like waze.
Don’t ask citizens how to reduce crime cuz they don’t know what factors cause crime. Ask those whose job is to help victims and rehabilitate former criminals.
More cops is not going to solve the root causes of crime in Oakland, never has, never will. If we want less crime, we need to invest in and heal our communities. I know most don’t want to hear this, they just want to put a bandaid on the problem and get a quick fix, but our problems are going to take a generation to fix. I grew up here in Oakland, I am from the community. We need to invest in schools, programs, the youth, drug diversion and rehabilitation, economic opportunities. Many of the things the Panthers were fighting for only to be sabatoged by cointelpro and the crack epidemic. Throwing more people in jail does not solve the problem, it only creates more criminals. Yes, laws need to be enforced but if we’re not addressing the root of the problem, it will never get solved.
This is unfortunately the problem and prevents any real solutions from happening. It also creates a false dichotomy - we can invest in the police force and enforcement while ALSO investing and healing in the community. But saying that police enforcement is not the path, makes the problem way worse. Just look at how Oakland has deteriorated over the last 10 years, and particularly, during/after Covid with the police force severely underfunded (ie. defund the police).
Same thing that works in every other jurisdiction: enforce traffic laws, arrest violent criminals, maintain prosecution competently and put violent criminals in jail.
Yeah there isn’t some high tech solution to this. If the powers that be make reducing crime a priority, crime will drop.
I wish more people though like this. Plenty of cities have low crime rates without mass surveillance. People really believe that selling our personal liberties to silicon valley is gonna fix the crime problem, when we have a corrupt, underfunded police force that does nothing. Peter Thiel doesn't actually want to help us.
“Mass surveillance” does very little to combat low level street crime either. If you want lower crime, higher more police, support them, enable proactive policing and don’t cave to crazy leftists.
george floyd
Facts. Its noticeable that they just all together gave up on the city of Oakland. Which is shameful.
Cant enforce laws when we are severely under policed. I attended a community meeting and the captain said a study was done in like... 2012 (I think I'm right here but not 100%) that said the city needs 1200 police to be adequately policed. A more recent study says we need 877 as a baseline. Which is 199 less than we have now.
I'm all for tech to help, but manpower is essential
works well until you get a progressive DA
Enforcement… start by pulling over cars with missing or illegal license plate, and work your way up from there. You’d be surprised how far simply enforcing the basic rules of law will go to stop lawlessness.
it blows my mind that just driving on telegraph or broadway for 5 minutes the amount of cars with no license plates or clearly illegal ones. I'm not for a police state, but ffs the chances of those cars either doing illegal things and/or being stolen and/or getting in an accident and scramming is incredible high.
Enforcement only works if you have sufficient manpower; there are only 28-35 OPD officers on each shift for the entire city.
We need more high tech surveillance - more cameras, and drones.
Strict enforcement eventually lowers the need for manpower.
I'd wager that most of the crime is caused by a relatively small number of individuals. You see this all the time whenever something horrible happens it turns out the person has a lengthy criminal record but kept being released early or charges were continually dismissed.
These are people who steal all day every day, or who continually get in fights, or do sideshows constantly, or who have multiple gun charges.
Its like a Spiders Georg situation, except its Crimes Georg. Get those people off the street and the overall crime rate would drop substantially.
Real time crime centers,DUI Saturation Patrols, additional plainclothes officers and detectives for gangs, narcotics, burglaries, auto thefts, cargo thefts.
More high quality detectives for investigations for crimes against People & Property.
Dedicated police officers responding to sideshows and more police helicopter hours along with drones first responders. Unpopular opinion are Automated License Plate Scanner’s in every high crime area, freeway entrances, parking lots,I’m talking at least 1000. 300 is barely touching the surface. Oakland isn’t as bad as Stockton or Bakersfield.
High quality surveillance cameras in hot spots, mobile surveillance trailers.
Oakland Police needs at least 900 Officers and a Police Chief & command staff structure that can stick around more then a year. Their city council and mayor are corrupt as hell and do everything in their power to fuck the police department.
In order to fix all this, they need to properly staff a department. The city revenues are going downhill and Oakland and crime is always a trending news topic.
How’d Bakersfield and Stockton catch stray in this response? 😆
Bakersfield is hot and smells funny.
It is and it does, completely true. I just didn’t see the relevance in the comment to surrounding text lol
Not surprising when you castrate your police force instead of empowering them. Nobody wants to be hated and the community has made it painfully obvious that they hate the police department. They criticize them when they do their job then criticize them when they don't.
Then on top of all that, who wants to arrest anyone when the DA doesn't prosecute and the system lets them out a day later? Yeah, let me sign up to go bang head against the wall.
yeah as everyone knows the OPD has been under federal oversight for a quarter of a century because residents are mean to oakland cops
The oversight was started for good reason! The question is if it’s still warranted. From what I have read, things are much better now, and the federal monitor is conflicted because if he says the department is compliant, he loses a very lucrative sinecure.
Exactly! The federal monitor, Robert Warshaw, has no incentive to find OPD in compliance!
There's a huge difference between the days of the Riders and today at OPD. It gets really old hearing people constantly trashing OPD; it's not an easy job and they're understaffed. If they went on strike for 3 weeks all the OPD-bashers would be crying for their Mama.
Celeste Guap disagrees. So do the victims of Detective Tran. https://sfist.com/2025/07/07/oakland-police-detective-accused-of-bribing-and-coercing-witnesses/
This isn't old news. Why do you carry water for this notoriously corrupt police department where corruption is literally ongoing? They're already on a silent strike lol.
Sorry, projecting from one officer's corruption to the whole force is a non-starter. There are too many people in this town who reflexively hate cops - - that's changing and changing fast. Thank goodness!
Also, the "silent strike" accusation is pure BS. OPD just took in 200 cars from sideshows. I speak to the cops who frequent my neighborhood; they are hard-working in an environment where "Monday Morning Quarterbacks" think they know more than the cops do - we've got plenty of those types in this forum; on the Privacy Commission and the Police Commission; they will all continue to be pushed aside to the point of irrelevance, because they're extremists who are not open to the fact that organizations and people can change.
Yes but let's not forget that the Black Panther party started in Oakland in large part because the cops were so overbearing, violent, and corrupt.
Just to say, there's a reason the feds were called in and it wasn't because they were doing such a great job of serving and protecting.
What needs to happen is what they did with East Palo Alto. The surrounding cities loaned them police officers. In 1992 East Palo Alto, pop 24,000 had 42 homicides. They had zero in 2023, 2 in 2024 and maybe zero this year.
The city is pushing to hire more police officers - I think recruiting is a problem even though starting salary is $107k!
They are having a hard time filling up the academy quota of roughly 35 officers (only in the mid-20's, so far). Also, once officers have graduated the academy in the past, many leave for other municipalities where the pay is better and the cops are not constrained by dysfunctional groups like the Privacy or Police Commissions, respectively.
That sounds totally fair... police officers are people. Pay and working conditions matter.
Also sufficient prosecution. If the district attorney is offering sweetheart plea deals that avoid jail time before they even glance at the evidence, they need to be removed.
This is just false. There are over 700 officers on the payroll. Spreading misinformation doesn’t help anyone.
You are mistaken. I am correct. I've spoken with OPD about this several times
I can hear it now, "Oh well X group doesn't have license plates so this is actually RACIST"
in addition, the majority of crime is done by a small group of folks
Memphian here—common sentiment is the cops aren’t enforcing primarily because DA isn’t doing his part and prosecuting…not sure if that’s the case for Oakland or not, but I can see why the cops wouldn’t want to risk their safety just to play catch and release. It really sucks for all of us just trying to live there…

Literally the reason the suburbs are safe is because johhny cop the asshole who failed high school is posted up on the Main Street watching for traffic violations all damn day
That doesn't help people who cant afford those things.
A baseline level of traffic enforcement that would reduce the number of folks operating with fake/no plates or stolen cars would be a cost-efficient place to start
Yeah I definitely see no plate, dealer plate, decoration plate driving around numerous times a day. Ever since the temp plates for new cars came 6 years ago - this should be an instant pull over as there is really no excuse now to not have a plate, it doesn't have to be punishing, it could be just a fix it ticket - but need to investigate why (the only acceptable reason would be your plate was stolen very recently).
Arrest the VERY VERY few criminals.
Being poor doesn't make you a criminal. Being poor makes you more likely to be a victim of a criminal. But being a criminal makes you a criminal.
Consequences for crime would be a good start
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I don’t think many are saying enforcing crime is racist. Over policing certain areas, on the other hand…
If certain areas are majority black or hispanic, and have more crime. Increasing policing in those areas isnt overpolicing. That’s exactly what needs to happen.
No one has any interest in pointlessly assigning resources to an area that doesnt need it when Oakland PD is already stretched thin.
Increasing surveillance and enforcement in high crime rate areas isn’t over policing.
White collar crime can’t be easily seen check out temescal, Piedmont Ave and rockridge to find embezzlers, scammers and thieves of public dollars.
Ouch!
lol
OPD could tow all cars parked on public roads with plates that are expired >6 months or have no real plate at all. No chasing needed. They just need a parking lot.
Despite claims otherwise, the crime rate went down when incarceration rates went up. It just did, by large percentages.
However, the crime rate went up when early release, closing prisons and deferred sentences went up.
I don’t believe we should re-institute the incarceration rates we had before. BUT— we should be investing much more into reforming, rehabilatation and re-establishment with formally incarcerated individuals. As it is now, most ex-cons face joblessness and eventual homelessness. No one will house or hire them. We used to have more rigorous programs pre and post release that gave people second chances. My family was involved in re-entry hiring programs. It was very successful. Doesn’t really exist now. Most funding goes to security (guards) not reform.
So what choice but continuing a life of crime do ex-cons have? During the pandemic, they were released, saw zero ways to feed themselves. But here were all these young kids out of school. They recruited and we saw the massive theft rings bloom seemingly overnight. Its not a coincidence.
Seems that a lot of the changes involving rehabilitation and reintegration need to be made at the state level. Oakland can’t change employment in California already has “Ban the Box” was the prohibited employee from asking about criminal backgrounds in most cases.
San Francisco in Berkeley both have, “Fair Chance” laws, and housing, which is something that Oakland could consider.
Oakland outlaws criminal background checks in housing. However, most ex cons don’t have credit, don’t have savings, no employment history.
I don’t think outlawing employers and landlord’s ability to know who they’re hiring/renting to is the answer. The answer is actual job training, halfway houses with a lot monitoring and a robust and revitalized parole system staffed with actual humans who do more than monitor ankle bracelets
Oh so cashless bail wasn't a good thing? I'm shocked
Bring back tougher sentencing laws. There are way too many repeat offenders who are still out there committing crimes.
Every research shows that tougher s sentencing doesn’t drive down crime
What you’re claiming is often repeated but very incorrect. Harsher sentencing significantly reduces criminal recidivism.
Yep. Believing there’s a decent probability you’ll be caught however….
This is that police PRESENCE is for and how it works. I’m really begging people to look at research and not go on vibes. Vibes gets more and more Black people and poor people locked up for longer as we abandon our communities and go with the urgent “I need it my way now” vibes of richer, Whiter people and the cries of communities increasing terrorized by crime. We need to learn what works, educate communities about it show how it will help over time. Vibes and our own desires to punish will not help communities over time. Poor communities will increasingly fall into crime as youth become more hopeless, more exposed to violence, and see little reason to participate in a fractured neighborhood. Shaking fingers, calling people animals, and declaring we are going to lock up people for life only adds to that.
You could maybe make this case if you’re considering crimes committed in prison as the same as crimes committed outside of prison. But the goal here should obviously be keeping criminals away from the innocent. The data is incredibly clear that there is a small number of repeat offenders committing a hugely disproportionate amount of the crime, this is not a difficult problem to solve.
When criminals are arrested, prosecuted and locked up, the crime rates comes down.
The laws are the same for the entire state and county. Yet the crime problem in Oakland remains higher than comparable areas. We need more than just a blanket “lock em up” strategy. We already know that doesn’t work as a deterrent.
Lock them up does work to reduce crime. It might not reform the criminal, but increased enforcement does work to reduce occurrences of most crimes.
Yea, no clue what these folks are talking about. Look at El Salvador. ‘Lock em up’ might not be the most effective strategy for everyone involved, but it’s the best for law abiding citizens. (obviously not the best for criminals and rehabilitation).
In extreme situations like this, where crime rate is so high, you focus on cleaning the city up first. Rehabilitation second.
Lock a criminal up then that’s one less on the street committing crime. If he/she turns their life around in prison by taking responsibility for shit choices they made then great! If not then they can stay locked up for all I care.
If any of that worked we would have the lowest crime rate in the world. Grow up.
Enforcing the law is realistic no?
Less income disparity.
So is being poor an excuse to commit crime?
No, but if people can’t meet basic needs otherwise, it is a big problem.
Abolish the civilian oversight committee holding those hard working folks back from doing their jobs
This.
Don't re-elect recalled Pam Price for DA is a good start.
Capture criminals using all modern methods, put them in jail, and crime will decline.
This! We’re in the Bay. Center of innovation. How are not leveraging tech? We should be able to follow a car blasting thru red lights with cameras. At the least, simple enforcement. In my 20 years Oak, Ive never seen anyone pulled over for front tinted windows or no license plate.
I wouldn’t say tech is the problem here
Not saying it is. Saying that we should be leveraging it more to help with crime.
Just make reducing crime an actual priority and don’t cave to crazy leftists and you’ll get lower crime rates, pretty simple
The reason technology is worth considering is because, to be blunt, people today trust technology more than they trust people.
I'd support more tech if it delivers such irrefutable proof in criminal matters it will silence the crime apologists. The political and social will to enforce the law is a much bigger problem, and if tech aids in tipping that balance, great.
Those cities in the bottom left have a mix of policies, populations, institutional problems. I say we look at them and see what makes sense for Oakland. I don’t think we need to listen to the extremes as much, we don’t need to triple our police force when we aren’t even at %100 capacity, we also don’t need to defund the police and give it all to “alternative programs”, when there’s so little political will outside of a few neighborhoods.
Pick smart and political viable solutions that have worked for similar cities with similar demographics and issues.
Agree. Let’s get the police force to 100% and let them enforce current laws and see what happens.
Educate people, show them what is important in life when they're still young. You could increase the number of police officers but it doesn't matter if people don't care. Driving through Oakland, it's pretty clear how many just don't give a shit about the neighborhood, community, and even themselves.
The answer is obvious to everyone
Say it
Enforcement
Watch the Wire for lessons on how a city becomes broken. It’s everything from the government to the police to the journalists to the unions to the schools. You need top to bottom change to fix a city.
But if you want to start somewhere, it starts at the top which is the mayor and city government. Strong leadership can dictate policing, deal with unions and make changes to schools.
The harsh reality is that if you want to fix Oakland as quick as possible, you’d have to gentrify it. Many people are against that because gentrification raises prices (from homes to retail). This is because new business investments come in the form of restaurants and office space. Residential prices go up because more money is coming in. All of this translates into tax dollars that can be reinvested into the city.
Naturally this means that while the city improves, some people will be priced out. This is what happens to places like the Mission in the city.
You are making things way too complicated. Some things can be done immediately and some things will take longer.
You don’t need to create some kind of civic utopia before you endeavor to lower violent crime. And there are places in the U.S. with very low violent crime but have plenty of corruption and other kinds of issues (e.g. Boston).
Oakland is like The Wire if the police department was gutted and arresting people just led to them being let out in a month.
I have no idea what that means. Where do you see all the new business investment coming in?
The investment would come from the business owners. For example, you don't see many new restaurants and name brand stores popping up in East Oakland... but if there was new real estate development there, the businesses would start to come.
Oakland has always had periods of business investment but it comes and goes. Over the past 3 decades it went from Jack London to Rockridge to Downtown and to Uptown. The thing is that Oakland is geographically situated in a decent spot -- right across the bridge from the city, surrounded by consumers with money who want to go out and have good experiences. That's why there's development in places in like downtown Berkeley and Emeryville. Oakland has the waterfront and a diverse population that wants different kinds of experiences like ethnic foods. Fox Theater, for example, went through a major renovation about 15 years ago. Consider that destinations like the Ferry Building and Embarcadero and right across the bridge.
Since Bay Area real estate is in high demand, places that are more affordable will always be ripe for people looking for an opportunity. The Oakland Hills are an example of that. But developers will be resistant if crime is bad and businesses won't invest if they feel like customers won't come (and customers won't come if crime is bad).
It's entirely possible. SOMA is also a good example. Decades ago it was a real bad and rundown part of the city. But in 90s and 2000s there was a ton of investment as it became home to internet startups. That brought the business community which then brought more restaurants and bars to cater to them. That brought in more tax dollars and investments in residential buildings. And you just get a virtuous cycle of development.
Oakland has tried to do the same but can't sustain it.
What I and some others are saying is that we have to reduce the crime first, in a sustained and believable way, in order to have hope of investment. At least in the private sector, people with money to invest aren't dumb, and don't want to throw away their money.
The debate about gentrification happens much later.
Some people seem to think that "lower crime" automatically means "[bad] gentrification." I don't have time for people like that, and I know I can't change their minds.
I think the technology will get a lot better soon, between two trends. Video is getting cheaper to capture, and AI is making it easier to analyze that video.
For example, right now everyone is arguing about Flock's license plate scanners. But the technology is going to get much better. Modern cars are getting more cameras on them, and are getting more intelligent onboard video analysis. Eventually I expect every car to have cameras that scan every license plate they can see, and analyze the video for crime. Why not? Wouldn't you want to buy a car that will send an immediate alert, with attached video, to the police, as soon as someone breaks a window? Even if they're breaking into the car parked twenty feet away from yours. Eventually the data will get so good, even the Oakland police will be able to catch criminals.
Drones are also going to get better and better. Soon drone delivery companies are going to be constantly recording video, everywhere. It will seem silly for the cops to not have drones, once private companies have drones everywhere.
It might take a while but the best thing to do is to start using things like Flock so that the police get familiar with modern technology. I'm sure it'll happen eventually even if people protest a lot, but the sooner we can cut crime the better.
incarcerate felons for significant periods of time. removing the problem from society helps.
Continue gentrification. Besides the economic infusion it brings to a community... it brings criminal activity down tremendously.
Addition by subtraction. Unfortunately it moves the crime somewhere else or dissipates over a larger area.
Economically kicking out locals in an interesting way to reduce crime.
Only when the locals causing massive amounts of crime
I think politicians working to get rid of there local population is extremely flawed and disgusting.
Poor people are not the issue. Its criminals that are, gentrification gets rid of people who are poor.
Incarcerate the criminals
But that’s RaCiSt
Arrest criminals. Put them in jail.
The obvious answer.
Pretty simple, there is plenty of data on what works and what doesn't work. The community and its politicians need to accept that they have failed at trying to analyze and outthink what we know about crime and get back to the imperfect system that worked better than this attempt at Utopia. People also have to accept that no system is perfect, errors will be made, but it's better than anarchy.
Soft on crime policy always sounds better on paper than it is in practice. In the end, the well intentioned, law abiding people just get taken advantage of. Laws need to be enforced and there needs to be strict consequences for breaking them.
Stop hating law enforcement. Law enforcement gets worse press than criminals. Those who can afford luxury beliefs have idea what the consequences are
Fund the police
The same thing Giuliani and then Bloomberg did in NYC: stop-and-frisk.
Stop crying "racism", detain and prosecute no matter the skin color.
Stop letting career criminals go again and again.
Return back cash bail.
Enforce the law.
Stop and arrest on sideshows.
That's not a rocket science. But democrats will never do that, and you're keep electing them again and again.
Well, if you were a politician in one of the highest crime areas in the country you should be doing everything to correct that. If you aren't you're allowing poor people to be perpetually victimized in your district.
Nothing…. I’ve been in the bay all my life…… and many have tried to reduce crime….. but it just gets worse decade after decade…… why you think all the sports teams left? THEY TRY BUT THEY ain’t TRYING. HARD ENOUGH.
all the top comments are enforcement, which i completely agree with. Unfortunately, the administration isn't really pushing enough of a pro enforcement agenda, so the thing that we as individuals can do is to elect people who want to arrest and prosecute criminals
Most felony's are committed by a very small percentage of the population and their recidivism-rate is super high as opposed to most first-time offenders. These individuals should be in jail, no plea deals or reduction in charges; if they can't function by the basic rules of society then they get separated. The rules around prosecutorial discretion need to be changed as too many ideologues have gotten into the DA position and used the position to play public defender instead of top law enforcement officer.
How about enforcing the law?
Mass incarceration on a level that has been unseen in years. Enforcement of all the laws.
None of these comments are getting at the root cause.
Yes, enforcing laws will reduce crime.
But why doesn’t Oakland do this?
I think it’s because the people who actually support law enforcement are disorganized, incoherent, under resourced and poorly led.
The whacky activists who support pro criminal policies are better organized and better resourced.
Until that changes, your cars and homes and businesses are going to keep getting broken into.
Unfortunate but true
So disheartening to see.
More police, keep criminals in jail, oust the homeless, impound all cars at or in a side show, and my favorite- “Taser! taser! Taser!”
(1) Learn from how neighboring cities have done it, and learn from how other cities with similar problems (e.g. Boston) have done it.
(2) Be willing to offend some people, specifically, be willing to offend the vocal minority who are reflexively opposed to all law enforcement. Fuck those people.
(3) Tactically, stop and impound all cars with missing plates and/or tinted front windows. Alternatively, smash illegally tinted front windows on the spot.
(4) Start a task force to stop cars that run red lights and stop signs. Not sure what punishment: maybe impound the car? No point giving tickets that they won't pay. This continues until everyone gets the message.
(5) Put obvious career criminals behind bars!
First point is the best one. It is worthwhile to see what’s worked in other places.
After school programs, community gardens, free health clinics, on the job training, secure housing
It's so funny that these people will just say MOAR COPS MOAR JAILS MOAR PRISONS and then complain about taxes when it would be far cheaper to just pay people and give them housing
I honestly can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or sincere, lol.
Offensive policing to surgically target the small handful of professional criminals who commit an outsized proportion of all crimes. Widening access to and subsidizing abortions to reduce the number of deadbeat parents with unwanted children. Re-education tactics focused on parents in historically violent and incarceration focused communities to break the single-parent to prison pipeline.
Enforcement. Do what they can with what they have now, not use low police officer numbers as an excuse.
This chart shows how out of touch we are with how bad crime in Oakland is.
Elect moderate DA’s that will stop repeat crime offenders from walking. They don’t need to be conservative or far left liberal.
Serve the public trust
Protect the innocent
Uphold the law.
Everything starts small. I live in Oakland and i believe the smallest changes would net giant benefits. Simple examples like if everyone would stop throwing garbage in the street. Folks begin to show grace and respect for the elderly and people that require complicated care. And, maybe the hardest of all, the creation of more role models to inform a new generation.
I saw another comment mention this too, but traffic stops over small things net big results. I feel like the only way to get pulled over here is to be actively firing weapons out of a car that’s on fire. Minor exaggeration but, for those that live in The Town, it’s true.
Starts small. Don’t need to overthink. We just need to make tiny changes.
Is there a version of this where violent and property crime aren't lumped together?
You can actually see the incidents of property crime versus violent crime on the different axis. Oakland is actually #1 in property crime and #2 in violent crime.
Ah gotcha. Thanks! It was a bit blurry, or I was a bit tired when I first saw it.
Honestly, don’t have kids you can’t afford not just in money, but also time. If you can’t invest in your child, there’s no shame in not having any. Really. Having kids is not some sort of maturity milestone. Don’t feel pressured to have kids if that’s not what works for you.
Aim for the demographics of the early 20th century. Problem solved.
I used to work with a guy who was from Singapore and he said that caning would reduce petty crimes in America by at least 50%. No need to write citations, take people to jail, or go to court. Just tell ‘em to bend over and go to business. I would then tell him that we have a lot of guns in America and a lot of these gun owners ain’t gonna bend over willingly.
Still, part of me couldn’t help but to be curious of how such a law would play out in America.
It worked here too in the early New England colonies. They had stocks and a whipping post in the town squares.
What’s the source for your chart? Curious to read the rest. Seems well done.
FBI
Put people in jail
Nuclear families
Focus on one-three vehicle enforcement measures at a time. We overcomplicate this stuff way too much. Pick two zones, one wealthier one lower income. Keep good data. Enforce missing plates, DUI, running lights. Give some warnings as needed, but once the vehicle enters into a number of ignored violations, tow and impound . Enforcement is not fun, but idiot compassion just makes all of us miserable.
Realistically? Hire more police. Build more prisons and use them. Fire liberal DAs and prosecutors.
How bout the hoodlums on the dirt bikes and ghettomobiles
Ngl we saw some real police work being done when CA Gov Newson brought out the CHWP troops in numbers to Oakland. The streets were mad quiet if yall remember though that was only for a few weeks I think .
Everyone is saying to lock up the criminals and enforce laws. Oakland literally cannot do that. You guys have like 200 patrol officers, and over 3000 911 calls daily. Nothing can be done since no one can enforce the laws. Watch the Tommy G video on Oakland posted 2 weeks ago. It’s seriously the Wild West over there. I’m not shitting on Oakland, I love Oakland and I spend a lot of my freetime there.
Get rid of the 13% of the population
Is the x-axis violent crime? So we're #1 for property crime, and #2 for violent crime?
Booyah!
Correct
Simple, a surge in police and prosecutors who will put bad people away. Right now may Democrat cities including OAK are afraid to put people in jail and keep them in jail.
Remove rent ceilings. Oakland literally subsidizing crime.
Vote differently?
Gentrification.
Bring national guards
Have gov. newscum fight crime not the law abiding citizens.
Enforcing law in California? Hahaha. Only thing they will enforce are regulations that will generate money.
Ive got some good new for you about the numbers from 2025.
https://oaklandside.org/2025/12/03/oakland-homicides-shootings-down-2025/
Falling 50% over two years still places us as one of the most dangerous cities in the nation. Especially since these are nationwide trends.
While it’s good crime is dropping, how do we improve relative to the rest of the country?
Jobs. Social services. That's actually the only way you reduce crime..
Enforcement, jail, cops, prison does nothing
The horizontal axis is unlabeled
Horizontal axis is violent crime, vertical axis is property crime.
The city finally giving a shit
San Franciscans will see this and say our violent crime rates are very low just because we’re a smidge to the left of the middle when compared to a several dozen other cities.
Stop pretending that it isn’t a problem or some kind of cultural flex or somehow making it the police’s fault.
TIL Miami and Austin are pretty safe overall.
Miami has roughly the same population as Oakland, but three times as many Police Officers.
Prioritize lowering crime over national and racial politics. So… basically never.
Get rid of the usual suspects
We’re gonna have to start profiling in Oakland. Every single minivan on the road is committing a traffic infraction and also likely some sort of crime.
Surveillance state is the future
Robocop
Enforcement of the law and birth control
Gentrification. Every ten year census shows Oakland is changing,
Support yourselves Police
Can you post the link of where this graph is from?
I suggest to start to enforce the law disregard of people ethnicity or other factors.
Off topic: hold up, why aren't Chicago and NY on this graph? (maybe they are and are in the conglomeration of dots near the center of the axis, but it's strange)
Yes there seems to be some missing data here. One I know LA has been having reporting issues so their position is probably a reflection of that. And there is no way Chicago and St Louis are not up there either.
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Can you post a link to the graph? Curious to learn more about the data
A big cash injection and mandate to pull over and arrest every plateless car, reckless driver, hit and run, and to sweep and identify every stolen car. Also there needs to be massive investment in both public schools on general and also in community centers for after school programs and workforce development for youth and young adults - this type of stuff has worked wonders in places like Baltimore even as the cost of living crisis gets worse.. The biggest issue is a bankrupt city trying to make cuts and balance the budget amongst the worst crisis in crime and business viability the city has ever seen. They need a massive bailout and for it to be spent on the correct things. But if they do it right the city could easily turn a surplus if business and foot traffic returns, it's a very dense city compared to 95% of America and hence can balance its budget based on fundamental economics.
Curious to see how San Diego has so much of a lower crime rate than San Francisco.
You f****** i****: crime has been trending down in Oakland, just like a lot of big cities for at least the last two years. You know why? Because as part of the post-covid recovery plans Biden was able to flood the zone with resources down to the local level. Communities were finally able to throw everything but the kitchen sink at problems like the opioid crisis, violent crime, and poverty. All of you keep talking about broken windows type policing, which doesn’t do shit. And all the tech based solutions in the world won’t make up for on the ground policing with community integration and social programs the bring generational change and build on current momentum.
https://preview.redd.it/kg37vo5odz8g1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b7896d07849c1e374862e18a86edfe3d71859e4
Remove property crime as a measure
just stop prosecuting crime, like the blue cities do
You are not going to like the answer.
Having a DA that will actually prosecute criminals
Look at Baltimore they are doing good things with their murder rate.
New city council and mayor
Start raiding homes
A tactical nuke
New judges
Gentrification.
Violent crime and property crimes are typically caused by people in lower socioeconomic strata. So, you just need to price those people out of the area.
I have an idea for an app. Called "Stitches" for snitching on other drivers. Connect to police systems. Get Starbucks credit when someone you snitch on gets a ticket.
Reputation score for how likely you are telling the truth. Kinda like waze.
Don’t ask citizens how to reduce crime cuz they don’t know what factors cause crime. Ask those whose job is to help victims and rehabilitate former criminals.
More cops is not going to solve the root causes of crime in Oakland, never has, never will. If we want less crime, we need to invest in and heal our communities. I know most don’t want to hear this, they just want to put a bandaid on the problem and get a quick fix, but our problems are going to take a generation to fix. I grew up here in Oakland, I am from the community. We need to invest in schools, programs, the youth, drug diversion and rehabilitation, economic opportunities. Many of the things the Panthers were fighting for only to be sabatoged by cointelpro and the crack epidemic. Throwing more people in jail does not solve the problem, it only creates more criminals. Yes, laws need to be enforced but if we’re not addressing the root of the problem, it will never get solved.
This is unfortunately the problem and prevents any real solutions from happening. It also creates a false dichotomy - we can invest in the police force and enforcement while ALSO investing and healing in the community. But saying that police enforcement is not the path, makes the problem way worse. Just look at how Oakland has deteriorated over the last 10 years, and particularly, during/after Covid with the police force severely underfunded (ie. defund the police).