Plan to Beef Up Oakland Police Moves Ahead

Bay City News Service—A proposal to beef up the understaffed Oakland Police Department moved forward Thursday even though a City Council committee meeting had to be canceled because two council members failed to show up.

Although the absences of Ignacio De La Fuente and Desley Brooks forced the cancellation of the Rules and Legislation Committee meeting, City Council President Larry Reid was still able to use council procedures to forward the crime-fighting proposal to the Finance Committee for a meeting in mid-January.

Councilwoman Libby Schaaf, who authored the proposal with Reid, said if the Finance Committee approves it the full council will vote on it in late January.

Schaaf said she believes the measure is needed because the number of police officers in Oakland, which was as high as 837 four years ago, is expected to drop to 605 in February and as low as 585 officers next June, before officers currently in a training academy come on board.

She said the decrease in the number of officers is a big reason the number of homicides, burglaries and robberies has increased this year.

Reid and Schaaf said in a letter to their colleagues that their proposal is "in response to the unacceptable levels of crime in our communities."

Schaaf said the city must act because there is a "horrible fear and threat to our city" because of its crime problem and she hears stories every week of people moving out of Oakland because they don't feel safe.

The proposal by Reid and Schaaf calls for funding an additional police academy to train new officers next June, hiring 11 Alameda County sheriff's deputies for up to 180 days at a cost of up to $265,000 and hiring 20 police service technicians at a cost of $1.5 million to be assigned to field duty as well as one crime lab position.

Schaaf said the sheriff's deputies would work ten-hour shifts twice a week on violence suppression efforts in East and West Oakland.

She said they would supplement a small group of California Highway Patrol officers who have been working on violence suppression duties in those areas for the past month. Schaaf said Oakland's agreement with the CHP is scheduled to expire at the end of January but she would like to extend it.

She said Oakland needs assistance from the CHP and the sheriff's office because it won't begin increasing its staffing until next July, after the recruits in the current police academy complete their classes and their field training.

A typical class begins with 55 trainees but usually only 40 remain after the end of classes and field training, according to Schaaf.

She said another training academy will begin next March but those officers won't be ready for duty until the end of next year.

Money has been allocated for a third training academy to begin next June but the city currently isn't authorized to spend that money until it resolved its legal fight with the state over redevelopment funds, Schaaf said.

But Schaaf said she believes Oakland's improving fiscal situation now allows it to allocate money for a third training academy even if it doesn't win its battle over redevelopment funds. She said the city must act early next year to fund the third academy so it can begin on schedule in June.

In their letter to their colleagues, Reid and Schaaf said, "We recognize that adjusting the budget at this point is an extreme measure, but we believe Oakland's current crime and police staffing crisis warrants this action." They said, "We believe there is no more pressing need or higher priority than suppressing crime in our city."

Schaaf said she knew before Thursday that Brooks wouldn't be able to attend thee Rules and Legislation Committee meeting because she's out of town on city business but it was "a great surprise" that De La Fuente didn't appear and didn't let anyone know beforehand. De La Fuente couldn't be reached for comment.

Copyright © 2012 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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