Frustrated Residents ask for milestones, specifics at Rockridge NCPC meet

At tonight's Rockridge Neighborhood Crime Prevention Committee (NCPC) meeting, residents of Oakland Police Department beats 12y/13x welcomed Area 1 Captain Toribio, but also asked tough questions and expressed a variety of frustrations. Toribio introduced himself, then discussed the rationale behind OPD's new geographic policing strategy and what his strategies will be moving forward. Many times during the meeting, he mentioned the chicken-and-egg difficulties of staffing up by training new officers, while simultaneously reacting to widespread crime with a small, inadequate police force.

The general tone of the meeting was widespread frustration by residents, much of the same on the part of the professional but overworked ("chasing the radio, call to call") OPD, and a vague sense for a hoped for surge in recruitment, but resignation to more of the same social environment for the near term. At the very least however, residents learned about the new Area Captain's priorities, experience, and met half a dozen of their local force.

During a question and answer session following Captain Toribio's talk, many residents expressed frustration with local Councilwoman Brunner, Mayor Dellums, and even OPD for not addressing crime sufficiently, including OPD staffing issues. Some residents asked about specifics such as when truant and quality of life "sweeps" would begin; others asked about when the beaten down OPD would begin recruiting more bodies to the force.

One resident stood up and pointedly asked the Captain why her area, beat 13x--far up the hill-- was not patrolled anymore, and why the non-emergency reporting line had a confusing and long phone menu. She and her neighbors have spent money out of pocket for Bay Alarm, a private company, to do patrols. Recently, the work-at-home mom spied two youth soliciting door-to-door at homes on her street without security signage, asking for a "chaperone to London". She pointed out the two boys to Bay Alarm's staff, who escorted them off the street but could not do anything further. In contrast to the OPD's long wait times, Bay Alarm's patrol is able to respond in 15 minutes or less.

Toribio replied more or less apologetically but honestly, that he simply did not have enough staff on hand. He recalled that during the late 1980's, "police assigned to the hill could not leave the hill because the Deputy Chief of Police's house was there." However, he repeated that these are challenging times to be a police officer in Oakland, because OPD is understaffed, among other reasons. Toribio also implied that due to expanded regulations and reporting, the police have their hands tied up with paperwork and threats of legal action.

The meeting was long; I was surprised that so many officers showed up and that they still want to work in Oakland. Captain Toribio seemed to say that the department had a resource problem -- cars with 80,000, 100,000 miles on them or more, although a fleet is slowly being renewed with fresh vehicles; dilapidated radio sets; not enough staffing. At the same time he said that OPD did not have a money problem, but a human resources problem -- hiring and retaining enough skilled policemen and women.

It's hard to say what the biggest problem is, and of course having adequate police doesn't make poverty go away, but it's safe to say that Oakland will not be seeing more jobs created until the social environment is much, much safer. Oakland is currently the nation's fourth most dangerous city, according to FBI statistics.

Further, "Oakland had the highest rate of violent crime of any large city in California last year – 190.5 incidents for every 10,000 people, according to a Times analysis of recently released FBI data. That's nearly 2 1/2 times the rate in Los Angeles." (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 11, 2007)

To sum things up, OPD needs our help. Whether a foundation for businesses and residents to join to give more money to police, to a family and friends of Oakland recruiting effort to recruit good police officer candidates. Politicians don't lead, they follow. We need to be the change we want to see in Oakland.

-- IMBY