The City of Oakland is unique among California cities because it is poised on a knife’s edge, its immense promise balanced by a powerful undertow

“My Word” Op Ed

Published in the Oakland Tribune March 2003

Saving Oakland

The City of Oakland is unique among California cities because it is poised on a knife’s edge, its immense promise balanced by a powerful undertow. Will this year be remembered as a time of creative renewal, or the beginning of a downward spiral? The biggest part of the answer depends on the men and women of OPD, and whether they continue to get the resources needed to do a difficult job. Chief Word and his department have done very well, given staffing levels much lower than really needed during a time of growing crime. More not fewer resources are urgently needed.

During 2002, the city of Oakland achieved a homicide rate just under 28 per 100,000, or more than twice the highest homicide rate ever recorded for the state as a whole. Police sources confirm that most of these homicides are being committed by thousands of prison parolees released from state prison to live in Oakland. An even more telling analysis emerges from Attorney general Bill Lockyer’s preliminary report, just released, comparing state crime statistics for the first six months of 2001 against the same period in 2002. California crime, as a whole, increased 7.5% for that period, while Oakland’s increased 28.1% using the same index. The Los Angeles increase was only 5.6%. Yes, Oakland’s murder rate has been even higher in the past (140 in 1997, for example), but if the present trend continues, dismal new records will soon be set. And there will be economic consequences.

As the city faces its worst budget squeeze in decades, there is talk of “sharing the pain” by spreading the cutbacks equally to the police department. Already, an immediate funding crisis has led to curtailment of OPD overtime. But measures that reduce the number of police officer hours on the street will come at an unacceptable social cost. Crime responds primarily to the pressure of aggressive, competent, professional law enforcement, visible on the street, trained to notice signs of criminal activity, and quick to respond. City after city has learned (or failed to learn) the hard lesson: Wherever you reduce the effective police presence, criminal activity soon increases. For all the discussion about New York’s success in restoring safer streets in Manhattan, one indisputable fact stands out: They added more cops. From 1997 through 2001, NYPD’s upward budget curve almost mirrored the downward curve in major felony crimes reported.

All the energy, purpose and progress of the last few years could vanish like the dot com bubble if Oakland fails to dramatically curb the current outbreak of murder, gunfire and other violence.

There is still time to think outside the box and to make difficult but necessary steps in the right direction. Some thoughts: (1) Part of the tax increases contained in the 100 cops initiative could be resurrected in a new election campaign designed to prevent cutbacks in vital public safety personnel. These taxes would contain a two year sunset. (2) If United Air pilots can agree to pay cuts, the police union can agree to a temporary replacement of over time by unpaid comp time, on a volunteer and as-approved basis, convertible to vacation when fiscal conditions improve. (3) Meanwhile, homicide investigators should be exempt from all overtime restrictions.

Cutting even one effective, unformed beat officer position from the force would be the wrong choice at the wrong time in the wrong city. Deeper cuts, still, could prove to be a catastrophe.

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Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law