Yes, we know that times have changed. They have changed dramatically because we’re now in the “Information Age.” With the Internet, we’re able to find out anything about anything… immediately. With instant communications we’re able to do something about it immediately. Anything except what’s happening with respect to “public safety” in Oakland, that is.
Public Safety includes fire, ambulance, hospital and many other services, but we’re most immediately concerned about the police service. After all, Chief Batts says it’s “broken.” It must be obvious to him by now that it is broken largely because it has receded into the dark ages. Go to the official OaklandPolice.com website and look around. You will find that the last “Daily” Crime Analysis Report is dated November 23. The last “Annual” Management Reports were posted for 2007. The last “news” letter was posted in September of 2008. If you want to read the latest “OPD Press Releases” you will find the most recent one dated March 15, 2006. The last Organizational Chart is dated February 2007. If you look at the Resource Guide you will find the Beat Health Unit that was unfortunately abandoned over three years ago is still listed.
We might recall that the nuclear tenet for “Geographic Policing” was to be “real time information.” Any comprehensive strategy has to include two parts: (1) How much crime, where and when; (2) How many cops, where and when. Sadly, the variables are unknown, as is the equation itself.
Yes, we will undoubtedly hear, as we’ve heard over and over, wrongly, that the OPD is severely “understaffed.” Of course this is coming at a time period when the OPD has been staffed at record high numbers. In years past when the OPD was staffed with one hundred fewer officers (and less), it handled many more calls for service. It had a Planning and Research Division staffed with a dozen personnel. It had a Crime Analysis Section staffed with more than a dozen people. It had a nationally renowned specialized Beat Health Unit shutting down blighted conditions regularly throughout the City. It had a Training Division staffed to run simultaneous Academies. It had more OPD cops working in critical support assignments (since replaced by civilians). It had regular cops working regular beats at regular hours around the clock. It had many more fully trained investigators (Sergeants and “Inspectors”). It had sworn cops working as Technicians (field CSI) around the clock. It had a dedicated Vice Control “Division.” It had Wagon Transportation Officers working around the clock. It had a fully functioning Jail with sworn command and supervisors. This, and more, have all been stripped today.
So what is the difference today? We have many more cops for one thing. Each car is equipped with over $25,000 worth of sophisticated equipment today. The Dispatch Center has many more people and it has moved from headquarters to a large separate facility. There are computers everywhere now. There are now sophisticated multiple radio communications capabilities and hundreds of cell phones. Oakland spends much more on its police department (per capita) than San Jose, Long Beach, or most large cities. The OPD now has the largest stand alone police facility in the state at Eastmont. Let’s not forget that we now also have the Internet. [Saving the NSA for another essay…]
So why do we now have the highest daily violent crime rate in history?? What? We are getting reports that the crime rate is down in Oakland? Look again, a little more carefully. Forget the “property crimes,” as they are unreported, misreported, and under-reported at record levels. Look at the “Violent” Part I crimes. These are the ones that most affect our lives. There are four categories of them, and in the aggregate there are more of them occurring every day than any time in the past forty years of Oakland’s recorded crime history.
If we don’t have the information, how can we find the solutions? The OPD, with much fanfare, went to “Geographic Policing” over a year ago, which was nothing more than capriciously assigning brand new Captains to be Chiefs in a city arbitrarily divided into thirds. They were unsupported, lacked information, and ridiculously “held accountable.” The OPD cops were taken off regular beat assignments and became lost in “absentee factors” and “cross beat dispatching.” Cops were rescheduled to work arduous 12-hour shifts in a convoluted matrix of Alice in Wonderland reporting times. Cohesiveness was lost. Fragmentation and ad hoc responses became the order of every day. The citizens received a de facto second police department (Measure Y) that didn’t work either. There has been no coordinated comprehensive system of information and no brain center to process it, and thus the OPD has indeed become broken.
If you will recall, when I was selected to be the Mayor’s Public Safety Director over two years ago, the OPD Chief and I were in a (final) closed door interview with the Mayor. In discussing the “reorganization” of OPD the Chief said that “…we have to break eggs to make omelets.” I said, “…we must first turn on the lights in the kitchen.” I don’t blame the Mayor for choosing to make omelets with the Chief, but the lights are still out in the kitchen.
I should like very much to make a final comment. The staff at OPD, including all personnel, is an incredible lot. They are brighter and more educated than ever before. They are dedicated and devoted. They are incredibly loyal. While their morale has been ignored and dismissed, their esprit is astounding. There is a heritage saying that “There is only one Chief of Police.” Let’s hope that Chief Batts can restore what our cops want most – efficiency.
ronoz |
