My name is Carla Peña and i live in district 4.
Defund OPD and invest in social services, healthcare, and housing–including extending the Eviction Moratorium throughout Oakland's declared State of Emergency.
Oakland residents from the most impacted communities should be appointed to lead the process of defunding.

I am a District 2 resident in strong support of these budget amendments from Kaplan and Bas. This is a good start to defunding OPD and reinvesting those funds in the community. Let's redirect these funds to housing, healthcare, covid testing, mental health support, community response teams like MH 1st in Sacramento, restorative justice programs, schools and youth programs, and food security.

In response to Note F (civilianizing traffic enforcement), please do not implement any types of enhanced automated types of enforcement (more cameras, surveillance, etc).

In response to Note G, yes, please continue advocating to divert funding from incarceration to community needs in both Oakland and Alameda County. We know that police and sheriffs' departments do not keep us safe. We need Alameda County to step up and immediately divert at least half of their budget to housing & public health.

I am a district 5 resident, I have lived in Oakland my entire life and my family has lived in Fruitvale for over 130 years. I support this resolution as a first step but I do not see it as a solution in and of itself to Oakland's policing problem. OPD has proven itself unable to be reformed many times over and has demonstrated that as a department it is deeply corrupt. Highly publicized cases of misconduct by OPD, like the Oakland "Riders" terrorizing West Oakland Residents in the 90s or covering up the rape of a minor by officers in 2016, are examples of this. It is alarming to think of how many crimes Oakland Police officers have committed that never reached the public eye, because of the active cover ups that occur within the department--often with the help of higher ups like former chief Sean Whent. The department must be completely dissolved. The $330 million budget should be reallocated to community services which prevent crimes from happening in the first place, like affordable housing, youth programs, and job creation. Furthermore, OPD should be shifted away from non-violent calls as quickly as possible. Sending armed officers to deal with calls related to mental health, homelessness, and the like too often result in violence. Other departments trained specifically for these issues should be the ones to respond. Ultimately the most resources must be rededicated to those communities most oppressed by policing: people of color, LGBTQ+, the houseless, and immigrants.

Defund OPD by 50%. The only reason I am supporting the proposal to gradually move to 50% by next year's plan is because APTP has been so hands on in ensuring that we actually get there and redistribute the money back to the community.
- Defund by $150 million
- redistribute this money into community resources (housing, jobs, education, food, youth programs, support of local black and brown owned businesses) and crisis management teams that do not involve the police in addressing emergencies

I'm a district 4 resident and have lived in Oakland for more than a decade. Thank you to the City Council for listening to the community, which has been actively engaged in attending and commenting at City Council meetings asking for a budget that better reflects the priorities of the community. I support Councilmember Bas and Councilmember Kaplans' budget amendment to reduce funding for OPD and reinvest funds in the community. In addition, please include community stakeholders in the planning process for future OPD budget reductions. Those who have been most affected by overpolicing and police violence should be an integral part of any budget discussions.

My name is Aislinn Sterling and I live in District 1. I'm writing to emphatically support drastically defunding the OPD and reinvesting in meaningful community safety and wellness through employment opportunities, healthcare, affordable housing, mental health and addiction services, education, and youth programs.

I support this measure. The city of Oakland must put money into the community, not into criminalizing its residents. We need non-police options for emergency support, and a rolling back of unnecessary laws which criminalize the most vulnerable in our community, such as the current proposal around pedestrian and bicycling arrests. I further advocate that the City Council be an example for other cities by radically cutting the OPD budget and removing heavily militarized equipment, and making community members who have been directly impacted by police violence central to the discussion. We must defund the OPD by at least 50%. The people of Oakland cannot wait. With the exploding Covid-19 pandemic, we need support more than ever. Oakland has the opportunity to come out of this time of crisis stronger, and that will only happen by keeping our tax dollars in the community (i.e. not paying police salaries when they live out of the city), and supporting the actual residents of our city through services that directly improve the quality of life of our residents. This includes funding educations, deeply affordable housing, mental health services, non-police crisis response teams, employment programs, and youth services. We must show up for our communities and show them care. Defund the OPD.

As a D3 resident, I strongly support this budget amendment to cut an additional $11.4 million from OPD. As an attorney working with unhoused and very low income people in the area, I've seen the harm that OPD causes. I support defunding OPD by at least 50% and reinvesting resources in education, deeply affordable housing, mental health services, non-police crisis response teams, education, employment programs, and youth services. We need to make sure Black lives truly matter in the community by ensuring that all hotels are utilized to house unhoused neighbors and doing so immediately.

Hello, my name is Cheuk-Ning and I work in District 2 (Chinatown). I support CMs Bas and Kaplan's new budget proposal. Thank you to CM Kaplan for revisiting your vote, and CM Bas for your continued leadership in this work!

I support defunding OPD by *at least* 50% and resourcing community-led steps towards true justice and safety for our communities that don't dispose of anyone regardless of their background, class, etc. status. This is how we treat NO lives as disposable, and begin to walk the talk of Black Lives Matter. We need to cut funding to police; this includes the endless trainings/reform we've tried time and time again, and which have failed to lead to progress in our vision for restorative justice. It is more crucial than ever to address incoming budget deficits, and defunding OPD is the most feasible way to resource our communities for the Just Transition Recovery we'll need in the coming year(s).

In conclusion: policing eats up half our city budget and curtails our imagination about how to respond to the affordability housing crisis. In fact, policing and evictions are a public health crisis! I welcome the opportunity for an equitable and just budget that this pandemic and the continued work of Black and Brown organizers have created the conditions for, and I hope that the rest of Oakland's councilmembers see this as a step toward justice we can take NOW. Thank you.

I support the reduction of OPD budget by 50% and reallocate those funds to housing, youth services and health care measures.

I support the general aims of this budget in terms of reducing OPD funding but it does not go far enough. We must do more to reallocate funding to the programs like housing, education, libraries, disability services, and healthcare than provide genuine safety for Oakland residents.

I'm a resident in district 5. I strongly support reallocating money from the OPD budget toward housing, jobs, health care/mental health services, youth services, education, harm-reduction and other community-driven initiatives that directly help vulnerable populations rather than criminalizing them. There has been far too much of a budget granted to policing, and it's time for the money to be redistributed to other services.

I am a resident of Oakland district 2. I urge Oakland City Council DEFUND OPD and REINVEST in community by adopting Council member Bas and Council member Kaplan's Budget Amendment.
OPD takes almost HALF of Oakland's general fund each year consuming desperately needed resources. OPD takes almost HALF of Oakland's general fund each year consuming desperately needed resources.
According to the Interim Chief’s Report to the Police Commission, 67% of OPD calls for service and officer initiated incidents DO NOT involve physical violence, weapons, threats to safety, or even threats to personal property. So there is plenty of places to start cutting the police budget and reinvesting in the community

Resident of D3, I urge my councilperson and all other councilpeople to support the amendment submitted by Councilperson Bas to reduce OPD's budget by 50% over the next two years, and to redirect that money into community, safety, social, and education programs that are actually effective at reducing crime in the long run.

Hello, I'm a resident in D3, and I strongly support this budget amendment to cut an additional $11.4 million from the OPD budget. As someone who works with community members who are unhoused and targeted by OPD routinely, I've seen the trauma and physical harm that OPD commits on a daily basis. OPD is a threat and liability to our city. I support defunding OPD by at least 50% and reinvesting resources in affordable housing, mental health services, non-police crisis response teams, education, employment programs, and youth services. Criminalizing residents and relying on the police does not solve the root problems of poverty, mental illness, and addiction in our community but rather perpetuates violence.

I'm a long-time resident and voter from D1. I support defunding OPD by at least 50% and instead funding things that will actually benefit the city and its people: housing, public education, infrastructure, the arts, parks and libraries, healthcare.

I have seen the funding for OPD increase the past few decades, with no corresponding increase in safety or quality of life for residents. However investing in housing/healthcare/parks/libraries does connect to improving the quality of life here, so let's move our city in that positive direction.

Remember: safer places have more resources for residents, not more cops!

I Strongly support budget amendment to cut an additional $11.4M from OPD. This funding needs to go back into the community with public services, housing, healthcare, and the well-being of the community.

I'm a District 3 resident and healthcare worker. I strongly support the budget amendments from Council President Kaplan and Councilmember Bas to defund OPD and reinvest those funds in the community.

I support defunding OPD by at least 50% ($150 million) and reallocating these funds.
I demand the end of unauthorized overtime for OPD.
I demand that fines and damages levied against OPD for unlawful actions be paid from their budget and not the city's general fund
I demand that the money removed from the OPD budget be reallocated toward housing, jobs, health care/mental health services, youth services, education, harm-reduction and other community-driven initiatives that directly help vulnerable populations rather than criminalizing them.

As a healthcare worker, I have seen firsthand how OPD directly harms the most vulnerable residents of our city- especially Black and Brown residents- and how housing, healthcare and education support the well-being of our community. Please, council members, support this budget amendment, divest from OPD and reinvest in the health of our city!

It is time to reallocate money from the OPD to reinvestment in the community. These are desperately needed resources for housing, parks, libraries, and other vital services. OPD has not made the community safer, but instead they threaten the livelihood of Oakland's Black and Brown communities. Adopt Councilmember Bas and Councilmember Kaplan's Budget Amendment!

OPD has been ridiculously overfunded for way too long. They have shown to be very abusive of their power during these protests and throughout their own history as a police department. The unnecassary funding they get can go to communities, schools, housing for the less fortunate, mental health resources and so much more. As a lifelong Oakland resident it is frustrating to see my city struggling because a lot of our funding goes to police who are very abusive of their power