6 21-0217 Subject: Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations
From: Council President Fortunato Bas And Councilmember Taylor
Recommendation: Approve A Report And Recommendations From The Reimagining Public Safety Task Force For The Council's Consideration Per Resolution No. 88269, Which Created The Reimagining Public Safety Task Force To Create A Plan To Dramatically Shift Resources From Enforcement And Punishment To Prevention And Wellness For Integration In The Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-23 Budget
Oakland needs to completely re-do its Mutual Aid agreements with police agencies like the over-militarized Alameda County Sheriffs that violate Oakland's policies re use of force and use of so-called 'less than lethal' weapons and tactics. The City Council should adopt Recommendation #4, supported by all 14 active members of the OPD Org & Culture Advisory Board and eight members of the RPS Task Force.
The idea behind #4 was to look at Mutual Aid agreements broadly—not just regarding crowd control or response to protests but other types of mutual aid for disaster response, health emergencies, etc that might require partnerships between the re-imagined OPD / Dept of Public Safety and other agencies to make sure Oakland's policies are followed by other agencies, audit how money is spent, and establish more formal mutual aid agreements with community orgs or agencies that are not police agencies.
I support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations. It has long been time to shift the inexcusable amount of funds that are funneled into OPD to resources that will actually better the community and keep Black and Brown folks safe. Move towards accountability and the betterment of Oakland.
Please stop attempting to defund, reallocate, or reimagine our police department any further while the violence soars all around you. OPD’s budget cuts were just restored from federal funds. Have you seen the police department’s report on the more than doubling of violent crime in the second half of 2020, or are you ignoring it? That’s not even counting the staggering increase in violent crime across the whole city so far this year! Rather than acknowledge the surging violence impacting all Oaklanders, here you are seeking to further limit our police. Shame on you for even allowing this item to remain on your meeting agenda today.
OPD’s staffing- at 711 sworn officers- is at the lowest it has been in 5 years, and they need overtime pay to cover the gap of officers. OPD already doesn’t have enough money, and the city is suffering! People are dying- sometimes multiple deaths in a 24-hour period. Now is the time to actually prioritize the safety of Oakland's IN THE PRESENT. The fewer resources our police department has, the less they are able to address VIOLENT crime NOW.
Oakland has become extremely dangerous, with Oaklanders being terrorized, robbed, carjacked, and murdered outside of their homes. If the city wants to expand social services beyond those already available through the county, then you must create those funds by deprioritizing other projects- not taking money away from our police right when we need them MOST.
PLEASE STOP- Oaklanders are dying TODAY.
Thank you.
As a District 4 resident of Oakland, I am voicing my full and heartfelt support for the recommendations put forth by the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. As a survivor, I know that police can't solve the problem of gender based violence, and that they actually put victims in further danger. Oakland needs to be accountable and make real investments in gender-based violence prevention by increasing funding (#74), response services (#72), and long term investment in MACRO (#57). This should be done in addition to expanding flexible funding for survivors of gender-based violence (#73). It is time to really invest in the needs of the community, and that can only happen with divestment from policing. Full stop. Also, community college is life changing and needs to be free for local residents (#81). I fully support the recommendations of the RPSTF.
Writing in from District 4 very concerned all the good work done in Reimagining Public Safety is going to get tossed and OPD will continue to be massively over funded instead of our city government addressing root causes and working to provide true community safety. Oakland doesn’t need more law enforcement, more police, more policing. What we need is more funding for housing, mental health services like MACRO and MHFirst, good jobs, education. Follow the Defund OPD Coalition's recs and the voices of the most impacted and shift the People's money to programs and services that build a just and compassionate Oakland. This is doable and now is the time.
I would like to know why the City doesn't consider alternatives such as street barriers/roundabout/pavement treatments to prevent sideshows. These alternatives are not difficult to implement since the City has constructed a few roundabouts in District 1 near the Rockrigde BART station, and street dieting. The City has made significant improvements in District 1 to calm traffic in residential neighborhoods but seems to not wanting to do anything for traffic problems in areas in District 6 despite the residents trying to contact City officials for so many times and for so long. The City keeps saying that it is evaluating "multi-pronged" approach to the sideshow problems, meanwhile, residents in these neighborhood have to deal with the terror the lawless individuals inflicted on them. We want to see concrete measures and instead of delay tactics.
I support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations and urge City Council to pass this reform. Now is the time for reform and accountability, and I believe that this Task Force is wholly capable of ensuring.
I also am commenting to fully support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations and call on City Council to pass the specific, actionable, and community-driven tactics outlined by the Task Force. Our City created this Task Force to do exactly what they have done - engage our community members and leaders exactly where they are, and generate intentional and evidence-backed policies that will advance EVERYONE'S safety. The report shows clear ways that OPD's incentives are NOT aligned with safety, but are aligned with maximizing their own gain, like overtime (#89) and traffic enforcement (#59). The Task Force has also leveraged clear research that proves school-site based violence prevention, investment in community workers, gender-based violence prevention, harm reduction services, community hotlines, and programs like MACRO all reduce episodes of violence and improve community health. It's important to act on recommendations that are built on this research rather than legacy and opinion. This is a pivotal moment to uphold the community-led Task Force approach and ensure Oakland implements and role models best practices for public safety.
As a resident of Oakland, I support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations and urge City Council to pass this essential reform. It's unfathomable to me that the City continue to fund a police force with such a disturbing legacy of murder and harm to people of color (page 10 through 12 of the Supplemental Report), and with nothing to show for efforts to reform internally except for $23 million in settlement payments. The comment below me speaks of people being afraid to leave their homes, but I'd also like to point out that Black people are still killed in their homes while sleeping in their beds, while driving, while going on a run, while just being children on the playground, BY POLICE. Community-based responses to public safety and investments in affordable housing, job training, civilian responders, mental health services-- those are what will actually improve safety.
It’s not clear how we will balance this with the very concerning spike in violent crime in our city. These recommendations haven’t even been finalized... yet we’ve already cut the budget from OPD. So what are we doing in the meantime to keep residents safe? We are AFRAID of leaving our houses. People are talking about arming themselves (terrifying). There’s a real problem that we must address while reimagining everyone’s safety.
Oakland needs to completely re-do its Mutual Aid agreements with police agencies like the over-militarized Alameda County Sheriffs that violate Oakland's policies re use of force and use of so-called 'less than lethal' weapons and tactics. The City Council should adopt Recommendation #4, supported by all 14 active members of the OPD Org & Culture Advisory Board and eight members of the RPS Task Force.
The idea behind #4 was to look at Mutual Aid agreements broadly—not just regarding crowd control or response to protests but other types of mutual aid for disaster response, health emergencies, etc that might require partnerships between the re-imagined OPD / Dept of Public Safety and other agencies to make sure Oakland's policies are followed by other agencies, audit how money is spent, and establish more formal mutual aid agreements with community orgs or agencies that are not police agencies.
( https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBgiowQMksUySkpcLUJZuQZQC75rjNOf8x3QOD9-SOM/edit[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBgiowQMksUySkpcLUJZuQZQC75rjNOf8x3QOD9-SOM/edit] )
I support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations. It has long been time to shift the inexcusable amount of funds that are funneled into OPD to resources that will actually better the community and keep Black and Brown folks safe. Move towards accountability and the betterment of Oakland.
Please stop attempting to defund, reallocate, or reimagine our police department any further while the violence soars all around you. OPD’s budget cuts were just restored from federal funds. Have you seen the police department’s report on the more than doubling of violent crime in the second half of 2020, or are you ignoring it? That’s not even counting the staggering increase in violent crime across the whole city so far this year! Rather than acknowledge the surging violence impacting all Oaklanders, here you are seeking to further limit our police. Shame on you for even allowing this item to remain on your meeting agenda today.
OPD’s staffing- at 711 sworn officers- is at the lowest it has been in 5 years, and they need overtime pay to cover the gap of officers. OPD already doesn’t have enough money, and the city is suffering! People are dying- sometimes multiple deaths in a 24-hour period. Now is the time to actually prioritize the safety of Oakland's IN THE PRESENT. The fewer resources our police department has, the less they are able to address VIOLENT crime NOW.
Oakland has become extremely dangerous, with Oaklanders being terrorized, robbed, carjacked, and murdered outside of their homes. If the city wants to expand social services beyond those already available through the county, then you must create those funds by deprioritizing other projects- not taking money away from our police right when we need them MOST.
PLEASE STOP- Oaklanders are dying TODAY.
Thank you.
As a District 4 resident of Oakland, I am voicing my full and heartfelt support for the recommendations put forth by the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. As a survivor, I know that police can't solve the problem of gender based violence, and that they actually put victims in further danger. Oakland needs to be accountable and make real investments in gender-based violence prevention by increasing funding (#74), response services (#72), and long term investment in MACRO (#57). This should be done in addition to expanding flexible funding for survivors of gender-based violence (#73). It is time to really invest in the needs of the community, and that can only happen with divestment from policing. Full stop. Also, community college is life changing and needs to be free for local residents (#81). I fully support the recommendations of the RPSTF.
Writing in from District 4 very concerned all the good work done in Reimagining Public Safety is going to get tossed and OPD will continue to be massively over funded instead of our city government addressing root causes and working to provide true community safety. Oakland doesn’t need more law enforcement, more police, more policing. What we need is more funding for housing, mental health services like MACRO and MHFirst, good jobs, education. Follow the Defund OPD Coalition's recs and the voices of the most impacted and shift the People's money to programs and services that build a just and compassionate Oakland. This is doable and now is the time.
I would like to know why the City doesn't consider alternatives such as street barriers/roundabout/pavement treatments to prevent sideshows. These alternatives are not difficult to implement since the City has constructed a few roundabouts in District 1 near the Rockrigde BART station, and street dieting. The City has made significant improvements in District 1 to calm traffic in residential neighborhoods but seems to not wanting to do anything for traffic problems in areas in District 6 despite the residents trying to contact City officials for so many times and for so long. The City keeps saying that it is evaluating "multi-pronged" approach to the sideshow problems, meanwhile, residents in these neighborhood have to deal with the terror the lawless individuals inflicted on them. We want to see concrete measures and instead of delay tactics.
I support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations and urge City Council to pass this reform. Now is the time for reform and accountability, and I believe that this Task Force is wholly capable of ensuring.
I also am commenting to fully support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations and call on City Council to pass the specific, actionable, and community-driven tactics outlined by the Task Force. Our City created this Task Force to do exactly what they have done - engage our community members and leaders exactly where they are, and generate intentional and evidence-backed policies that will advance EVERYONE'S safety. The report shows clear ways that OPD's incentives are NOT aligned with safety, but are aligned with maximizing their own gain, like overtime (#89) and traffic enforcement (#59). The Task Force has also leveraged clear research that proves school-site based violence prevention, investment in community workers, gender-based violence prevention, harm reduction services, community hotlines, and programs like MACRO all reduce episodes of violence and improve community health. It's important to act on recommendations that are built on this research rather than legacy and opinion. This is a pivotal moment to uphold the community-led Task Force approach and ensure Oakland implements and role models best practices for public safety.
As a resident of Oakland, I support the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Recommendations and urge City Council to pass this essential reform. It's unfathomable to me that the City continue to fund a police force with such a disturbing legacy of murder and harm to people of color (page 10 through 12 of the Supplemental Report), and with nothing to show for efforts to reform internally except for $23 million in settlement payments. The comment below me speaks of people being afraid to leave their homes, but I'd also like to point out that Black people are still killed in their homes while sleeping in their beds, while driving, while going on a run, while just being children on the playground, BY POLICE. Community-based responses to public safety and investments in affordable housing, job training, civilian responders, mental health services-- those are what will actually improve safety.
It’s not clear how we will balance this with the very concerning spike in violent crime in our city. These recommendations haven’t even been finalized... yet we’ve already cut the budget from OPD. So what are we doing in the meantime to keep residents safe? We are AFRAID of leaving our houses. People are talking about arming themselves (terrifying). There’s a real problem that we must address while reimagining everyone’s safety.