I urge the council to defund the police department by 50% and approve the Report and Recommendations from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. I urge the council to implement the recommendations from the Reimaging Public Safety Task Force, especially those recommended by the Defund Police Coalition.

On behalf of Coalition for Police Accountabliity, we are in support, among others, of the #89 recommendation to cap OPD overtime. And moving #s 49/54/55 on Data Transparency Phase One from Phase 2. The city spent more than $35 million on police overtime in 2020, enabling over 100 officers to more than double their base salaries and putting total police personnel costs well above $250 million.It’s time to cap OPD overtime for reasons of both cost overruns and public safety.  Oakland Police Department exceeded its budget by $32 million over the last fiscal year, including more than $19 million in overtime that was not budgeted. This can’t continue. Further, Oakland Police Department’s operational data is critical to making decisions about alternative allocations and departmental effectiveness relative to budget. Data transparency for the public needs to be enacted immediately, not put off to Phase II of the task force recommendations as it presently is. This is basic public information that is absolutely essential to managing overall public safety and making appropriate decisions moving forward.

I am a longtime Oakland resident, living in D2. As a faith leader, I am a co-signer of the Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy letter, and strongly endorse the proposal put forward by Anti Police-Terror Project and the Defund Police Coalition. It is long past time to REFUND local communities, RESTORE dignity, and RE-IMAGINE public safety. Redirecting 50% of the current OPD budget is a crucial step, but must be accompanied by a transformation in the values and culture that underlie the institution of policing. The path forward must include meaningful community-driven policy changes that will ensure accountable action to protect and support BIPOC community members, unhoused community members, immigrants, people with mental health needs, and others who have been disproportionately harmed by status quo policing. This is an opportune moment to move our city in a new and promising direction!

My name is Angela Noel. I’m a member of Faith in Action East Bay and Imani Church. I’m speaking to items #2 & S4 to remind the Council of the upcoming budget’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s a chance to open closed doors, attend to long ignored problems, served the unserved—all of which brings safety and healing to every single Oaklander. That said, give priority to the following while you’re Reimagining AND BUILDING Public Safety:
- NUMBER ONE IS CEASEFIRE: a data-driven, EVIDENCE-BASED PROGRAM THAT HAS DEMONSTRATED SUCCESS IN REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE IN OUR CITY. Make SURE Ceasefire has ALL the funds it needs for continued success. This issue is spoken to in recommendation #149.
- About MACRO (#57), I have 4 words: Invest Long-term. Implement. Now.
- FINALLY, PRIORITIZE RECOMMENDATION #122 & safeguard our most vulnerable youth. Prioritize restorative & transformative wrap-around hubs, for instance; housing, & other essential youth-focused investments.
REMEMBER: Ceasefire, MACRO, wrap around hubs for youth!

During the RPSTF process, the Youth Advisory Board heard from hundreds of Oakland youth who wanted elected officials to invest in youth and alternative responses to police. This means refunding and prioritizing early intervention, housing, mental health and substance use counseling, school safety, restorative justice, gender based violence prevention, job and career pathways, and most importantly youth leadership engagement opportunities.

I urge the Council to support the resolution put forth by Council President Bas and Councilmember Fife to remove 50% of the police budget and to refund our community. I support all RPSTF recommendations investing in youth programming and services as well as all recommendations developed to address root causes and create alternative responses to Police.

I also recommend the council to move recommendations #122 and #109 to Phase 1 to increase investment in youth leadership and to create school-site based violence prevention and crisis intervention teams.

I care deeply that the city of Oakland invests in the future of youth now by supporting the Task Force’s recommendations; it is vital to increasing safety for youth and our entire community.

Thank you in advance for your support and continued leadership in ensuring that Oakland’s youth are prioritized and invested in.

In community spirit,

Jamela Joseph, D6 Resident
Alameda County Director, Fresh Lifelines for Youth
Facilitator, RPSTF Youth Advisory Board

I am writing as a resident of District 1 to express my strong support the shifting of resources from OPD to other departments in Oakland to better support and uplift our community. The police department has taken hold of the city's budget and left all other aspects of Oakland under resourced. Enforcement and criminalization should never be a cities priority. hope Oakland shifts its fund to support it's residents and not put more law enforcement on the streets with costly military grade equipment that we frankly do not need.

Item149, Prioritize funding violence prevention strategies, eg. Ceasefire. Ceasefire is a violence prevention program that works.
There is data to show the power in this program that looks at the complete picture of the gun violence.
It recognized that our entire community is affected in every occurrence.
Continue to value, encourage and provide needed support to our families and cultures that are victims of gun violence. They become victims of societal and financial hardships as a result of the gun violence.
Please continue to support Ceasefire and use the specific program name in your violence prevention designation allocations.

Patty Hall, District 6, Faith in Action East Bay

My name is Liz Jacobs. I am a 68 year old woman who has lived in Oakland for 42 years both as a renter and a homeowner. I urge the City Council to approve the resolution by Councilmember Fife and co-sponsored by Council President Bas. The resolution prioritizes a select number of recommendations from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force for Council to integrate in the FY 2021-23 budget.

I have witnessed a dramatic increase in unnecessary police involvement focused primarily on people of color in our community. OPD on the scene quickly escalates an incident more often than not resulting in a violent outcome, whether it be a simple traffic stop or a response to a 911 call. The recent untimely deaths of Stephon Clark and Mario Gonzalez, has brought us to this moment-where together elected officials and community groups are redefining public safety in Oakland and throughout the nation.

I was appalled to learn that Oakland has one of the most expensive police departments in the nation at $330,000,000. We can’t afford to spend 44% of the City’s general purpose fund (22% of the City’s overall budget) on OPD at the expense of libraries, parks, infrastructure, youth services, healthcare for all, affordable housing, et al. These recommendations address the root causes of the problem and redefines what it means to be safe, now funding needs to be allocated to make this a reality.

We can do this Oakland. The time to make our great City a national model is here and now.

My name is Kate Sadowsky and I'm a resident of Oakland, District 5. I am in favor of the recommendations put forward by the Reimagining Public safety task force. OPD has become the catch-all for a myriad of community issues that are not well-solved - and often exacerbated - by police presence and protocols. I strongly support investing in alternatives to law enforcement for mental health crises and other emergencies, capping OPD overtime, moving 911 calls out of OPD, moving traffic enforcement out of OPD, adequately funding gender-based violence prevention/response/survivor support services, decriminalizing sex work and homelessness and expanding harm reduction programs, and funding street teams and violence interrupters in community and in schools, and expanding restorative and transformative justice programs.

I'm a resident of Oakland, writing to strongly urge the Council to follow all of the Reimagining Taskforce recommendations.

I support the recommendations put forward by APTP and the Defund Police Coalition. They provide a roadmap for transforming public safety in Oakland by: investing in alternatives to law enforcement for mental health crises and other emergencies; moving 911 calls out of OPD; adequately funding gender-based violence prevention, response and survivor support services; decriminalizing sex work and homelessness and expanding harm reduction programs; funding street teams and violence interrupters in community and in schools; moving traffic enforcement out of OPD; expanding restorative and transformative justice programs; capping OPD overtime; and eliminating wasteful spending on stuff like OPD’s mounted horse unit, BearCat armored vehicle, and burglary alarm dispatch.

I'm sick of hearing about Black & Brown people & folks experiencing mental health crisis' being killed by police, when there is an extremely thoughtful solution being offered. Prosecuting one cop at a time and infusing more money into our broken policing system is NOT the answer. Please do as you've been asked by the people that elected you and defund the OPD and reinvest in services that actually keep us all safe.

As an Oakland Resident, I urge the Council to act in support f the recommendations put forward by the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. They provide a roadmap for transforming public safety in Oakland by: investing in alternatives to law enforcement for mental health crises and other emergencies; moving 911 calls out of OPD; adequately funding gender-based violence prevention, response and survivor support services; decriminalizing sex work and homelessness and expanding harm reduction programs; funding street teams and violence interrupters in community and in schools; moving traffic enforcement out of OPD; expanding restorative and transformative justice programs; capping OPD overtime; and eliminating wasteful spending on things like OPD’s mounted horse unit, BearCat armored vehicle, and burglary alarm dispatch. The City should trust the experts from our communities on how to reimagine public safety and reinvest in services that actually keep us safe. The safest communities have the most RESOURCES, not the most cops.

Thank you for your time,
Caitlin Lardaro, District 3

I urge the Council to not only shift resources from OPD to non-law enforcement responses but to address the OPD culture and officer behavior as Tier 1, Phase 1 effort during FY20-21. Not doing so is dealing with only half of the problem. There will still be an OPD. I want to raise up recommendation 41 to Reorganize the internal structure of OPD. One must dig deeper to discover that this proposal would create a more equitable OPD response. It would create an office of Race, Trust Building, Equity and Career Development to address the internal culture of OPD. Chief Armstrong has already made moves in this direction by creating the Violent Crime Operation Center and creating two trust building officers. Much more needs to be done and the City Council needs to be involved in this effort.

As an Oakland resident, parent and homeowner, I write to strongly urge the council to approve the recommendations of the Reimagine Public Safety Task Force. For too long, we have overinvested in policing while systematically disinvesting in the effective intervention and supportive services that we truly need to keep our community safe. I write this not only as a mother and concerned community member, but also as the victim of an attempted home invasion a few years ago by a person who was clearly unwell and whom our public institutions had failed. I would have much preferred to be able to call mental health services to provide support rather than armed police. In addition, after the crime, I looked in vain for healing centered support services that just didn't exist. The current system of policing does not work and causes irreparable harm to our communities. It is time for the council to take the bold step of reimagining public safety and funding the racially just public safety solutions in this report. - Angelica Jongco, D2

I am an Oakland resident writing to join the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) and the Defund Police Coalition’s call to refund and reinvest in a stronger and safer Oakland by defunding the Oakland Police Department by 50%.

I live in Korea Town Northgate. I see mental health crisis and drug crisis almost every day. We try and help those we can, but my friends and neighbors need more than we can give. They definitely don't need the police.

We need to make long term investments in MACRO, we need to repeal laws criminalizing homelessness and poverty, we need restorative justice, we need better outreach and support for the homeless, and we need to to invest in community workers and violence interrupters.... among many other things.

Please implement the recommendations of the Reimagining Public Safety Task force and reallocate funding from the police to support these urgent and pressing needs.

The Brotherhood of Elders Network and the African American Response Circle (AARC) applaud the comprehensive nature of the Taskforce’s work, and its attempts to address the need for both a radical reduction in the footprint of the OPD as well as transform the Department that remains. There are significant challenges to the implementation of recommendations to divest the OPD of some of its existing functions, namely, the current Memorandum of Understanding with the OPOA, and Measure Z’s minimum sworn officer staffing requirements. We agree with RIPSTF recommendations 44/51/106 and 91, and strongly encourages the Council to prioritize eliminating these barriers to reform through proactive, intentional, and creative efforts evidencing a commitment to success.
The RIPSTF report doesn’t address the savings from the reallocation of existing OPD functions to other agencies. All funds generated from reductions must be invested in alternative services. Without a clear understanding of the savings that will be generated, it will be extremely difficult for the public to hold the City accountable for ensuring that these savings are not used to plug general fund deficits, or for other non-alternatives to policing purposes. We urge the Council to commit to investing 100 percent of the savings realized from reductions in OPD’s scope in alternatives to policing.
The Council should immediately move to establish the Committee, as outlined in recommendation 47.

Writing from District 5 to support shifting funding from OPD to community resources. We need programs that support our youth and communities. We need restorative justice, opportunities for success, and community responses to our issues. OPD is not making us safer. They are not experts in housing, mental health, or prevention. Economically speaking, OPD is not cost-effective. They are a poor investment for our future.

I write as a resident of Oakland’s District 1 and member of Faith in Action East Bay (FIAEB, formerly OCO). I fully support the report on “Reimagining Public Safety” and hope the Council will approve it unanimously.
I especially support the priorities of the Coalition for Police Accountability, and within that list, #149, focused on violence prevention and, in particular, effective intervention services focused on people who are at the very  highest risk of gun violence based upon data and evidence. Ceasefire is just such a program. Its data-driven focus on those few residents who are involved in gun violence has proven effective over nearly a decade by cutting gun deaths in half. It deserves guaranteed support now and into the future.
I commend my councilmember, Dan Kalb, for making Ceasefire funding a top budget priority.

Respectfully,
Myrna Schwartz

Writing in as a longtime resident of District 4 - everything I've experienced as a former healthcare worker for 30 years at an Oakland hospital, a parent of 3, a neighbor, someone who has (as well as members of my family) experienced violence (including in my son's case from OPD) and witnessing the violence OPD has inflicted over time has taught me that the police cause great harm and that we need to get money away from them, decrease their interactions with Oaklanders, and prioritize and resource healing and human needs. I strongly support the recommendations put forward by APTP and the Defund Police Coalition, who provide a roadmap for transformation in Oakland by: investing in alternatives to law enforcement for mental health crises and other emergencies; moving 911 calls out of OPD; adequately funding gender-based violence prevention, response and survivor support services; decriminalizing sex work and homelessness and expanding harm reduction programs; funding street teams and violence interrupters in community and in schools; moving traffic enforcement out of OPD; expanding restorative and transformative justice programs; capping OPD overtime; and eliminating wasteful spending. We must, we have to, end the state violence against Black and Brown people in Oakland by reallocating police resources to much-needed community programs. The City should trust the experts from our communities on how to reimagine public safety and reinvest in services that actually keep us safe.

I’m in strong support of several recommendations with the priority three recommendations being: 1) #149 - Prioritize funding violence prevention strategies specifically Ceasefire, 2) #122 - Increase investment in Oakland Youth Advisory Commission & Oakland Police and Community Youth Leadership Council, and 3) #57 Long term investment in MACRO. I’m especially concerned that Ceasefire was not mentioned in the recommendations and want to highlight that the city is in a crisis situation with the increase of gun violence concurrent with the pandemic and we can’t afford to diminish the successful Ceasefire work prior to 2020. While everyone may not agree with the full Ceasefire model, however, I have yet since a report that clearly outshines the collaborative work of the Ceasefire model that was the kickoff to reimagining Public Safety in Oakland with the charge being led by community organizations such as Faith in Action East Bay (formerly OCO) who continues to be in the forefront of this work. It is imperative that Ceasefire remains fully funded at the level necessary to effectively address gun violence in Oakland and ensure connecting wrap around services for victims and families are also include in prioritized funding (immediate and long-term assistance.)
Other support recommendations: #’s 8, 31/84, 38/43, 69, 105, 107, 144

Terri McWilliams, D6 resident
Faith in Action East Bay leader and member of Imani Community Church, Coalition for Police Accountability

I am in strong support of recommendation #59. OPD should not be conducting pretextual traffic stops. They are a danger to Oakland residents, and do not make our streets safer.