Confronted with a wave of violent crime that has rocked Oakland this year, Mayor Libby Schaaf on Tuesday issued a plea to Gov. Gavin Newsom for elevated state help and collaboration in efforts to catch criminals on metropolis streets and highways.
Citing Oakland’s excessive crime charges, Schaaf wrote a letter to Newsom, asking him to deploy license plate readers on state freeway on- and off-ramps, improve California Freeway Patrol’s presence on Oakland’s state highways and have the CHP’s Retail Theft Activity Drive put a highlight on the recent caravan robberies in the area.
There have been at the very least 120 homicides in Oakland to this point this 12 months, up 20% since this time final 12 months, based on Oakland police knowledge. A further 11 killings have been deemed to be in self-defense, unintended, in any other case non-criminal or the precise reason for demise remained unconfirmed. Carjacking robberies are up 77% since final 12 months and armed robberies are up 46%, Schaaf stated.
In her letter, Schaaf asserted that individuals who commit violent crimes typically use stolen automobiles or automobiles with license plates taken from different vehicles, lots of them driving on Oakland streets and highways to get across the metropolis.
“The necessity for a system that may seize automobile descriptions and alert regulation enforcement to automobiles related to violent crime, in actual time, has by no means been extra obvious,” Schaaf wrote. “Such expertise can multiply regulation enforcement efforts in a targeted, intelligence-based method, whereas nonetheless balancing the necessary privateness pursuits of the neighborhood.”
Schaaf’s attraction comes every week after the Oakland Metropolis Council voted to approve two new police academies and to rent an expert recruiter to draw skilled law enforcement officials to town. The Oakland Police Division has struggled to stem crime within the metropolis, officers have stated, partially as a result of dwindling ranks of sworn officers.
By early December, the division had simply 676 officers — the bottom degree in additional than a decade, Schaaf stated, and the primary time it fell under the minimal 678 officers required by a 2014 voter-approved tax measure.
Car-recognition cameras on state highways in Oakland may assist native regulation enforcement businesses establish suspect automobiles extra shortly, Schaaf stated, nothing that different municipalities across the Bay Space have already began utilizing related expertise.
Schaaf additionally requested Newsom for “as a lot CHP presence and visitors enforcement as doable in Oakland” to assist stop crimes such because the recent caravan robberies of pharmacies, hashish dispensaries and different shops.
“We’re happy to take part within the CHP’s Retail Theft Activity Drive and want to obtain its consideration on the current (robberies),” Schaaf wrote.
“Higher coordination of our intelligence-gathering and investigations may assist stop future crimes and hurt.”
Andy Picon is a San Francisco Chronicle employees author. E-mail: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon
