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Looking for fresh ideas to solve Oakland’s growing crime problem, Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Howard Jordan announced Thursday that they’re turning to two crime-fighting experts for help.
Jordan said at a packed news conference at City Hall that Oakland is contracting with Massachusetts-based Strategic Policy Partnership as well as with William Bratton, who formerly served as police chief in Los Angeles and police commissioner in New York City and Boston.
Jordan said the Strategic Policy Partnership, which is headed by Robert Wasserman, the former chief of staff of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy under President Clinton, has had success in reducing crime rates in many cities across the country where it has been hired.
He said when Bratton was in New York he developed the CompStat system, a system of tracking crimes that has been successful in reducing crime in New York and other cities.
Jordan said of Bratton, “We want him to point us in the right direction in fighting violent crime.”
He said he is turning to outside experts because, “Sometimes we’re too close to the forest that we can’t see the trees.”
Jordan said Bratton “has worked in many other cities and perhaps they’re doing something we’re not doing.”
Jordan said another major change he is making is returning his department to a neighborhood-policing program in which captains will be responsible for fighting crime in specific areas. He said the city will be divided into five districts, including two in East Oakland, where much of the city’s violent crime occurs.
“This will give us our best opportunity to reduce violent crime in Oakland,” Jordan said. “We’ll be taking a very aggressive approach.”
Quan said police units will focus on smaller areas and “there will be accountability from the top down.”
Jordan said Oakland must take action because Oakland’s homicide total this year is the highest it’s been in five years. He said there have been 127 homicides so far this year, of which five have been ruled to be justified, leaving it with a total of 122 homicides.
This is rich. There are no “new solutions” to fighting crime – the old ones work just fine, it’s just that Quan and most of the political leadership in Oakland is on the side of the criminals and against the po-lice. Here’s some “out of the box” ideas for free:
1. 10 pm curfew for all males of a certain racial ethnicity. Let’s just call it a “blackout.”
2. Racially profile with random search and seizures.
3. Bust gang members on racketeering charges, and make and enforce ordinances where known felons cannot congregate in order to plan new crimes.
4. Start charging black crime against whites as a “hate crime” – not exclusively the other way around.
5. Allow concealed carry for law-abiding citizens; actually enforce gun laws for criminals.
6. Run John Burris out of town.
At least they have a plan now. Too bad the County Sheriff’s Office won’t help out Oakland. They are too busy writing tickets on Foothill Road East of Castlewood. Thanks Sheriff Ahern. We now understand you think turning left on Foothill between 5:30 and 8:00 AM is much more important than the casual and wanton murder taking place in your county – often the murder of children – and the terrorizing of the citizens of Oakland by the murdering thugs.
Get ready, tax paying working citizens of Pleasanton. Mark my words, they will all be out in force Monday AM at commute time, trying to put more of your money in their pension funds. Drive safe, follow the letter of the law, be aware of the traps. Come to a full and complete stop at stop signs and starve these bastards who won’t fight crime but seek to further line their pockets with your money.