Newsom sending DOJ, National Guard attorneys to Alameda County
OAKLAND — Days after ordering a surge of California Highway Patrol officers to the East Bay, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced plans to also send state attorneys to Alameda County to beef up prosecutions of numerous “serious and complex crimes.”
The move by Newsom entails sending attorneys from the California Department of Justice and the National Guard to boost the capacity of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s office in prosecuting “violent crimes, serious drug-related crimes and property crimes,” including retail theft and auto burglary, according to Newsom’s announcement.
Newsom did not say exactly how many prosecutors would be deputized to work in Alameda County in the coming days. Few other details were announced, beyond a focus on prosecuting “significant cases targeting major criminal networks in Oakland and the East Bay,” and offering “investigative and analytical support to identify criminal networks.”
The governor framed the move as a partnership in the same vein as his April 2023 decision to send prosecutors and other resources to San Francisco to combat fentanyl trafficking.
Price said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the program would be similar in execution to the San Francisco deployment, with cases being assigned to the additional attorneys by charging deputies in her office. She said the start date for the initiative had not yet been determined.
“An arrest isn’t enough,” Newsom said in a statement. “Justice demands that suspects are appropriately prosecuted. Whether it’s ‘bipping’ or carjacking, attempted murder or fentanyl trafficking, individuals must be held accountable for their crimes using the full and appropriate weight of the law.”
In a joint statement, Price called the plan a “collaborative effort,” adding that she planned to assign a veteran prosecutor from her office to represent her office in the partnership.
“I welcome the support from the Governor in this fight against organized retail crime and the scourge of fentanyl in our community,” Price said in her statement. She later added: “This new partnership signals that state and county law enforcement are seizing the moment to work together in aggressively prosecuting people who do harm to folks who live, work, and play in Alameda County.”
The move comes just days after Newsom announced plans to send 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and the East Bay in a bid to combat crime levels in the region that remain stubbornly high. It marked a significant escalation from previous state staffing surges in recent years, which involved a fraction of the number of officers.
Price, entering her second year of her first term as district attorney, faces a recall effort that has been deeply critical of her push to reshape how justice is administered in Alameda County.
The longtime civil rights attorney has been vocal about reducing prison sentences and sentencing enhancements for criminal defendants as a local means of combating the nation’s legacy of mass incarceration. Yet opponents say her policies have gone so far as to embolden people to break the law — pointing to charging decisions that, they say, were too lenient for the crimes alleged.
Recall supporters face a March 5 deadline to turn in slightly more than 73,000 signatures to get the recall question before voters.