CHP to help with traffic enforcement
Chinatown leaders sought extra patrols Oakland-wide
Gov. Gavin Newsom will send California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland to enforce traffic laws on city street, Mayor Libby Schaaf said after Chinatown leaders pleaded for help confronting a wave of violent crimes.
Leaders in Chinatown had called on the governor to declare a state of emergency in the wake of a series of robberies and assaults in Oakland, prompting Schaaf to ask for CHP officers to be sent to the city’s major commercial corridors and along International Boulevard.
City officials said Thursday that Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong will meet with the CHP commissioner soon to determine the details — how officers will be deployed and for how long.
“Beware there is going to be more enforcement,” Schaaf said at a news conference Wednesday with Newsom announcing a state mandate on vaccinations for teachers and school staff.
“The reckless driving that kills people, the robberies that involve vehicles like what happened to our beloved U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer — that is going to really get under control with the help from the state and I am so grateful,” Schaaf said.
The former senator was robbed and assaulted July 26 in Oakland near Jack London Square. The mugger pushed her, stole her cell phone and jumped into a waiting car, according to Boxer’s office.
Newsom said “additional law enforcement supports will be coming to Oakland.”
The governor called Oakland’s overall rise in violent crime “a crisis that needs to be addressed head on,” adding that the state’s $267 billion budget set aside hundreds of millions of dollars for street outreach programs.
Newsom added that the state also set aside $165 million in grants “to address the issue of Asian hate in this state.”
“That is unprecedented,” he said.
On Tuesday, Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to Newsom urging him to send CHP and other state law enforcement authorities to Oakland.
“I’m not only asking you to patrol in Chinatown. All areas, we need your help,” Chan said at a news conference in Chinatown.
The press conference Tuesday was held after a weekend robbery and shooting in Chinatown that left two people injured. Oakland is currently facing a broader uptick in violent crime — 78 people have been slain in the city compared with 54 at this time last year.
Council Member Dan Kalb said Thursday that if the CHP provides assistance with violent crimes and serious traffic offenses like speeding and reckless driving, then “I’m all for it.”
“It’s the big things that we need help with,” Kalb said.
Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas said that local, state and federal governments must work together solve violent crimes, get illegal guns off the streets and address the root causes of poverty and violence by creating good jobs and affordable housing, and providing quality health care and education.
“Any additional law-enforcement that comes to Oakland must serve our community with the highest standards of respect and collaboration,” she said in a statement.
Dan Lindheim, a former Oakland city administrator and currently a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, said it would be best if CHP focused on major traffic enforcement — sideshows, speeding, running red lights.
The challenge though, he said, is that CHP does not have to adhere to the same rules and reforms that OPD has gone through when it comes to reducing certain traffic stops. In 2019, Oakland police said they will no longer pull people over for low-level infractions like a broken windshield or taillight.
The Oakland Police Officers Association said in a statement that it appreciates CHP’s help, but still was critical of the city for seeking outside help.
“Every Oakland cop welcomes help from the CHP,” said Barry Donelan, president of the union. “But it’s a shame that it took Oakland’s crimeweary residents pleading to the state for help because the majority of Oakland’s City Council abandoned crime victims and embraced a dangerous defund the police ideology.”
The Oakland City Council directed more than $17 million away from Schaaf ’s proposed police budget this summer and funneled those funds to the Department of Violence Prevention. The move prompted criticism from police officials who said crime is out control and more resources are needed. The council increased the Police Department’s budget, but by a smaller amount than the mayor had proposed.
The Department of Violence Prevention is in the process of launching several programs with its new funds. The programs include doubling the number of “violence interrupters” working for the department through nonprofit agencies to 20, increasing support for homicide victims’ families, and adding staff for crime scene response.
The city is also looking into transferring some traffic enforcement out of the Police Department and into the Transportation Department.