OAKLAND — Against the latest wave of lethal gun violence, Oakland police said they will call on all available resources, adding more officers to high-crime neighborhoods and eight officers to a criminal investigative division in hopes of clearing crimes faster and increasing public safety.
Oakland police Chief LeRonne Armstrong outlined the new efforts at a Tuesday afternoon press conference, which happened hours after a double shooting in East Oakland left one person dead, the city’s fifth homicide since Friday.
Those efforts will include deployment of extra officers to several East Oakland and a couple of West Oakland neighborhoods that have logged particularly active violent episodes, as well as renewed efforts from community resource officers and the department’s Ceasefire team and violent-crime operations center members, and anticipated staffing increases from an upcoming academy graduation October 27.
Armstrong said the department’s command staff met Monday and agreed to boost patrols and strengthen OPD’s Criminal Investigations Division. In addition, the department said it will increase and newly deploy staffing in its traffic enforcement division, acknowledging the damaging effect of violence against safe environments for pedestrians and cyclists.
“We are confident that these new focuses will bring more officers onto the streets to not only enhance our enforcement efforts on those that continue to drive gun violence, but also for traffic safety,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong singled out gang and group violence as the most active of several factors affecting community safety, saying that 137 of 450 shootings this year have been attributed to it. The chief thanked San Francisco police for their help in dealing with increased visibility and activity from some of that city’s groups, leading to several arrests so far.
In response to questions, Armstrong said anti-gang efforts would remain the focus until a greater return to safety is evident to residents. So far this year, Oakland police have investigated 96 homicides, down from 102 homicides investigated at this time last year. 2021 was the deadliest year in Oakland since 2006.
“This is not an effort to arrest everybody. This is an effort to arrest those that are driving gun violence in our city and get these guns off the streets and out of our community,” he said.
“We feel like there’s only a small group of people that are driving violence in the city of Oakland. These individuals are active, and we need to identify them and we need the community’s help to bring them forward so that we can make those key arrests.”
As to the costs and limits of time, attention, energy and staffing, Armstrong was clear about the department’s focus on larger priorities.
“I believe that this is something that we have to do and I don’t think that you can put a cost on loss of life. I’m willing to deal with whatever fallout there may be about what it costs for us to actually make the city a bit safer,” he said.
“I’m not ready to put out figures but I’m going to effectively utilize whatever resources we have in order to address violence. I understand the fatigue that this can have on our staff. And so we are rotating this staffing plan throughout the department.
“We’ll do our best to make sure that officers get the rest that they need. But most critically important right now is for us to bring forth a sense of safety in the city of Oakland, because I know people are fearful and we want to be able to manage that fear.”
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
