Police

Car thefts spike in Oakland, with certain models and neighborhoods targeted

More than 12,000 vehicles have been stolen this year in Oakland, where the thefts are on a dramatic rise. Car thefts in Oakland have increased by 49% since last year, Oakland Police Department data from this fall shows, a jump that has put some residents on edge. The neighborhoods with the highest rates of car thefts include Hegenberger, Coliseum, and Lakeside — with 1,815, 300 and 298 cases, respectively.  Gilligan Brown, who has lived in Oakland for more than 25…

Council to vote on Police Commission changes, including clause about members acting ‘appropriately and with integrity.’

Oakland is considering changes to its Police Commission that would impact how the group trains and chooses its members. The City Council’s Public Safety Committee will vote on the legislation Dec. 12 before it can go to the full council for final approval.  Introduced by Councilmembers Dan Kalb and Kevin Jenkins, the legislation would expand the eligibility for applicants to join the commission by revising the commission’s conflict of interest rules and further define their roles.  Oakland’s new rules would…

What you need to know about speed cameras to be installed across Oakland

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation into law last month that enables speed cameras in Oakland and other cities in an effort to boost traffic safety.  The law allows Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, among others, to use speed cameras to catch dangerous drivers as part of a pilot program until 2032. The cities will place the cameras in different corridors and near schools.  The number of cameras in each city depends on its population. Between the middle and end…

Oakland to install hundreds of license plate readers across the city

Oakland City Council unanimously approved the installation of 300 automated license plate readers throughout the city on Tuesday. The vote comes nearly two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a $1.2 million loan to the city, following Mayor Sheng Thao’s request for surveillance cameras to combat rising crime.   Thao tweeted her support for the vote on Wednesday, saying the cameras will help police “track criminal vehicles across the city based on their unique features such as make, model, and color.”…

Should fired police chief be reinstated? Residents weigh in at town hall meeting.

Nearly a dozen Oakland residents gathered at City Hall Thursday night for a town hall to discuss whether former Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong should be reinstated. Mayor Sheng Thao fired Armstrong in February following an investigation that found he mishandled two misconduct cases. The town hall occurred as the city’s Police Commission faces pressure from residents and Thao to find three finalists for the chief’s job, amid an uptick in violent crime. Several attendees, including former Police Commissioner Brenda Harbin-Forte,…

As sideshows escalate, residents turn to Oakland Council, which can’t agree on crackdown

Oakland has been trying to curb sideshows for years and even celebrated a “sideshow-free” summer in 2010, but the illegal street car shows haven’t gone away, and City Council seems to be at a loss on how to restrain them. The Oakland sideshow saga witnessed a stunning escalation last month as footage of a big rig participating in an event went viral on social media. In a frenzied incident near Keller Avenue and Mountain Boulevard, the rig was caught on…

Judge keeps Oakland police under federal oversight, looks to address ‘cultural rot’

A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday asked the Oakland Police Department, the mayor, and lawyers who brought a class-action suit against the department for input to address what he called the “cultural inability” of the Police Department to hold itself accountable. U.S. District Judge William Orrick did not release the department from the federal oversight it has been under since 2003, when a settlement agreement in the lawsuit spelled out 51 tasks for the department to complete toward…

UPDATE: Mayor fires Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong; Police Commission weighs in

Mayor Sheng Thao fired Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong Wednesday, saying she lost confidence in his ability to lead the department. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Thao said she wasn’t firing Armstrong for cause, though an independent investigation found that he failed to discipline a police sergeant for a hit-and-run accident in 2021. A year later, that same officer fired his gun in a Police Department elevator and destroyed the evidence, investigators found. Thao stressed that she was not…

Anger and sadness over Tyre Nichols’ death prompts students to walk out and protest at Oakland Tech

Hundreds of Oakland Technical High School students skipped classes, cordoned off 45th Street and Broadway, played music with themes of anti-police brutality, and painted murals Monday to honor Tyre Nichols, who died Jan. 10 after being beaten by Memphis police officers. “Hey hey! Ho ho! White supremacy has got to go!” they chanted, outside the school building. Nichols’ death has led to a spate of protests across the country. After attending a protest last week led by the Anti-Police Terror…