Posts Tagged ‘Public Safety Committee’

Tuesday night’s Oakland Public Safety Committee meeting’s main agenda item—reviewing a report about holding a special election to amend the regulations that govern the Oakland Police Commission—was initially upstaged by jarring testimony from former Councilmember Wilson Riles Jr. about his arrest last week.  Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan introduced the issue for the committee to address.…

Members of local police accountability and activist groups say that conflicts of interest, unaccountable staff and lack of transparency prevent the Oakland Police Commission from being able to police the police.

Department officials believe that, with more personnel and better equipment, they will be able to streamline their workflow and stay on top of which guns need to be traced.

The Oakland Police Department’s proposed purchase of shotguns and transfer vehicles were the most hotly contested items discussed at the concurrent Oakland City Council and Oakland Redevelopment Successor meeting Tuesday night. Other business included a year-end presentation by State Assemblymember Rob Bonta (District 18), a presentation of the AC Transit service expansion plan, and an adjustment to parking fees.

Tuesday night’s Public Safety Committee meeting announced the Oakland Police Department will surpass its staffing targets for sworn officers, bringing the total up to 715 officers.

On Tuesday night, the Public Safety Committee heard a report by the Oakland Police Department on the efficacy of the North Oakland gang injunction, meant to provide more insight into the effects of injunctions before the city implements additional ones. It concluded that violent crime had risen in the gang injunction area, while other crimes were down.

The Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee passed an ordinance by consensus Tuesday evening that will double the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, if approved by the city council.

Half of Tuesday’s three-hour Public Safety Committee meeting at Oakland City Hall addressed November’s fatal officer-involved shooting of an unarmed East Oakland man. Oakland Police Department Chief Anthony Batts announced he has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigations to open a federal civil-rights investigation to determine whether the OPD officers wrongly used lethal force.