City Council
January 16, 2024
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Tonya Gilmore
City Administrator Acting Deputy City
Administrator
SUBJECT: Informational Report In Response to
Resolution No. 89906
DATE: January 11, 2024
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report In Response To Resolution No. 89906 C.M.S. To Prioritize Public Safety.
REASON FOR SUPPLEMENTAL
Additional information is being provided pursuant to Resolution No. 89906 C.M.S.
OPD Supplemental to the December 19, 2023 Informational Report on Resolution No. 89906 CMS:
This information below is in addition to what has already been presented in the main report. This includes new information, updates, or clarifications.
1. Lateral academy
a. Are there additional salaries and rental costs with a lateral academy or would OPD use the same resources that are already being used?
Lateral academies are cost-effective, with the main expenses being officer salaries and training facility rentals, such as the Concord Range and the Alameda Naval Base. Resources (training locations, instructors, etc.) for a lateral academy would be the same as for in-house academies.
There will not be a new budget for a lateral academy.
2. Permanent walking beat
a. Are there any findings or recommendations since the walking beat has been implemented?
Two trust building officers have been active in the foot patrol unit (FPU) as needed. Additional FPU staffing is not anticipated in the near future and OPD will be continuing its current locations and times. The FPU has had significant measurable results in the reduction of robberies in their assigned corridors. This is especially true for 98th and Bigge Street area where the number of robberies has precipitously dropped. Exact Q4 data will be available later this quarter.
Jestin Johnson (Jan 12, 2024 11:43 PST)
Jan 12, 2024
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: SUPPLEMENTAL - Informational Report In Response to Resolution No. 89906 Date: January 11, 2024 Page 2
City Council
January 16, 2024
3. FBI investigators and CHP officers: expansion of deployments a. CHP: OPD reached out to Captain K. White, the commander of the Telegraph station. CHP is not going to make any changes to their current operation. They will continue to staff six officers and one sergeant on overtime assignments on Tuesdays and Fridays for the hours 1200-2200.
b. FBI: OPD has 2 OPD cold case investigators, 3 FBI special agents, and 1 FBI analyst that are full time in this task force. The cold case unit has one dedicated FBI agent who is with OPD full time. FBI participates on a case-by-case basis. OPD can also call for the immediate assistance of a dozen or so agents if needed. The most valuable resource FBI provides is on the technical / logistic / evidence processing side of investigations. FBI has never denied OPD requests for additional resources for cold cases and/or homicide investigations; however, they cannot assist with every case. For example, there was a time when FBI agents came out with the homicide callout teams. But given they are salaried employees, and they have limitations by federal law, FBI agents can only help with specific tasks. On another note, Criminal Investigations would benefit from a bigger crime lab or the ability to send out evidence items to other labs for processing.
4. Operations to confiscate illegal guns
a. Buyback program
The Oakland Guns to Gardens gun buyback program is a partnership between the Oakland Police Department and community groups, to encourage community members to voluntarily surrender unwanted firearms in exchange for gift cards in the amounts of $100 - $300, depending on the type of gun surrendered. The Oakland Police Department and community groups held the first Gun Buy Back in almost a decade, on June 11, 2022, at “At Thy Word” Ministries located at 8915 International Blvd, 2 Buy Back events held in 2023.
The theme of the buyback program, "Guns to Gardens", is a unique process in where all the surrendered firearms would be forged into garden tools by Oakland blacksmith John Rogers, and the garden tools would be reintroduced into the Oakland community. During the buyback events, community-based groups and volunteers provided educational material on gun storage safety and responsible gun ownership, as well as other resources in efforts to combat gun violence. Mr.
Rogers was also on hand to showcase repurposed garden tools that he had forged from firearms.
The overall purpose of the gun buyback is to help promote community safety, as the vast majority of injury related violent crimes are committed with firearms. This event provides community members the opportunity to surrender unwanted firearms in a safe environment, where members of the Oakland Police Department receive and render the firearms safe.
The following number of firearms have been seized during the last 3 Guns to Gardens gun buyback events:
June 2022: 131
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: SUPPLEMENTAL - Informational Report In Response to Resolution No. 89906 Date: January 11, 2024 Page 3
City Council
January 16, 2024
June 2023: 42
November 2023: 68
b. OPD has applied for the Firearm Relinquishment Grant for a total amount of $1,461,289. This funding is available to support new or expanded court-based firearm relinquishment programs to ensure the consistent safe removal of firearms from individuals who become prohibited from owning or possessing firearms and ammunition pursuant to court order. OPD would use this funding for staffing, a contract for CaseBuilder case management build, interface to a new record management system, and other costs.
5. Ceasefire
The California Partnership for Safe Communities will make a short presentation on the recently completed Ceasefire Audit. The Executive Summary is included as Attachment A.
City Administrator’s Office Supplemental to the December 19, 2023 Informational Report on Resolution No. 89906 CMS:
Administrator Johnson will provide an oral response to the clauses below that are not included in the original Information Memo.
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Council hereby directs the City Administrator to: (I) request that the California Department of Transportation work with the City of Oakland to place high quality security cameras on freeway on-ramps (and possibly off-ramps) to improve OPD's ability to investigate and solve serious crimes in Oakland, and (2) ensure that any applicable legal requirements for the City are addressed, such as the Surveillance Technology Ordinance (Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 9.64); and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Council hereby directs the City Administrator, or his designee(s), to work in consultation with the Office of the Inspector General, to return to the Council's Public Safety Committee no later than February 2024 with an initial analysis of and possible recommendation for creation of a Real Time Crime Center, as that term is defined by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the mission of which is to provide a law enforcement agency with the ability to capitalize on a range of technologies for efficient and effective policing. Such efforts may allow law enforcement officers to respond more quickly to crimes in progress or to those that have recently occurred; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Council hereby directs the City Administrator to contact County and regional government bodies, community-based organizations, and law enforcement agencies to request collaboration on regional prevention, intervention and law enforcement strategies; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Council shall send a letter to federal and state elected officials requesting additional resources and funding to Alameda County and the City of Oakland for reentry services and programs; and be it
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: SUPPLEMENTAL - Informational Report In Response to Resolution No. 89906 Date: January 11, 2024 Page 4
City Council
January 16, 2024
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Council shall send a letter to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors requesting Alameda County allocate more resources and funding to the County Probation Department and to the City of Oakland and Oakland nonprofit organizations for reentry services and programs; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Administrator is directed that for items that do not require additional Council action, the City Administration should implement these items as soon as possible; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Council hereby directs the City Administrator to identify funding to allocate to cover the costs for the programs, priorities and initiatives outlined in this Resolution and return to City Council as soon as possible with actionable recommendations; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City Administrator or their designee shall report back to the Council's Public Safety Committee quarterly on the status and implementation of all the directives, programs, priorities and initiatives outlined in this Resolution and the Council's 2023- 2025 budget policy directives; and be it
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report In Response To Resolution No. 89906 C.M.S. To Prioritize Public Safety.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Tonya Gilmore [email protected] , Acting Deputy City Administrator at 510-238-7587.
Respectfully submitted,
Tonya Gilmore
Acting, Deputy City Administrator
Attachments (2):
A: Executive Summary: Oakland Ceasefire Audit Report and Findings
B: Prioritizing Public Safety PowerPoint Presentation