City Council
June 3, 2025
AG
ENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Zurvohn Maloof
City Administrator Inspector General
SUBJECT: OPD Staffing Study DATE: May 6, 2025
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
S
taff Recommends That The City Council Receive An Informational Report From PFM Financial Advisors LLC Regarding OPD Staffing Study And Resource Analysis.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
O
n November 11, 2023, the City Council adopted a resolution awarding a professional services contract to PFM Financial, to complete a staffing study of OPD. While the original contract was not to exceed two hundred eighty-five thousand dollars ($285,000), during that same meeting, the City Council also expressed their desire to broaden PFM Financials’ scope of service to include a high-level overview of OPD’s call for service data. This important data would help identify incoming call trends, quantify resources dispersed per call, optimize staffing levels for dispatch communications centers, and develop strategies to delegate non-emergency calls to other agencies. The modification in the scope of work had a twenty-five thousand dollar increase to the agreement; the contract amount was then amended to not exceed three-hundred thousand ten dollars ($310,000.00).
In January 2024, in partnership with PFM Financial Advisors LLC, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) led efforts in conducting a staffing study of the Oakland Police Department (OPD) to evaluate personnel trends, workload capacity, and calls for service response times. This summary highlights the key findings and recommendations from the study.
Key Findings
1. Staffing Trends:
o Authorized positions within OPD declined by 10.5% from FY 2021 to FY 2025, with sworn positions experiencing a larger decrease (11.3%) than civilian positions.
Jestin Johnson (May 22, 2025 17:25 PDT)
5/22/2025
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OPD Staffing Study
Date: May 6, 2025 Page 2
City Council
June 3, 2025
o The departmental vacancy rate improved from 16% in FY 2021 to 11.9% in FY 2025.
2. Benchmark Comparisons:
o Oakland ranks:
6th among comparison cities in the percentage of non-sworn personnel (28%).
4th in sworn personnel per 100,000 residents.
7th in professional personnel per 100,000 residents.
1st in violent and property crimes per sworn staff, with 11.0 violent crimes and 60.6 property crimes per sworn staff—far exceeding the next highest city, Albuquerque.
o Oakland reports the highest rates of burglaries, larceny-thefts, motor vehicle thefts, and robberies per 100,000 residents among the comparison cities.
3. Crime and Clearance Rates:
o Violent and property crime rates have increased in all patrol areas since FY 2021.
o Oakland has the lowest crime clearance rates among benchmark cities, with only 6.2% for violent crime and 0.1% for property crime in FY 2023.
4. Response Times:
o Response times for all priority calls increased between FY 2019 and FY 2022:
Priority 1 calls (imminent serious injury): 11.6 minutes. Priority 2 calls (urgent but not immediate): 146.9 minutes. Priority 3 calls (non-emergencies): 473.6 minutes.
5. Patrol and Call Management:
o An average of 54 officers are on patrol at any given time, excluding shift changeovers.
o Violence and medical calls are the only categories to see an increase in community-generated calls from FY 2019 to FY 2022.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OPD Staffing Study
Date: May 6, 2025 Page 3
City Council
June 3, 2025
o Violence calls account for 21.1% of community calls and 35.7% of officer time.
6. Proactive Policing:
o Currently, 11% of patrol time is spent on proactive policing, with recommendations to increase this to 30-40%.
7. Overtime Utilization:
o Special enforcement activities account for the largest share of OPD overtime (39.6%), followed by shift extensions (18.9%) and unspecified overtime (16.8%).
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
In November 2023, the City Council adopted a resolution awarding a professional services agreement to PFM Financial, LLC. (PFM) to complete a staffing study of the Oakland Police Department (OPD). The staffing study should include but not be limited to: documentation of sworn and civilian personnel factors, comparison of OPD resource allocation to similarly sized cities, assessment of gross patrol staffing and investigative requirements for the immediate future, and identification of high-level opportunities to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of personnel deployment and calls for service alternatives.
In January 2024, PFM began work on the OPD staffing study with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) operating as the project manager. PFM provided the OIG with the most current version of the study in February 2025. The OIG continues to work with PFM to ensure the study meets the City’s stated objectives.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive an Informational Report from PFM Financial Advisors LLC Regarding OPD Staffing Study and Resource Analysis.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Zurvohn Maloof, Inspector General, at 510- 238-2916.
Respectfully submitted,
Zurvohn Maloof (May 22, 2025 14:57 PDT)
Zurvohn Maloof
Inspector General,
Office of the Inspector General
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OPD Staffing Study
Date: May 6, 2025 Page 4
City Council
June 3, 2025
Prepared by:
Omar Rascon, Administrative Analyst II
Office of the Inspector General
Attachments (2):
A. Latest version of the Oakland Police Department Staffing Study B. Presentation to be presented before City Council / Committee