Oakland PD

By: Aya Kanda

On January 23, 2013, the Oakland City Council approved the hiring of William Bratton - also known as “super cop” – 7 to 1 after nine hours of debate.  He will be working with Robert Wasserman, a former Houston Police chief and deputy commissioner of the U.N. International police task force, under the Strategic Policy Partnership. He is a police consultant who worked as the chief of the NYPD and the LAPD and is known for his aggressive policing tactics. The stir of controversy stems from this very aspect because of his reliance on stop and frisk procedures where a police officer may stop and search an individual that he or she suspects is involved in criminal behavior. If the officer has reason to believe the person is dangerous, the officer may also pat the person down for weapons at his or her discretion. In addition to his hire, the city council also approved three more measures: the hire of 20 police technicians, 10 Alameda County sheriff’s deputies and a supervisor to patrol Oakland twice a week, and a new police academy to train more officers.

Those opposing the $250,000 contract are residents of Oakland who claim that his tactics are overly aggressive and will inevitably lead to racial profiling. A provision was made to make sure that none of the policing strategies will permit racial profiling, but residents are skeptical and scared. 29-year-old Jessica Hollie, a woman of Creole and Japanese background, said that she cried the day she found out that she was pregnant with a boy out of fear for how he would be treated by the local police department as he grows up. However, due to the 131 murders in 2012 and with Oakland having the highest crime rate in the state, many supported this hire except for Councilwoman Desley Brooks who stated, "I am deeply concerned that we are feeding into the politics of fear and playing on people's emotions on crime. It makes it seem like if we don't pass this contract tonight that nothing gets done." She voices the popular concern of those opposing Bratton’s hire by warning that there are other ways to curb the violence, but many supporters are weary of the crime and just want to see something done.

The supporters of Bratton, such as Pastor David Kitely and his congregation emphasize Bratton’s role as police commissioner for the NYPD from 1994-1996 during the decline in crime in New York. They also argue that when he was the police chief of LAPD from 2002-2009, crime rates dropped as well, along with an improvement in police-community relations. Even with these statistics, community members are concerned that the strategies Bratton employs may decrease crime, but without fixing the underlying problems of crime such as access to better social services and education.

This article is directly related to the presentation we had from the Oakland PD because Captain Figueroa stated that stop and frisk is not held up as a strategy in Oakland due to the ambiguousness around it. However, with this new strategy to curb crime, it will most likely be exercised by the discretion of Bratton, Wasserman, and the Oakland PD. On the contrary, Wasserman promised that their plan would also include town hall forums and a closer relationship with the Oakland residents to promote community solidarity and voice to the matter. We see here the hybrid style of policing which utilizes reliance the community’s opinions and insight as well as more aggressive strategies. 

For further reading on the first meeting (3/6), please visit this link.