The city of Oakland is taking some serious bites out of crime. The Chronicle reports that the city has seen 15 straight months of decreased crime and serious crimes have reduced by 34 percent in March when compared with the same time last year. Serious crimes are defined as homicide, aggravated assault, rape, robbery, burglary, arson, larceny and auto theft, and all eight categories saw declines in March by about 24 percent. So what explains such drops? One factor may be that more officers were transferred from desk jobs to patrol and officers have worked hard to quickly suppress retaliatory shootings. Police Chief Anthony Batts said the following of the news:
“There's too much demand for this Police Department. We can't stop all shootings. You can't have an officer on every corner and every block in Oakland. [...] You have to understand who's at war with whom.”
While crimes also reduced in 2009, the city is now set to see a decline at a greater pace.
(Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle)
Nice break for OPD and nothing but excellent policework!!
Posted by: Scott Morrison | March 30, 2010 at 09:13 AM
Actually the combination of violence prevention and intervention programs combined with increased police and increased community policing participation have led to 3 years of crime reduction.
Down 14% in 2008. Down 10% last year in 2009. And now year to date, down about 30%.
Posted by: Jean Quan, Vice Mayor | March 30, 2010 at 11:21 AM