On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the deployment of 120 California Highway Patrol officers to enact a temporary enforcement surge in Oakland and the East Bay.
“Throughout the operation, the CHP’s efforts will include enforcement of auto theft, cargo theft, retail crime, and high-visibility proactive traffic enforcement in and around Oakland and Alameda County,” said CHP spokesperson Jaime Coffee.
The strategy is to saturate the area with officers and investigators who will work with other law enforcement agencies within Alameda County.
“This will include CHP specialty units like narcotics detecting K9 units and air support,” Coffee said. “CHP will also deploy license plate reader technology to detect and recover stolen vehicles.”
The move follows calls for state help from local organizations and politicians including the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. In January, a group of Oakland community leaders traveled to Sacramento and met with the governor in person.
According to a recent Oakland Police Department crime report, between 2021 and 2023 there was a 21 percent increase in violent crime, a 38 percent increase in robberies and a 45 percent increase in vehicle thefts.
“The Oakland police has a no chase policy,” said Carl Chan, one of the community advocates present at the January meeting in Sacramento.
“Most of the criminals, they are jumping from one city to another and OPD cannot chase them,” Chan said. “The CHP has the right to go into all the different cities within the state. So that is extremely helpful. I think it is not only helping Oakland, but it’s also helping neighboring cities.”
In September, the Newsom administration approved the distribution of over $267 million to local police and sheriff’s departments and district attorney’s offices throughout California to fight organized retail theft.
The money went to create task forces, hire and train staff and purchase new technologies. There were 55 awardees, but Oakland received no funds because it missed the application deadline.
“The governor brought that up one, two, three times,” said Robert Harris of the Oakland NAACP, who was also at the January meeting. “He talked about the missed deadline, and then about 10 minutes later he said the same thing over, ‘We’ve made that available to you, and you didn’t file.'”
In the governor’s Tuesday statement about the surge, Mayor Sheng Thao expressed gratitude.
“The City of Oakland is hard at work turning the tide — increasing law enforcement investigations, increasing police recruitment, and investing in community and violence intervention efforts,” said Thao. “I’m grateful for Governor Newsom for providing these critical law enforcement resources that are a game-changer in helping us hold more criminals accountable and make Oakland safer.”
The governor’s statement Tuesday listed additional measures his administration is planning or has already enacted. Some of them echoed the solutions proposed by the Oakland NAACP and community leaders in a plan they have been promoting for months.
“The state has also expanded opportunities for youth by transforming Oakland’s schools into community schools, mandating and funding after-school programs, awarding Oakland grants for youth coaches, establishing targeted college and career savings accounts, and providing tuition-free community college for students at Oakland community colleges,” the statement read.
Since 2019, the governor’s office said, Alameda County has received over $1 billion from the state to boost affordable housing and over $200 million to address homelessness directly.
“We can see that the governor was very serious about what he was saying and he’s delivering on what he said,” said Bishop Bob Jackson, senior pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church. “He really cares about Oakland, and we were really glad about that.”
26 comments
Since no one gets prosecuted anymore, it’s a fool’s errand.
Yes it is. But it fools the dumb dumbs that support the con artist Greasy Gavevin.
Mayor Sheng needs more money and more help from the state. Trump era politics and division are still affecting Oakland. Come downtown and get a bite or drink. Help support Oakland in its time of need.
Yep, Trump was a huge supporter of BLM. I remember it clearly. The last good things in Oakland were the A’s and In n Out. Both are gone soon.
… they need to be given full authority and duties to be effective in Oaktown …. imho
Newsom must be running for president and has to clean up his mess
Oakland’s issues aren’t Newsom’s mess.
To hear Gavin tell it, nothing is his mess. Accountability is his Kryptonite.
So the CHP is going to have to make up for the damage that Oakland’s mayor and council has done by neutering the police?
The residents of Oakland are stupid to vote such people into office and are getting what they voted for. I work in that City and hate it! I could tell you horror stories that are happening every week right downtown in front of our offices!. The city ought to have warning signs as you enter town that people risk their lives if they come in to Oakland!
Has there ever been a problem DEMs couldn’t throw your tax dollars at ? ? ? ?
An those problems historically are created by knee jerk band aid fixes for prior problems created by DEMs.
.
AB-109 created overcrowding in jail systems of all 58 counties in CA.
Prop 47 and others were DEM fixes of their AB-109 screw up.
All of a sudden after nine years DEMs decide they have to do something
about crime increase they caused.
Wonder if it being an election year might have nudged them along ?
.
So now His Imperial Majesty, Emperor newsom is going to FIX IT with CHP . . . . .
Almost like a corporal last century, moving army divisions around Europe.
.
Will it mean there will be fewer CHP on our freeways ? ? ?
Will highway 4 become a more dangerous drag strip than it already is ?
.
Aren’t you tired of being the lab rats DEMs experiment upon ?
An remember they use your tax dollars to pay for it.
Don’t forget the other winner that is part of the problem, also voted in by the Dem majority, Proposition 57. All 3, plus liberal Soros prosecuters, are the main problem.
Give it up with Soros. The people voted the DA’s in. Always a scapegoat…
So Newscum
Create the problem by pushing to defund the police.
Create the problem by releasing criminals.
Then throw more money to try and fix the problem he created.
And if he knew that Oakland needed so much help, why did the deadline to apply for funds really matter … if he were really out there to help Oakland, he would have just extended the deadline for Oakland or given them the money anyways. But Nope, he wants to keep reminding them that they missed his arbitrary deadline
Sometimes deadlines are deadlines. This was a miss by Sheng Thao.
Get rid of the current mayor and bring back the police chief she fired.
Yes, because the former police chief she fired was doing a GREAT job LOL.
Must be election season. This demonic pos is on TV, radio, pretending like he loves our veterans. GN needs to be held for treason and face the penalty of just that. Goodbye you monster.
Smells like an election year.
That said, when someone i loath does something good, I say good job. Now, could we work on some actual prosecution and prison time?
Sooooo what difference does it make if there are no consequences, they’ll be back out? I’d be willing to bet that each crook that these officers catch has already been in custody and should not have been in public in the first place. Tax payer dollars to keep re-arresting the same people. Pretty boy Newsom doesn’t want to admit that the revolving door at the jail is the problem. Great job sir
How ironic that after Newsom has pretty much destroyed California and its cities, that he now wants to increase police presence in Oakland. It’s pretty obvious after millions were spent to clean a small section of San Francisco for a political summit, he and his cronies realized wow, this can actually be done after decades of ruin. Now that Oakland has become another doom
Loop that if they clean it up a bit, he can score some points for his future political aspirations. Governor Newsom, it’s far too late. Folks don’t fall for it…
Hey Gavin, Way too little, Way too late.
Police that can’t engage in pursuit and a DA that won’t prosecute Bahahahahahahahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Election year politics are fun to watch. After a couple of years of “defund the police” and getting the natural results everyone is back on the law and order train when faced with losing their elected positions. Let’s hope our politicians, our so-called leaders don’t lose their way again. The last couple of years have been rough throughout California.
better ticket hard working citizens and not the homeless that liter and make our city look like trash and steal rampantly from our stores raising our prices. Don’t jail them or ticket them no way just go after people with money trying to make ends meet that are actually trying to be productive citizens nah just ticket them to make money….
Gavin (and other idiotic dems) create the problem with their crime nurturing rules/laws, tie law enforcements hands from intervening/arresting, planting Progressive DAs in office, then deploy the CHP/state police to help… Im sure he also requests emergency funding from Biden Admin due to this “emergency of unknown cause”… this garbage is getting so old..
California was doomed long before plastic boy showed up. It’s nice you guys have a boogyman though. Obama was getting old. Pardon me, Barrack Hussain Obama.
‘Newscum’ was clever though. In 2009. 😉
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