Oakland Police Chief Resigns. Time for Bratton?

[jade408]

It almost doesn't matter who is hired as chief, Oakland needs to add the 200+ voter mandated officers ASAP. OPD is significantly under resourced, as long as that is the case, crimes of opportunity will remain high.

[Natural510]

Originally Posted by JoeZachinni

Former Oakland police chief Anthony Batts, a saavy well respected police administrator got his head handed to him on a silver platter. Now the current Chief of Oakland Howard Jordan, a well respected manager also has his head handed to him. The job of police chief of Oakland is a NO-WIN situation. Who would want it? You are sure to lose. Why?

1. The populace of Oakland are not law-abiding. They choose crime (smoke pot freely in public, smash Oakland City Hall) over rules every time. Also, the voters of Oakland had a chance to pay $100 per landowner as a tax to boost the $$ in the police dept. It did not pass. Oakland landowners could care less about their police force.

2. Money. Oakland is near bankruptcy. They don't have enough $ to fund Oakland police back up to normal level which means hiring 400 cops. Oakland just doesn't have the $. Oakland is poor, on welfare, and 1 step away from chapter 11.

3. Bad luck. Oakland has always had crime problems for the last 50 years. The trend is that crime is getting worse.

If Bratton is smart, he'll just sit back and issue his 6 page recommendations. Taking the Chief's spot is sure suicide and will mar his successful record.

Pretty much everything in this post is untrue. Oakland is getting richer, is growing in population, and has already passed propositions in the past to increase its police force. And most of the violent "Occupiers" were anarchists from out of town.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by jade408

It almost doesn't matter who is hired as chief, Oakland needs to add the 200+ voter mandated officers ASAP. OPD is significantly under resourced, as long as that is the case, crimes of opportunity will remain high.

^This. I think jade really hit the nail on the head here. I'm in Richmond, and in the last few years, this city has added A LOT of cops. The crime rate here seems to have dropped dramatically as well. I live near the BART station and was told this isn't a good area. There are some sketchy people around but there are hardly if any home or car break ins. Richmond police also seem to have a two to five minute response time unlike Oakland where they sometimes don't come at all because they don't have the officers to do it.