Starting Next Week, There Will Be Four Times as Many California Highway Patrol Officers in East Bay
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he would be sending four times as many California Highway Patrol police to Oakland and that starting Monday, prosecutors from the California National Guard would be sent to go after organized crime, carjackings, and sideshows.
Five months ago, the news came after 120 Highway Patrol officers were sent to Oakland as part of a new campaign to increase the number of police in the city, where violent crime rose by 21%, robberies rose by 38%, and vehicle thefts rose by 43%.
Concerns about crime in California have been stoked by several high-profile shoplifting rings. This has led to several new laws meant to crack down on retail theft and a controversial ballot measure in November called Proposition 36, which would make it more illegal to steal and sell fentanyl.
“Exciting things are happening,” Newsom said in a statement. “But the lawlessness we see on the streets of Oakland is not acceptable.” “I’m sending more CHP officers to help give the people of Oakland and the East Bay the safety and security they deserve, building on our partnership with local police.”
The Oakland Police Department says that crime has gone down by 33% since the beginning of the year. Newsom and Mayor Sheng Thao say that this is because of more police presence. But at a news conference on Thursday, Police Chief Floyd Mitchell said that there have been errors in the city’s crime records. These errors were caused by people taking too long to report property crimes.
Mitchell says that the Highway Patrol has only been working two or three days a week since cops were sent out in February. He said that the bigger operation that was announced on Thursday will have more “intensity.” The work will take about four months, and the CHP details will be working every day.
Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta offered to send state attorneys from the California National Guard to help Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who is up for recall this year when crime rates were high in Oakland last year.
Although Newsom said Price’s office hasn’t used those resources, he “needed to pull the plug” on the partnership because nothing has been done.
I agree, we’ve been let down. “Not working with the D.A.’s office,” he said. “So we’re moving forward.”
He said that the Cal Guard lawyers he is sending to Alameda County will work for the state attorney general and be in charge of some of the most “complex” cases in the East Bay.
In San Francisco, Cal Guard lawyers have been helping with drug crimes for the past year.
It’s not unusual for a governor to send state cops to help out, especially when local police are already busy. Newsom’s office said that since February, the Highway Patrol in the East Bay has found 1,142 stolen cars, taken 55 guns linked to crimes, and arrested 562 people.
Newsom sent a group of cops to Bakersfield in April. Kern County has more serious property crimes than the rest of the state. The city is in that county.
The next month, he said that the amount of fentanyl being found in those towns was “unprecedented.”