Dear Fellow Oaklander,

Last month the Administration proposed a budget that would both reimagine public safety with community investments AND maintain the basic police response our most vulnerable community members depend on.

On Monday, Council President Bas and her Budget Team of Councilmembers Kalb, Gallo and Fife presented their proposed budget that makes new laudable investments that I fully support, which are primarily funded by an additional $32 million in newly identified revenues.

However, their proposed budget also:

• Cuts 2 academies of 64 new officers,
• Cuts 9 traffic enforcement positions, and
• Cuts 41 positions dedicated to 911 response.

The Council President’s proposed budget would severely decrease police services especially in our most impacted areas. They would:

• Shrink what is already the lowest per-crime staffed police department in the county during a gut-wrenching spike in gun violence.
• Increase OPD’s unsafe overreliance on overtime and leave even more critical vacancies unfilled; and
• Decimate an already inadequate 911 response to Oaklanders experiencing crisis and needing help.

The Administration’s budget proposed last month would have hired more new, diverse, progressive recruits to fill our vacancies so our officers wouldn’t have to work so much unsafe and expensive overtime, and we could fully staff 911 response, our successful Ceasefire violence prevention strategy, and increase criminal investigations — all while decreasing proportional police spending in Oakland.

The Council President’s budget means roughly 80 people a day (12%) could get no police response to their lower priority 911 calls, and the highest priority calls would get a slower response.

If you think every Oaklander deserves a dependable response in their moment of crisis, and that we can’t afford to further deplete the low officer staffing Oakland has today during this gun violence spike, NOW is the time to speak up.

Ask Councilmembers to reject any budget that further reduces these most critical public safety services.

You can email all Councilmembers at council@oaklandca.gov AND participate in their special budget hearing tomorrow 6/17 at 10:30 am through phone toll free at (833) 548 0276 Webinar ID: 861 7110 1493 or on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86171101493

With Oakland-love,

Libby