California Highway Patrol will help Oakland police with sideshows and traffic enforcement, according to city officials

By ANNIE SCIACCA | asciacca@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group

PUBLISHED: September 10, 2021 at 5:24 p.m.

OAKLAND — More California Highway Patrol officers will swarm into Oakland starting this weekend in a collaborative effort with Oakland police to crack down on sideshows and other dangerous driving antics, Mayor Libby Schaaf and police Chief LeRonne Armstrong jointly announced Friday.

The news comes a few weeks after Schaaf said she had asked Gov. Gavin Newsom for the CHP’s help in traffic enforcement to reduce “reckless driving” and “robberies that involve vehicles.” He agreed to provide it.

According to the announcement, Oakland police “will conduct focused and coordinated operations with CHP to reduce dangerous driving along Oakland’s high-injury corridor” and the CHP will help the department’s sideshow enforcement teams by providing additional officers every weekend through the end of September.

Police Department spokesman Paul Chambers referred questions about how many CHP officers would hit Oakland streets to the state.

He did not identify the roads considered “high-injury” corridors, noting that police continuously work with the city’s Department of Transportation to flag areas where speed and dangerous driving have resulted in serious injury collisions.

According to a 2018 Department of Transportation map, International Boulevard and parts of Foothill Boulevard, Fruitvale Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard, Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Broadway and Telegraph Avenue were among the areas of “high concern.”

Just the night before the mayor’s Friday announcement, nine members of a family — including a 2-year-old and an 8-year-old in critical condition — were injured when a suspected drunken driver hit their van. The driver allegedly was going an estimated 90 mph eastbound on International and had been weaving in and out of a bus lane before running through a red light at 38th Avenue, broadsiding the van.

“All of our residents deserve safer streets in their neighborhoods,” Schaaf said in a written statement. “I’m thankful for Governor Newsom and Commissioner Ray’s partnership with Oakland, as all of us are committed to reduce the harm, violence, and trauma caused by dangerous traffic activity on our streets.”

But not everyone believes adding more CHP officers will increase safety.

Activists have been pushing for less CHP presence in Oakland, especially after the department’s officers fatally fatally shot Erik Salgado last year for allegedly trying to escape as they were attempting to stop him for driving a car they thought was stolen.

“We need justice, not more criminalization,” Salgado’s sister Amanda Blanco said in a statement issued last month when Schaaf first announced her request to the governor.

Schaaf’s request came a day after Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and an advocate of increased policing, announced he had asked Newsom to declare a “state of emergency” in Oakland and send state law enforcement help, including the CHP, to “preserve the peace, protect the public and save our lives.”

But instead of gun violence crimes, it appears the CHP’s role will be focused on traffic enforcement and cracking down on sideshows in the city.

“CHP’s presence will provide much-needed assistance with the illegal sideshow activity that has plagued communities across our city,” Armstrong stated. “With their partnership, we seek to eradicate this illegal sideshow epidemic that has caused so many sleepless nights for our residents here in Oakland.”