FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 9th, 2019

Contact: Oakland Police Officers’ Association: (510) 834-9670 or policeofficers@opoa.org

Oakland Police Officers Met with Silence From Oakland Council Member Sheng Thao After Asking her to Reconcile Her Recent Rhetoric on Crime with Her Year of Inaction on Crime. 

OAKLAND – It took Oakland’s 75th murder of 2019, at the Montclair Village Starbucks on New Year’s Eve, for Oakland City Council Member Sheng Thao to finally address the rising crime rate in Oakland. Unfortunately, her recent rhetoric on crime is not matched by action on crime during her first year in office.

In response to Council Member Thao’s tough talk on crime over the past week, and in the run up to the Council Member’s town hall meeting on crime later today, the Oakland Police Officers’ Association wrote to her seeking to reconcile her statements on crime with her record on crime in 2019, her first year in office. The letter is attached. The letter was sent Monday, January 6, 2020 and the Council Member has yet to respond to the simple question posed by Oakland Police Officers.

As Oakland Police Officers’ Association President Barry Donelan explained, “During Council Member Thao’s first year in office she has presided over Oakland’s crime rate increasing in almost every category, while allowing the Oakland’s Police Officer numbers to shrink for the first time in five years. All we sought was an explanation. However, we have been met with silence from the Council Member and her staff.”

 

These crime statistics along with others are also available on the City of Oakland website:

 

About the Oakland Police Officers’ Association: The Oakland Police Officers’ Association (OPOA) represents all sworn members at all ranks within the Oakland Police Department. Representing the hardest working Police Officers in America. The OPOA can be found on the Web at www.opoa.org.

 

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