Tonight at 6:00 p.m., the Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee will meet for the second time on the subject of “Public Safety Initiatives Throughout the City.” Staff reports are here and here. MOBN! has long advocated for a comprehensive public safety plan, with coordination of all of the city’s safety efforts, specific goals and accountability. We had hoped that this is what we would get from Strategic Policy Partners (Wasserman and Bratton). Instead, we got bits and pieces, and a long memo urging more community involvement.
Despite a slight reduction in violent crime in the last sixteen months, the city has much yet to do. In this letter to the Public Safety Committee, we set out our view of what a plan would look like, and what some of the key components should be.