Crime in Oakland, California explained

Year:2018
Homicide:16.2
Forcible Rape:163.4**
Robbery:609.9
Aggravated Assault:543.4
Violent Crime:1273.7
Burglary:556.4
Larceny Theft:3655.0
Motor Vehicle Theft:1178.7
Arson:56.94
Property Crime:5390.1
Source Url:https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/table-8/table-8-state-cuts/california.xls
Source Name:FBI 2018 UCR data
Notes:
    • Revised definition.[1]

Crime in Oakland, California began to rise during the late 1960s after the King assassination riots, and by the end of the 1970s Oakland's per capita murder rate had risen to twice that of San Francisco or New York City.[2] In 1983, the National Journal referred to Oakland as the "1983 crime capital" of the San Francisco Bay Area.[3] Crime continued to escalate during the 1980s and 1990s,[4] and during the first decade of the 21st century Oakland has consistently been listed as one of the most dangerous large cities in the United States.[5]

The number of Oakland homicides peaked in 1992, when there were 175 homicides.[6] [7] From the period 1987 to 2012, crime declined significantly, but the city continued to struggle with persistently high rates of homicide and violent crime,[8] fluctuating over time.[9]

Among Oakland's 35 police patrol beats, violent crime remains a serious problem in specific East and West Oakland neighborhoods. In 2008, homicides were disproportionately concentrated: 72% occurred in three City Council districts, District 3 in West Oakland and Districts 6 and 7 in East Oakland, even though these districts represent only 44% of Oakland's residents.[10]

Homicide rates

Oakland Homicides
1992 175
1995 153
1996 102
2000 85[11]
2001 87
2002 113
2003 114
2004 88
2005 94
2006 148
2007 127
2008 125
2009 110
2010 95
2011 110
2012 131
2013 92
2014 86[12]
2015 83[13]
2016 85
2017 72[14]
2018 75[15]
2019 78[16]
2020 109
2021134[17]
2022 120[18]
2023126[19]

The rate at which Oakland Police Department homicide investigations were successfully solved (the "clearance rate") was 42% in 2009, 30% in 2010, and 29% in 2011, much lower than the California statewide rate of 63.8%.[20] A 2012 article in the East Bay Times attributed the low clearance rate in part due to understaffing of the police department and in part to the management dysfunction at the police department, and stated that "In a city where police officers consume more than 40 percent of the municipal budget, are among the city's highest-paid employees, and have exerted an outsized influence on Oakland politics, the department's ability to perform its core missions — solve violent crime, catch criminals, and keep the public safe — is highly questionable."[20] Crime experts said that the city's low homicide clearance rate undermined efforts to control violence.[20] The Oakland Police Department (OPD) had 14 homicide detectives in 2010 and nine homicide detectives in 2011.[21] A 2007 report by the Urban Strategies Council found than more than 80% of homicide victims in Oakland from 2001 to 2006 were male, and that over the five years, an average of 77% of homicide victims and 64.7% of homicide suspects were African Americans.[22]

Crime dynamics

Total crime in Oakland dropped by 41% from 1987 to 2012. In 2012, Oakland had the highest total crime rate of any California city with 20,000 or more people, with 8,587 total crimes per 100,000 residents, compared to a statewide average of 3,182 total crimes per 100,000 people.[8] Property crime in Oakland declined by 58% between 1988 and 2009, increased from 2009 to 2012 (a period when the property crime rate remained stable in comparable cities and statewide).[8]

Robbery rates in Oakland declined by 60% in the seven years between 1993 and 2000, but thereafter increased, more than doubling between 2000 and 2012.[8] In 2012, there was one robbery per 91 residents, the highest rate in the United States.[23] Carjackings occur two to three times more frequently in Oakland than in other cities of comparable size, and police have recorded at least one reported carjacking in every Oakland neighborhood; in 2005–2007, there were 884 carjackings in Oakland and 334 carjackings in San Francisco, despite San Francisco having about twice as many residents as Oakland.[24]

Crime against the city's taco truck vendors in the Fruitvale district came under scrutiny after the killing of a vendor's 5-year-old son in December 2011. Some truck vendors responded by hiring armed security guards, citing continual robberies and ineffective police response times.[25]

Operation Ceasefire

In 2013, Oakland implemented a gang violence reduction plan used previously in other cities, Operation Ceasefire, based on the research and strategies of author David M. Kennedy.[26]

Domain Awareness Center

The Domain Awareness Center (DAC) is a joint project between the Port of Oakland and the city. Planning started in 2009 as part of a nationwide initiative to secure ports by connecting motion sensors and cameras in and around the shipping facilities. In 2013, the Oakland DAC integrated 130 cameras from the Port of Oakland and four city cameras.[27] By including gunshot detection and license plate readers the DAC would allow police to faster investigate suspects (which does not exactly equal the alleged shift from "reactive to proactive" crime treatment).[28]

Oakland Police Department

See main article: article and Oakland Police Department.

Community relations issues

See also: Allen v. City of Oakland.

The Oakland Riders scandal involved a group of corrupt Oakland police officers who made false arrests, falsified evidence, and engaged in brutality.[29] In 2003, the city settled more than 100 "Riders" allegations in a settlement approaching $11 million. Over 2001 to 2011 as a whole, the City of Oakland paid about $57 million "for claims, lawsuits and settlements involving alleged misconduct by the Oakland Police Department" - the most of any city in California, and more than double what San Francisco paid out over the same period, even though San Francisco has more than double the population of Oakland.[29] Thereafter, under federal court supervision, the city has undertaken reforms of its police department, although critics say that "the fundamental character of the police department remains hostile to the community and overly reliant on force."[29]

A 2020 report by the UC Berkeley School of Law's International Human Rights Law Clinic, Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims' Family Members, criticized the OPD's interactions with the families of homicide victims, writing that the department had failed to make victim services available to the family members of victims; that "law enforcement's treatment of family members at critical moments—during death notification, at the crime scene, and during the subsequent investigation—often generated mistrust, frustration, and stigma"; and that Oakland police made arrests in approximately 40% of Oakland homicides involving black victims, but approximately 80% of homicides involving white victims.[30] A remarkably small percentage of current Oakland police officers (fewer than 9% as of 2013) live in the city itself.[31]

Number of officers

The number of OPD officers has varied over time: there were 626 officers in 1996,[8] 814 in 2002,[8] 793 officers[8] or more than 800 officers in 2009,[20] 626 officers in 2012,[8] and 723 officers at the end of 2015.[6]

The city's strategic plan recommended 925 officers, and an independent study commissioned by the city in the mid-1990s recommended 1,200 officers.[32]

The Chauncey Bailey Project wrote in 2008 that detective caseload for OPD was more than any other major city in California, except Fresno,[33] and that, in that year, the Police Department had the lowest homicide clearance rate among California's large cities because the department is understaffed and the detective work in certain instances is not as thorough because there are simply not enough officers.[34]

High profile crimes

2000s

2010s

2020s

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: FBI.
  2. Web site: Jerry Brown’s No-Nonsense New Age for Oakland by Heather Mac Donald, City Journal Autumn 1999 . 2011-09-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080827074841/http://www.city-journal.org/html/9_4_a2.html . 2008-08-27 . dead .
  3. Book: National journal . 2474 . Government Research Corporation . National Journal Group . 1983.
  4. Web site: Jerry Brown's No-Nonsense New Age for Oakland. . City Journal . Autumn 1999 . Heather Mac Donald . 2008-08-08 . Heather Mac Donald . https://web.archive.org/web/20080827074841/http://www.city-journal.org/html/9_4_a2.html . 2008-08-27 . dead .
  5. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2010/11/22/oakland-moves-from-3rd-to-5th-in-most-dangerous-city-survey/ Oakland Moves From 3rd To 5th In Most Dangerous City Survey « CBS San Francisco
  6. Harry Harris, Oakland’s homicide numbers rise for first time in two years, Bay Area News Group (December 31, 2015).
  7. Jim Herron Zamora, Murder rates dropped in S.F., Oakland in '96, San Francisco Chronicle (January 2, 1997).
  8. Bobby McCarthy & Sarah Lawrence, Crime Trends in the City of Oakland: A 25-Year Look (1987–2012)., Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law & Social Policy, University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
  9. Web site: Harry Harris. Gradually, Oakland a less deadly place . 30 March 2010 . Inside Bay Area . April 19, 2012.
  10. Web site: Archived copy . 2011-10-29 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20111003093648/http://www.urbanstrategies.org/programs/infotech/documents/2008_Homicide_Report.pdf . 2011-10-03 .
  11. Harry Harris, Oakland sees biggest drop in homicides since 2004, Bay Area News Group (December 31, 2013).
  12. Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland killings down in 2014 but still way too many, Bay Area News Group (March 24, 2015).
  13. Mark Hedin, Oakland: Rash of homicides in late 2016 push year's toll to 85, Bay Area News Group (March 10, 2017).
  14. Darwin BondGraham, Oakland Leaders Attribute Drop in Homicides and Shootings to Ceasefire Program, East Bay Express (January 9, 2017).
  15. Rick Hurd, Harry Harris & David DeBolt, 2018 Review: Oakland murders dip to lowest level since 1999; major crimes fall regionally, Bay Area News Group (January 2, 2019).
  16. Rick Hurd & Harry Harris, Sad milestones in Oakland as deadly violence explodes in 2020, Bay Area News Group (January 1, 2021).
  17. Web site: 2022-01-02. With gun violence on the rise, Oakland ends the year with 134 homicides. 2022-01-05. The Mercury News. en-US.
  18. Web site: 2023-01-23. We counted Bay Area homicides in 2022. Here's the alarming trend. 2023-07-17. San Francisco Chronicle. en-US.
  19. Web site: 2024-01-03 . Homicides soar in Oakland, vanish in East Palo Alto . 2024-01-04 . KRON4 . en-US.
  20. Web site: Winston. Ali. Getting Away With Murder. East Bay Express. November 14, 2019.
  21. https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/04/28/oakland-murder-investigators-worry-about-more-cuts/ Oakland Murder Investigators Worry About More Cuts
  22. https://web.archive.org/web/20111003093620/http://www.urbanstrategies.org/documents/2006HomicideReport.pdf 2006 Homicide Report: An Analysis of Homicides in Oakland from January through December, 2006
  23. News: Artz . Matthew . Oakland: Robbery capital of America . . May 7, 2013 .
  24. San Francisco Chronicle. Oakland sets unhappy mark in carjackings. Justin Berton. June 2, 2008.
  25. http://www.baycitizen.org/crime/story/plagued-crime-oakland-food-truck-vendors/ Plagued by Crime, Oakland Food-Truck Vendors Unite for Protection
  26. Tammerlin Drummond: David Kennedy talks Oakland and Ceasefire - mercurynews, April 28, 2012
  27. Web site: Oakland surveillance center raises concerns. 2013-07-18.
  28. Web site: Domain Awareness Center May Bring Proactive Policing to Oakland. 12 September 2013.
  29. Scott C. Johnson, How a Dirty Police Force Gets Clean, Politico (March/April 2015).
  30. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Living-with-Impunity.pdf Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims' Family Members
  31. Web site: Only 54 police officers live in Oakland; many police recruits also live outside Oakland. OaklandLocal. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130427052348/http://oaklandlocal.com/article/only-54-police-officers-live-oakland-many-police-recruits-also-live-outside-oakland. 2013-04-27.
  32. Web site: Kerr . Dara . Oakland memorializes the 94 homicides of 2010. North Oakland News. January 3, 2011 . April 19, 2012.
  33. http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2008/12/28/2081/ Charts: Homicides in California’s largest cities; Oakland homicide detectives’ case loads, wages, overtime | The Chauncey Bailey Project
  34. http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2008/12/28/understaffed-oakland-department-behind-other-cities-in-solving-homicides/ Understaffed Oakland department behind other cities in solving homicides | The Chauncey Bailey Project
  35. News: Lee . Henry . 24 September 2004 . OAKLAND / Honor student slain by gunfire outside home / Dad calls 16-year-old's killing 'senseless' . SF Gate .
  36. News: Johnson . Jason . 27 September 2006 . OAKLAND / 2 women -- one riding her bicycle -- are slain in drive-by shooting .
  37. News: 13 June 2016 . Death penalty not warranted for Darnell Williams Jr. . The Daily Californian .
  38. News: 21 September 2016 . Berkeley man gets death penalty in 2013 Oakland murders of 8-year-old, 22-year-old . ABC 7 News .
  39. News: GARTRELL . NATE . 28 July 2022 . Judge orders two to stand trial in death of elderly Asian American man who was attacked, robbed in Oakland . The Mercury News .
  40. News: Colorado . Melissa . 19 November 2021 . Jasper Wu Remembered: Family Holds Service for Toddler Killed in Oakland Freeway Shooting . NBC Bay Area .
  41. https://abc7news.com/alameda-county-da-pamela-price-email-crimes-against-asian-americans-jasper-wu-oakland/13045085/ I-Team obtains Alameda Co. DA's email; lesser sentence for Jasper Wu's alleged killers?
  42. News: Stinson . Sara . 22 August 2022 . Victim ID'd in deadly Oakland shooting Sunday, leaders demand action . KRON4 .
  43. News: 31 August 2022 . Oakland police searching for vehicle in connection with triple homicide . CBS News .
  44. Web site: Singh-Hudson . Nina . Teen Convicted in Brutal San Leandro Drug-Related Murder . Hoodline . 24 November 2023 . 8 September 2023.

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