The list lengthens. To review: SJ Housing Dept. VTA board. Sta Clara City Council. SJ Unified. And now Oakland–all torched by independent entities for crummy governance. Natalie Hansen from Courthouse News surveys the safety critiques in the East Bay.
City leaders in Oakland, California, say they may soon dedicate millions to support an overwhelmed 911 call center, amid a growing political crisis over public safety.
The city council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve recommendations for action from the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury, following a report released June 23. The report says the city must step up its efforts to improve its troubled 911 emergency responder system.
The report examining a period between 2019 and 2020 found that staffing shortages affected the city’s emergency call center’s ability to swiftly answer the number of calls coming in, leaving many people who call the emergency number waiting much longer than they should to reach a dispatcher.
The report paints a picture of a stressed city in need of a plan for retaining much-needed dispatchers and operators, finding that although some hiring issues were addressed, the center was also strained by the pandemic.
Without proper staffing and a plan to improve response times, Oakland’s call center cannot adequately handle the volume of calls for aid. About 30% of calls require a police dispatch, and 10% require a fire or medical emergency response. The rest are non-emergency, ranging from calls for mobile assistance responders for mental health aid to accidental and crank calls.
The report said the city’s hiring process to fill the call center is too slow — leaving consistently high numbers of positions, about 26, vacant across manager, operator and dispatcher roles. The report noted that the Oakland Police Department has average staffing levels for a large California city, with nearly 700 sworn police officers in 2022, and did not recommend a higher officer to resident ratio.
The discussion Tuesday was timely, with petty and violent crime having suddenly increased over the summer, in tandem with politically motivated criticisms of the city council’s role in handling public safety. The city council voted in September to study ways to devote millions to better staff the center and reduce 911 hold times, and launched foot patrols in communities across the city with aid from California Highway Patrol.
Some Oaklanders criticized the councilmembers’ policy decisions and demanded to know why police take so long to respond to 911 calls.
Several councilmembers signaled that they agree with those demanding more policing in response to crime. Councilmember Treva Reid suggested developing weekly strategies with law enforcement agencies to respond to crime hotspots.
“We have all had enough,” Reid said. “I cannot stand to allow this to continue on my watch.”
Having approved and committed to the jury report’s recommendations, the leaders will vote at a future meeting on whether to authorize investing $2.5 million from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority into improving emergency response systems.
Read the whole thing here.
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