May 7 - The city council on May 3 unanimously approved a task force proposal to “dramatically reallocate” police department dollars to a staggering array of social service reforms ranging from the new MACRO program for mental health responses to hotels for the homeless.
In addition to MACRO, aimed strictly at disorderly people who are assumed to be harmless, the council plans to recruit a force of “community ambassadors” who would replace police officers in confronting more serious situations.
Council member Carol Fife, who reported gunfire outside her home during the meeting – “I just heard Beirut outside,” she said – urged the council to adopt the community ambassador approach with careful thought and training, acknowledging that the ambassadors would, indeed, be in harm’s way.
“Well, it is about interrupting violence,” shrugged Guillermo Cespedes, chief of violence prevention.
Much of the money carved out of the police budget would go non-profits that manage “restorative justice” programs as an alternative to arrest and imprisonment. Other non-profits that help victims of domestic violence would also share in the windfall.
The council also took a step toward creating a new Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Firm dollar values were left deliberately tentative in an official clause added by the city attorney to the effect that nothing is final.
High on the priority list is a measure to dissolve OPD’s Internal Affairs unit, moving all civilian complaints about police conduct to a branch of the Police Commission.
Another high priority is creating a new emergency phone number so that people who fear the police would not have to dial 9-1-1.
It took the council more than four hours, yet there was no debate whatsoever. Everyone agreed to everything. More than fifty people spoke, most of them either advisory board members to the task force or members of such interest groups as the Anti-Police Terror group.
Not a single person wanted more police.
Eleven speakers by my count recited the new buzz phrase: “The safest communities are not those with the most police, but rather with the most resources.” Cut the police budget deeply enough and Oakland will turn into Los Gatos.
The advocates of defunding reasoned that if citizens are injured by police, such injuries can be cut by reducing the number of laws that are enforced. Numerous speakers called for legalizing drugs, sex work and homeless camping.
Turning traffic enforcement over to civilian workers would require a change in state law, one task force member admitted, but he added the city is within its rights in ordering its officers to look the other way.
Some political tension appears to lie beneath the surface. Mayor Libby Schaaf was attacked many times for her failure to release her budget by May 1. Council member Rebecca Kaplan asked the city attorney “what is our legal recourse when our law is violated?”
“Let’s talk off line,” the lawyer advised.
The net impression of all the Libby bashing was that the boosters suspect that the mayor is angling to sabotage their dream.
A source inside OPD said dozens of officers are considering offers elsewhere as other Bay Area police departments gobble up experienced officers looking for a more stable employer.