Similar Stories to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Proposes 40 New Police Officers on Bing News

In her first budget since being elected on the promise that she would strengthen public safety in Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf is pushing a plan to boost the city’s police force by 40 sworn officers. Schaaf hopes the hiring of more officers would help solve a problem that’s become “overwhelmingly the highest priority in Oakland,” as she wrote in a budget proposal she will present to the City Council on Tuesday. The city budget director projected that 40 additional police jobs would cost the city about $6.7 million beginning in 2016, which Schaaf will account for by freezing vacant positions. Oakland’s need for a strong police force has long been at cross-purposes with its citizens’ desire for police reform, putting leaders in an awkward spot. Oakland has witnessed a spate of troubling, high-profile crimes in recent years — including the 2011 stray-bullet killing of 3-year-old Carlos Nava, whose mother was pushing him in a stroller in East Oakland; and the March death of Chyemil Pierce, who was caught in a cross fire while walking her children home. Over the last two years, some neighborhood associations have begun hiring private security guards to patrol outside their homes. “Our perception is that (Quan) gave public safety an extremely low priority,” said Charles Pine, spokesman for the group Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods. [...] she’s turned it into a major area of investment, not only by proposing to beef up staff but also by asking for two auditors to join the Police Department’s office that monitors police misconduct, and boosting the Ceasefire program from four to 10 case managers. To lawyer Harry Stern, a former Berkeley police officer who now represents police officers in misconduct cases, Schaaf’s proposed staffing increase is a good start, though he believes the mayor will have to do a lot more to boost department morale. “Until we have mayors who talk about allocating the vast majority of the budget to social services, then public safety isn’t being addressed,” said Cat Brooks, founder of ONYX/The Anti-Police Terrorism Project, a group that condemns officer use-of-force. To reach it, she’s hoping to fund five training academies and a “pipeline project” that will reserve 40 spots in the city’s cadet program for Oakland public school graduates.